Gilkey Covered Bridge

The Gilkey Covered Bridge spans Thomas Creek about three and a half miles southwest of Scio, taking its name from the nearby community of Gilkey, which began in 1880 as a Southern Pacific Railroad station named for pioneer settlers Allen and William Gilkey and served as a shipping point for local farm produce. Built in 1939, the 120-foot Howe truss span suffered a structural scare in 1997 when an overloaded truck cracked timber shear keys in its lower chord joints; temporary cables were rigged to hold the bridge together under its own weight until repairs allowed it to reopen to traffic in 1998. A far more extensive rehabilitation followed in 2017, replacing the approach spans, substructure, abutments, and piers while preserving the original 1939 timber truss, and nearly quadrupling the bridge's posted weight limit from 6 to 40 tons. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as the "Thomas Creek–Gilkey Covered Bridge," it remains open to traffic today. The stretch of Thomas Creek beneath the bridge is a popular local swimming and rockhounding spot, with water warming to 70-75°F in summer and a catch-and-release trout season running from late May through October.