Cedar Creek Covered Bridge

Cedar Creek Covered Bridge, also known as the Lynch Bridge or Grist Mill Covered Bridge, spans Cedar Creek next to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill north of Woodland in Clark County. The mill it's named for dates to 1876, when George Woodham and his sons built it as the Red Bird Mill, grinding grain for farmers throughout north Clark County using water power from the creek. Debris damaged the mill's dam that first winter, and after struggling to keep it repaired, Woodham sold out and moved away in 1879. The mill passed to Mike Lynch, sat idle for seven years, and was eventually leased and revived by Gustave Utter in 1888 — giving the site, and eventually the bridge beside it, the alternate "Lynch" name still used today.

The bridge crossing at this site has been rebuilt more than once: an early covered bridge of unknown construction date was replaced by an open truss bridge in 1935, and the covered bridge visitors see today was built new in 1994 on a Howe truss. By 1980, the deteriorating grist mill had drawn the attention of local residents, who formed the nonprofit Friends of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill to save it — and today the mill is the only one in Washington that has kept its original structure, millstones, and water-powered operation fully intact, with the covered bridge serving as its scenic, much-photographed gateway.