Crooks Bridge
Built in 1856 by Henry
Wolf
Location: Located 5 miles southeast of Rockville.
Size: The length of this bridge is 132' +11' +11'. The
width is 14' with 13' of clearance. It has a Burr Arch 1 span
truss. The foundation is hewn stone.
Repair/Restoration History: The bridge was damaged in the
1875 flood and repaired.
Bridge History:
Also known as "Walker Adams Bridge" & "Darroch’s Lost
Bridge"
Crooks Bridge, like many others, was originally associated with
a mill. Parkers Mill was built in 1830 on a Little Raccoon ripple
known as "Indian Crossing". It was located about a half mile south
of the Little Raccoon Bridge on the Rockville New Discovery Road.
The mill account states a covered bridge was constructed just
upstream from the ripple and dam.
County Commissioners records indicate that a bridge was
discussed in 1850. A bridge was ordered In December, 1855, to be
located on the old Rockville Greencastle Road.
Accounts from early pioneer times say that Sugar Creek was a
vigorous river while Little Raccoon and Big Raccoon Creeks were a
series of swamps, marshes, and beaver ponds spread across the
valleys loosely connected by various moving stream beds.
The bridge site channel filled in with sand and the creek "moved
20 rods west". Topographic maps show an intermittent stream, now
called Molasses Creek, in about the location of the old creek
bed.
There are several historical conflicts which could be resolved
by a clear separation into two or three different original bridges.
In any case, the name "Lost Bridge" is appropriate. The bridge
stood, forgotten, over a dry stream bed on a road abandoned for
lack of a bridge over the new creek bed. It was moved to a new
location where no road yet existed.
One account states that the bridge was rebuilt and moved to the
present location in 1872 by General Arthur Patterson. A second
account states that the bridge was washed to the present location
in a flood. It was jacked up and abutments built beneath it. The
road was moved to connect with it.
Juliet Snowden seems to have confused this bridge with the
Greencastle Road Bridge, However, in another account she wrote that
the bridge was built by General Arthur Patterson in 1856. General
Patterson was one of the founders of Rockville in 1824. He owned
land and businesses through out the county, and she believed this
bridge opened the road to commerce between Rockville and
Mansfield.
In 1863, J.J.Daniels was contracted to dismantle the bridge on
the Greencastle Road. In 1865, a viewing committee, which included
J.J.Daniels, recommended the bridge be restored. Various people
requested that it be relocated near their homes. In 1867,
J.J.Daniels recommended that it be rebuilt at Darroch’s site where
he considered it safe from flood and there were no "bayous".
No roads were built to the bridge for several years. One story
relates a wet trip by a cold I.R. Strouse, on a horse named Alice,
searching for a crossing of the rain flooded Little Raccoon in
1875. He was directed through a confusing maze of connecting horse
trails, finally crossing "Darroch’s Lost Bridge".
The cache is a 30 caliber ammo box. Please hide it as well or
better than you found it. There is a Sacagawea dollar in the cache
for the first one to find.