Augusta Covered Bridge
Kalamazoo County, Augusta (W.K. Kellogg Forest). Built 1973, relocated 1999, 32 ft. long. A small private bridge now open to the public in a Michigan State University research forest.
Augusta Covered Bridge started out as a private landowner's project, built in 1973 by Doug Carrigan on property owned by William John Upjohn and tucked away from public view, spanning gently flowing Augusta Creek. At just 32 feet long and 12 feet wide, it's one of the smallest covered bridges in Michigan, notable for shuttered side openings that let in views of the creek below rather than the solid clapboard walls typical of older 19th-century bridges.
The bridge's fortunes changed in the 1990s when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources purchased the surrounding land, and in 1999 the bridge itself was relocated about 2.5 miles south to sit near the entrance of the W.K. Kellogg Forest, an experimental research property managed by Michigan State University. What began as a private curiosity is now open to the public as part of the forest's recreational trails, used for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing — a small bridge that ended up serving a much larger community than it was originally built for.