Wolf Covered Bridge
Knox County, Haw Creek. Built 1848, enclosed 1874, rebuilt 1999 after 1994 arson, 102 ft. long. A Spoon River crossing that once let cattle drive willingly across an "open barn door."
Wolf Covered Bridge crosses the Spoon River southeast of Knoxville in Knox County, and its name comes from Jacob Wolf, a prominent local cattle rancher who owned more than 1,000 acres of pastureland in the area. The state granted Knox County $200 toward a bridge here as early as 1831, though construction likely didn't begin until closer to 1848. Wolf routinely drove nearly 500 head of cattle across the crossing to reach his grazing land — and reportedly, the bridge's darkened interior resembled an open barn door closely enough that his cattle crossed it willingly, with little of the hesitation cattle typically show around water crossings.
The bridge as it's known today — enclosed with a roof and siding — dates to the year after an 1873 flood, when Civil War veteran Captain James Burkhalter built the covering to protect the timbers from rot. That structure stood for over a century until August 1, 1994, when it was destroyed by a suspected arson fire. Rather than lose the landmark, the community rebuilt it, and the new Wolf Covered Bridge was dedicated in 1999, once again spanning the Spoon River on a Howe truss and carrying the Wolf name — and the story of cattle who thought they were walking into a barn — into its second century.
