Rock O' the Range Bridge

The Rock O' the Range Bridge carries a private access road called Bowery Lane over the Swalley Canal in Bend, and holds the distinction of being the only covered bridge in Oregon east of the Cascade Range. Built in 1963 by contractor Maurice Olson for landowner William Bowen, who simply needed a crossing to reach his property, the modest structure cost just $4,500, about $46,000 in today's dollars. Bowen modeled its design on the famous Goodpasture Bridge in Lane County, giving this utilitarian irrigation-canal crossing an unusually picturesque pedigree for its humble origins. Its classification has long been disputed: the National Register nomination describes it as a "kingpost truss," but the respected World Guide to Covered Bridges controversially declines to count it as a genuine covered bridge at all, since it lacks a true load-bearing truss system despite having a full roof and siding, appending a special notation to its listing to flag the discrepancy. Its unusually low clearance, roughly nine feet in practice against a nominal 12.3 feet, has repeatedly caused oversized vehicles to damage the portal boards and roof braces over the years. As one of only a handful of privately owned covered bridges in Oregon, it receives no county funding and is maintained instead by local homeowners. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, the Rock O' the Range Bridge remains open to local traffic today.