The Bridges of Madison County (BW&O*)

(*Before Waller & Oprah)

Roseman Bridge

Every once in awhile our family Sunday afternoon drives went beyond Adams County.
Ten years before Madison County began celebrating with their annual Covered Bridge Festival every October (1970) we set off to find the covered bridges ourselves.
Before they became famous thanks to Robert Waller's book and Oprah's live broadcast from Cedar Bridge, the bridges were old, unmarked and hard to find. The day we went looking for them in the autumn of my senior year, we only found Cedar and Roseman (pictured). Out of the nineteen original covered bridges in Madison County, only six remain. All have been renovated except Cedar which has been rebuilt after an arsonist destroyed it. As nice as they are now, there was a certain dilapidated charm to them before.
That same day we drove through Harmon Tunnel (above) in order to drive around Pammel State Park, one of Iowa's earliest state parks and, I think, one of the most beautiful.


This picture of me was taken that day as I walked across the ford over the Middle River. It always seemed so exciting to me to drive through the water.
Several years earlier we Jasper #2 schoolers took a trip to Pammel. It may have been an end-of-the-school-year picnic or a science field trip. The thing I remember most about it was finding snail shells. There were so many of them and they were so pretty. I had a pocket full of them before I smelled my hands. E-w-w-w-w-w! It took me awhile to realize the awful smell was from the snails. I emptied my pockets and wished I had some soap with which to wash off the smell. The best I could do was dip my hands in the river and wipe them on my jeans.
The Middle River through Pammel played another memorable part in my life the summer before I turned 40. A chance remark at a Tupperware party resulted in an invitation to go canoeing. (I had stated canoeing down a river before I turned 40 was an ambition of mine.) Eight people in four canoes put in along a gravel road above Pammel. It was one of the most fun afternoons. When we got to the ford, all the canoes except one put out above the ford and then put back in. Two guys thought they could make it over. Of course the canoe capsized and they ended up in the water. Hilarious.
We made one more stop on the way home that fall day in 1960 - at the Mormon Cemetery at Mt. Pisgah. That was another unmarked place you had to know how to find. Somehow Dad knew how to get there. There are directions to the cemetery along Hwy 169 now. The way we went was along a winding dirt road off Hwy 34. That road is closed now. Somehow following it made the drive more romantic to a teenager. Just as romantic as walking through the old Roseman Bridge. It just took Robert Waller to let the world know just how romantic.