Fight looms over War Eagle Bridge

Economic Impact Significant, Consultant Says

Courtesy photo/ROGERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM The War Eagle Bridge is shown about 1910. The 182-foot steel bridge, with 40-foot approach, was to be built and cost Benton County $4,790.
Courtesy photo/ROGERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM The War Eagle Bridge is shown about 1910. The 182-foot steel bridge, with 40-foot approach, was to be built and cost Benton County $4,790.

BENTONVILLE -- War Eagle Bridge has been a focal point for the community, with area residents lobbying the county to build the bridge a century ago and now fighting to save it.

Built in 1908, the historic bridge faces an uncertain future, with the state Highway and Transportation Department having identified several structural defects in inspection reports made to Benton County. The county is weighing the costs of rehabilitating and maintaining the existing bridge and the possibility of building a new bridge, either in a nearby location or at the site of the original bridge.

Bridge work

The contract to build the War Eagle Bridge was agreed to and signed on May 18, 1907, by representatives of the Illinois Steel Bridge Company of Jacksonville, Ill., and Benton County. The 182-foot steel bridge, with 40-foot approach, was to be built at a cost to the county of $4,790. According to 24/7wallst.com, $1 in 1900 is equivalent to $26.40 today. According to the website, a home on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, N.Y., cost from $7,000 to $12,000 1901, while a new Oldsmobile cost $650 in 1904. A pound of coffee cost $0.15 at the opening of the 20th century. The Kodak “brownie’ camera was released in 1900 and cost $1.

Source: The History of What Things Cost in America: 1776 to Today, 24/7 Wall St.

More than 100 area residents attended a Feb. 7 meeting at Hobbs State Park to express their support for keeping the historic bridge open. Jeff Clark, head of the county Road Department, told the Quorum Court on Thursday the county is still in the process of gathering information and evaluating the bridge and offered no timeline for making a decision.

Glenn Jones, with the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission, located the original county records relating to the bridge in the archives section of the county clerk's office in Rogers. The records include the original petition asking the county to build the bridge, a report by two bridge commissioners appointed by the county to report on the possibility of building a bridge there, the contract for the project and bonds entered into for the work.

The petition has 257 signatures, Jones said, with many from local businessmen, farmers and landowners.

"These are some of the original families in the area," Jones said. "You had a lot of businesses and influential people who wanted access across the river in that area."

The petition is brown with age and has split into several pieces but most of the names remain legible. The petition is addressed to the Benton County Quorum Court:

"To the Honorable Justices of the Peace of Benton County, Arkansas: The undersigned citizens your county respectfully present and represent to your honorable body that the people of War Eagle township, in our said county and the people of the county having business that takes them to said township have long been denied a bridge across White river at or near what is known as the Van Winkle crossing and we the undersigned petitioners respectfully but urgently represent to your Honorable body that said bridge is now and has long been the most important river crossing needing a bridge in said County; -- and we humbly, respectfully and urgently petition your Honorable body that said bridge be ordered, a levee made therefore and the same built as soon as the same can practically be done."

According to the records, the county appointed a pair of bridge commissioners -- F.P. Galbreaith and C. L. Hart -- to visit the site and make a report on their findings to the county. The pair visited the area on May 13, 1907, and submitted a report in which they identified a suitable crossing "about 30 feet below the old mill dam at the old War Eagle Mills." They included plans and specifications for a bridge at the site and recommended construction of the bridge at a cost not exceeding $5,000. The county entered into a contract for the work in 1908 with the cost put at $4,790.

While the original community effort succeeded in having the bridge built, current residents are faced with the prospect of losing it if they don't work together, said Bill Sharp, whose grandfather Nimrod Sharp was one of the signers of the original petition. Sharp said he believes the 21st century struggle can also be won with some of the same methods.

"I think we can if we get the right people backing us," he said. "It'll take the Quorum Court to be on our side to get it fixed."

Sharp said he's not pleased that the county is considering anything other than repairing and maintaining the bridge. He said a new bridge, with the higher elevations needed to keep it above historic flood levels could devastate the area if its approaches act as a dam or a choke point on the river. Sharp said the flooding river has been nearly a foot above the floor of the current bridge during his lifetime.

"I think they're going to wipe out War Eagle," he said. "I don't think our officials realize what goes on there."

Sandy Wright is a consultant for the War Eagle Mill, working with owner Elise Roenigk. Wright has gathered some data on the economic impact of the area and said having the bridge intact and open is a key to keeping that economic engine running.

Wright said the closure or destruction of the historic War Eagle Bridge threatens all of that activity and would damage the historic character of the area as well.

"It would certainly have an affect on our ability to operate the wheel and the mill which we use to grind," she said. "The river is vital to the community and to the mill. Most people talk about the historic and emotional impact of the bridge. People get some sense of or a taste of what life was like during that period."

Wright said the mill is a major tourist attraction, one of the top 10 in the state, as acknowledged by the Arkansas Department of Tourism. Wright said the mill's photo can be found on many state materials and on its website.

Each year the mill draws 30,000 to 35,000 people in tourist traffic that also fuels other Benton County attractions, hotels and restaurants. This translates into more than $45,000 in sales tax per year, she said.

Wright said those figures don't include craft fairs such as the Fall Fair, Sharp's Fair or Mill's Fair. She said the arts and crafts fairs draw an estimated 125,000 people to the area.

The mill alone has an average annual payroll of $336,000, plus $65,000 in payroll taxes and expenses, she said. The annual revenue for the mill over the past two years was more than $1 million.

Wright said area residents need to involve themselves as the process of researching and developing a plan for the future of the bridge moves ahead. Some residents are already researching how other communities and states have managed to preserve historic bridges so that information can be considered for War Eagle Bridge, she said.

"We need to have a voice in this, she said. "A lot of people found out this was going on through a newspaper article. We need to be kept in the loop better than that"

NW News on 03/02/2015

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