Huffman Mills Covered Bridge 14-62-01 / 14-74-01

When I was a very young boy in the late 1940's all of my experience with covered bridges was in northern York County Pennsylvania. I imagined that all covered bridges were Burr arch trusses. It much later that I realized that there were far more truss designs. I have made side trips many places in the US to see covered bridges and have learned about various truss designs.

Nothing has ever improved on my early trips across Stoner's bridge when it was the only crossing of the Yellow Breeches at Bowmansdale. The bridge was bypassed in the early 1950's. Ppl

A really neat area and a beautiful old homestead...sorry to hear it's not in the Huffman family anymore. I do wish they had done a better job with the bypass bridge. It's higher and too close to the covered bridge and makes it feel like it's in a hole.

A stone pillar several hundred yards upstream from the bridge marks the site of the last mill. A hand-hewn log beam that served as the dam's foundation can still be seen during low water. Mills of various types (steam and water powered) and purposes (grain, lumber, spokes, etc.) were operated from the early 1800's until the early 20th century. Old mill records indicate Thomas Lincoln (Abe's father) brought grain to Huffman to be milled. At one time my ancestors built log rafts and navigated them down the Anderson to the Ohio and Mississippi, selling their locally produced cargo in Natchez and New Orleans, then taking the Natchez Trace home. The old brick 2-story house that sits south of the bridge served from 1813 until the 1980's as the Huffman family homestead. Seven generations of Huffmans lived in the house, making it one of the oldest family farms in the state until it was sold. My cousin, John Huffman, has started a blog site (huffmanmill. blogspot.com) to record information about the bridge and mill sites that played a prominent part of my family's history.

I remember seeing the Huffman Mill Covered Bridge when it was still open. It was bypassed long after it should have been. Many vehicles crossed daily which the bridge had taken a beating from. It was built by William T. Washer who built many southwest Indiana covered bridges. Probably, Only this one and the Wheeling covered bridge in Gibson County still remain of his.

The bridges formal name is Huffman Mill Covered Bridge. It was bypassed 60 feet downstream by new bridge in 2003. It still stands as a tourist draw and I believe gets a fresh coat of paint here in spring of 2007.