ZINC -- When an 87-year-old footbridge over Sugar Orchard Creek collapsed in June, the people in Zinc in Boone County knew they didn't have time to apply for a grant to get it fixed.
The grant process would take at least a year. In the meantime, spring rains would surely flood the creek, making the low-water bridge on Washington Street impassable and stranding eight families on the west side of the creek.
"We didn't have time to wait," said Marion Newman, who has served on the Zinc City Council since 1978, the first year Zinc had a council. "It's important in the spring because people couldn't get out."
The council budgeted $8,000 to repair the footbridge, but it ended up costing $10,767, Newman said. The remaining money came mostly from the city's emergency fund.
Volunteers -- including Mayor Robert Buie, Newman and two of his children -- donated their time to work on the bridge, as did some young people who helped put in new wooden slats.
Newman, 75, used his backhoe to dig holes for a new pier and platform. The bridge's western pier had collapsed, and a concrete platform was needed so new steps could be built for people to climb to the top of the bridge's eastern pier, which is 12 feet tall.
The bridge was repaired just in time for spring storms, Newman said. Thunderstorms moved through north Arkansas on March 25, causing flash flooding and high water on Sugar Orchard Creek.
Nita Gould of Tulsa owns a house on the west side of the creek.
"I am one of those people who needs the footbridge," she said. "I have been there when heavy rains came and I have gotten stuck. I couldn't drive out because it would not have been safe. When that happens, the bridge is my lifeline to the rest of the world and to food, if I don't have any in the house at the time."
town's heritage
Newman said repairing the Zinc Swinging Bridge, a landmark in the town of 103 residents and no paved streets, was a must.
Besides the practical need, the bridge is a part of the town's history.
The 104-foot-long Zinc Swinging Bridge is the oldest known suspension bridge in Arkansas and the only pedestrian bridge of its kind in the state, according to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
The bridge was built in 1927 by miners who were out of work because of floods that year. It replaced an older bridge that was washed out by floodwaters.
Gould, a preservationist, filed the application to get the bridge listed on the National Register.
Zinc was a thriving mining town from the late 1800s until the early 1930s, according to the registration form. The pedestrian bridge was one of the few structures left from Zinc's heyday as a mining town, Gould wrote.
Prices for zinc were high during the first two decades of the 20th century, particularly during World War I, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The principal ore from the mines near Zinc, silicate of zinc, had been described as "the best grade of slab zinc that could be smelted from virgin ore."
Many miners lived in the area of Zinc, some in town but more in tents near the mines, according to the Encyclopedia.
For a while, the town flourished. It had a public school, a newspaper, telephone service, a barbershop, a soda fountain, and more than one hotel, as well as stores, a railroad depot, and a post office. But none of those things exist there today.
Prices for lead and zinc plummeted during the Great Depression. The mines closed, and many of Zinc's residents moved away.
concrete, metal, wood
The swinging bridge was constructed with two concrete piers, metal cables, woven wire and wooden planks, according to the registration form.
Gould said the bridge piers reflect Zinc's heritage as a mining town.
"Structurally, it is reminiscent of the Zinc mining era because its piers are the same shape as the structures used to support the engine mounts and water tanks at the mines," she said.
The bridge at its highest point is about 16 feet above the ground.
The western pier was constructed in the creek bed to provide a center support for the bridge, which is anchored by heavy cables to a hill on the west side of the creek. The pier in the creek bed is 8 feet tall.
The western pier cracked several years ago. When city workers removed the cables in June to repair it, the pier collapsed, Newman said. The cables had been holding it together. Newman said he was surprised the pier held together as long as it did. It was constructed of concrete and shale -- lots of shale. The new western pier is about the same size as the old one.
Ralph Wilcox, National Register survey coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, said the repairs won't affect the bridge's listing on the National Register.
"It's good to hear that the community has repaired it and reopened it," Wilcox said. "It's always a good thing to see a community care about its heritage and be willing to help preserve it for the future."
Robert Scoggin, a historian with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said it would have taken at least a year for the town to get a state transportation enhancement grant for the bridge repair.
Scoggin said the bridge isn't on a state highway, so it's not maintained by the state.
Gould addressed the necessity of the footbridge in her application to the National Register.
"Although the water in Sugar Orchard Creek seldom rises above its banks, this little creek has been known to become a roaring river during heavy rains, making vehicular crossing over the slab impossible," Gould wrote. "Consequently, the Zinc Swinging Bridge has and continues to provide a much-needed method of pedestrian transport across this seemingly harmless creek to the other side of town."
In 1961, when much of nearby Harrison was flooded by heavy rains, the water level in Sugar Orchard Creek was 2 feet below the bridge, said Newman, who witnessed the historic high water.
Emphasizing the bridge's utilitarian importance, Newman said, "It's not a tourist attraction. It's a necessity."
He concedes, however, that the bridge does draw maybe 100 tourists a year, many of whom picnic on the banks of Sugar Orchard Creek before traversing it by the swinging bridge.
"We don't have many tourists," Newman said. "Mostly, it's people who lived here in the past, that have families here."
Gould is one of those with family roots in Zinc. Her attachment to the town is obvious.
"This bridge is unusual and people always come back to see it," she said. "It reminds them of the past. Zinc's people are proud of their bridge and they rally around its importance, sentiment and heritage."
Metro on 04/12/2015