Nevins Covered Bridge

Built in 1920 by Joseph A. Britton and Son, the Nevins Covered Bridge holds the distinction of being the last historic covered bridge constructed in Parke County until the rebuilding of the Bridgeton Covered Bridge in 2006, following the county's decades-long shift toward steel and concrete spans. The single-span Burr Arch Truss bridge, distinguished by its arched "Daniels-style" portals rather than the flatter Britton style typically used by its builders, crosses Little Raccoon Creek about a mile southeast of Catlin at the historic site of Gilkerson's Ford, named for an early pioneer family of millwrights and blacksmiths who settled the area in 1821. The bridge itself takes its name from Thomas Levi Nevins, born in 1869, who purchased the old Gilkerson property in 1897. Built at a reported cost of nearly $12,000, the bridge continues to carry County Road 130 East across the creek today. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 22, 1978, as part of the Parke County Covered Bridges Multiple Property Submission, standing as a bridge between the county's nineteenth-century bridge-building boom and its modern era.