STORY ABOUT THE OLD WOODEN BRIDGE
This week
the story will be about the old bridge across the Marais des Cygnes River at
the west end of Papinville. This area
has been seen by Indians, explorers, missionaries, pioneers, Civil War soldiers
and steamboat passengers, because it was the main crossing for these people and
is still the main crossing for farmers and hunters. This bridge is still
standing on the same rock abutments as the first bridge. Riverboat Landing was
to the south of the wooden bridge and was in operation at the end of the 1700
and beginning of the of the 1800’s. Today people come back to walk the bridge
to bring back memories and many bring their children or grandchildren to share
their memories.
The first
wooden bridge was built in 1852. People
were starting to come to Papinville ,which was established by Melicourt Papin
in 1947.One of the builters was said to be Frank Diehl.( Dane Diehl our State
Represent).in 1852. This bridge was burnt in 1861, several years before the
Order 11 .was issued. Jim Lanes troop burnt the bridge after they burnt many
businesses in Papinville. People started moving away from Papinville when
Papinville was burnt in Order 11. When people started moving back the second
bridge was built back in 1873. It was a wooden and steel bridge. More people
where moving west and coming through Papinville on their westward travel. In 1884 a bridge was
ordered to be built by the court made
out of steel and a wooden floor at the cost of $2,175.00 by the Kansas Bridge and
Iron Company. All three have been built on the same abutments. This one of the
reasons that it was able to be put on the National Historical Register. The
bridge was put on the register October, 2002.
The floor of
the bridge is 234.3ft long and 13.8 ft. wide. The boards are 2 and 1\2 inches
thick. It was built as a one way bridge. It is now a walking bridge only. The
beam on the northeast of the bridge is painted dates of different flood levels on the bridge.
The highest
flood was 1986. It was 6 ft higher than
the 1951 flood. The second highest flood was 2007and the third highest
1951. Everyone thought the flood of 1951 would be the highest one. If the
bridge could talk it would have lots of stories to tell. It will still have a
lot of water to go on or under it in the future. For those of us that live
around here we don’t panic too much . We just
watch and judge daily figuring
out what to
do. Some move out. Others will stay.
Next week I
will put in some items fromthe stories people have written of their memories of
the bridge. The book we have for sale has some good stories. Don’t forget about
the sigh up for the young girl’s (ages 13-15 ) to be the first princess of
Papinville. The essay has to be mailed by Sept 13th.Call
660-200-5620 if you have questions. Until next week for another story.
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