OKOBOJI SWING BRIDGE

TRAVEL

 MEMORY LANE

TRAVEL

BY R. AUBREY LA FOY

The other day I had to testify at a property dispute case at the Dickinson County Court House. The trial began at 9:00 a.m. so I left my home in Arnolds Park at 8:45 a.m. and had plenty of time before court opened. I didn’t give the drive a thought as I drove over the bridge at Okoboji; BUT if I turned the clock back to 1857 it would have been a different story.

The first pioneers arrived in Dickinson County in 1856 to establish homes and start a new life. The Spirit Lake Massacre was in 1857 and one of the results of that event was that it attracted the attention of many settlers. As the numbers increased, their needs also increased and one of the most pressing problems was quick and easy access across two narrow straights, one east of the town of Spirit Lake and the other at Okoboji.

The Straight at Okoboji had a point of land, three or four rods across overgrown with bushes and trees that jutted out into the water forming a natural separation between East and West Okoboji. The early settlers forded the narrow channel to avoid traveling the extra miles around the lakes and floated wagon boxes pulled by oxen to get across.  By the same token farmers coming from the east side of East Okoboji had to go around north in what is now Orleans and proceed south to the town of Spirit Lake.

On December 1859 the Dickinson County Board of Supervisors authorized the building of the first bridges-one at Spirit Lake, east of town which was to be 300 feet long and another one at Okoboji that was to be 210 feet long. They were built on bents or trestles set 16 feet apart with a main span over the channel, 30 feet in the clear. The span was strongly trussed with heavy braces, king posts and needle beams. Good railings were built and the floor planks were two inch oak.  Harvey Abbott furnished the plans and acted as foreman. In 1874 the trestle was taken out on each side of the main channel and log cribs were filled with rocks to hold the bridge in place. The bridge was four feet above the water.

In 1880 a demand was made for navigation between the lakes with regular passenger service to Orleans and back. A “drawbridge” to be light and strong was to be built that could be raised by block and tackle to an upright position thus permitting passage of boats from West to East Okoboji Lakes. The bridge was built on the old piers. A derrick was erected with the necessary ropes and pulleys and everything was rigged to the builder’s satisfaction. The eventful day arrived and everything was in place but it didn’t work. The “drawbridge” was raised once or twice but it took so much time and required so much power that the scheme was abandoned. The bridge was used without rising until 1883.

My grandparents and their counterparts always referred to that area as the “drawbridge”. It wasn’t until I did some research of the Okoboji bridges and talking to some “old geezers” that I realized their referring to the area and calling it the “drawbridge” was an inside joke. They also referred to it as the “grade.”

In 1883 the smooth operating swing bridge was installed at Spirit Lake and the Okoboji swing bridge was built soon after that. The steamers could now navigate the entire length of the Okoboji lakes. With the advent of steamboat traffic the City of Spirit Lake became the hub between the Arnolds Park/Okoboji area and the Orleans and Big Spirit Lake area. The bridges continued to be built of wood. At the top of the center post at Okoboji a warning was painted on a board. It read: “$5 fine for riding or driving across the bridge faster than a walk.”

In 1909 the Board of Supervisors ordered new steel bridges for both Spirit Lake and Okoboji. The cost for each bridge was $1,550.00. In 1909 the bridges were reinforced by stone piers laid in concrete. Because of the low water in 1929 it became impossible for steamboats to navigate through the mud in East Okoboji to Orleans so the swing bridges could no longer be used for the passage of boats. It was time as the automobile was taking over the mode of transportation at the Iowa Great Lakes. The county paid individuals to “swing” the bridges something like $300.00 a season. I missed a great opportunity as Norm Oleson could describe the turning of the swing bridges and I didn’t get around getting the information. Maybe somebody can remember?

Concrete bridges were built across the channels in 1929 with additional rock fills in 1931. Approaches have been filled many times. It was during the construction of the concrete bridges that one of our family folklores took place. My Grandfather, Sam Holcomb, had an appointment in Spirit Lake. He lived in Milford at that time and when he arrived at the Okoboji Bridge was told he would have to go back to Milford and go clear around the lake. Sam had a different idea, he drove across the railroad tracks and trestle in his Model A Ford. It must have been a bumpy ride and I thought of him later in World War II. I was stationed in India in 1944. I had the same experience of having to drive a 2 ½ ton GMC across a railroad track and trestle. In China in 1945 we were ferried across rivers several times.

Today we have wonderful paved roads and great bridges, both over the span at Okoboji and also at Spirit Lake. The boat traffic through and under the bridge at Okoboji is terrific on weekends and it is too bad they didn’t listen to Paul Hedberg when he tried to get they to make two boat passages between East and West Okoboji. In the winter the water under the Okoboji Bridge doesn’t really freeze, so it Bridge3, Snowmobiles-0.

The old Okoboji Swing Bridge is in existence where it is lying along the Little Sioux River near the Little Sioux Lutheran Church south of Milford. Several people have been trying to get it back to the lakes and maybe become part of the Trails. It would be a tragedy to let some of our history is cut up for scrap metal. I have researched and looked but have never located the Swing bridge at Spirit Lake, my theory is that is the Board of Supervisors moved the Okoboji Bridge to the Little Sioux they must have move the Spirit Lake Swing Bridge as well, BUT where?  I wonder what happened to it. If you have a clue let me know.

Sources: Hattie P Elston, R. A. Smith, Steve Kennedy and Fern Flatt Peterson.