Deer's Mills Bridge

Deer's Mill Covered Bridge takes its name from the grist and saw mill Joel Deer built along Sugar Creek in 1829, around which a small milling village was platted in 1833; today only the bridge survives as a marker of that vanished settlement. Constructed in 1878 by master bridge builder Joseph J. Daniels — one of Indiana's most prolific covered-bridge builders, responsible for many spans in Parke and Montgomery counties — the bridge is a two-span Burr Arch truss, a design combining a multiple-kingpost truss with a superimposed arch for added strength over long crossings. At 275 feet long (plus 18-foot overhangs at each end), it is among the longest covered bridges in the state and the longer of Montgomery County's two surviving covered spans, the other being the Darlington Bridge. The bridge sits on cut stone abutments beside SR 234, immediately adjacent to Shades State Park, along a scenic stretch of Sugar Creek popular with canoeists and campers. A new highway bridge eventually bypassed the structure to vehicular traffic, but Deer's Mill has been preserved and maintained as a pedestrian attraction, with a large public parking area at its south end. It was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER No. IN-28) for its engineering significance and remains a signature stop for covered-bridge tourists in west-central Indiana.