Cornstalk Covered Bridge
Putnam County, Franklin Township, near Raccoon. Built 1917, 82 ft. long. Named for Chief Peter Cornstalk of the Eel River Shawnee, whose village once stood nearby.
Cornstalk Covered Bridge, built in 1917 by Joseph A. Britton, carries County Road 1350 North over Cornstalk Creek about 1.5 miles east of the small community of Raccoon in northern Putnam County. The single-span Burr Arch bridge, roughly 82 feet long with an 8-foot overhang at each end, rests on concrete abutments some 16 feet above the creek. Both the creek and the bridge take their name from Chief Peter Cornstalk (Wneypuechsika Nenpemeshequa), a Shawnee leader who settled with his followers near the headwaters of Big Raccoon Creek around 1790; the site of his village, known as "Snakefish," lies about a mile northeast of the bridge. The bridge was rehabilitated in 1990. In May 2023, deteriorating structural beams and roof-related water infiltration forced Putnam County to close Cornstalk Bridge for about a month while temporary structural plates were installed, after which it reopened under a reduced load limit pending fuller restoration. Along with Putnam County's eight other covered bridges, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 2024, and county officials have since allocated funds toward its continued repair.
