Photograph of Billie Creek Covered Bridge — Photograph by Nyttend, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Billie Creek Bridge

Built in 1895. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“The Billie Creek Covered Bridge is a Burr Arch structure in Adams Township, Parke County, Indiana that was built by Joseph J. Van Fossen supplied the sandstone that makes up the abutments cut from A.E.”
Wikipedia article Billie Creek Covered Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 47 National Register listings published here for Parke County · listed in 1978 · category: Structure · built in 1895.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. E of Rockville off US 36, Rockville, 47872
When was it listed? December 1978
Category. structure
Also known as. Parke County Covered Bridges TR
Township. Adams township
When was it built? 1895
National Register reference number. 78000384 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Billie Creek Bridge: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Parke Co. Hwy. Dept.	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Parke County

Storms near this property

46 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rockville, the town this property stands in, in 46 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 30 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 3 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$150,000	Numerous trees downed by thunderstorm wind gusts on roads including including US 36 and IN 59. Over 4500 power outages caused by the storm.
April 2018	Flash Flood	Rockville	$20,000	Numerous roads were closed due to flooding across the county from heavy thunderstorm rainfall. Flash flooding washed out several rural roads with debris left behind.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$20,000	no account filed
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$5,000	Numerous trees down by thunderstorm wind gusts across Parke County.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$1,000	Thunderstorm wind gusts downed a tree over US 41 near Snake Hollow.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$1,000	Several 4 to 6 inch tree limbs were snapped near West Strawberry Road in Rockville due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$1,000	The roof of a minibarn was blown off.
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	$500	no account filed
October 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	A 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured with a personal weather station.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Several trees of unknown size were downed due to thunderstorm wind gusts.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 50 to 60 mph were observed in this location.
February 2011	Hail	Rockville	-	Nickel to quarter sized hail was reported in this location, along with gusty winds from a severe thunderstorm.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Numerous trees were blown down by thunderstorm winds.
June 2007	Hail	Rockville	-	Hail ranging in diameter from pea to quarter size was reported by the emergency manager.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Trees were reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	A large tree was downed.
May 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Several trees were downed.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Large limbs were downed.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	A small tree was downed.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Trees and power lines were downed.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Trees and large limbs were downed.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Trees were downed.
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	A few trees were downed.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	Several trees blown down.
March 2012	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2003	Flash Flood	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 2002	Flash Flood	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
July 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 1996	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed
April 1996	Hail	Rockville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Parke County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
William E. and Carolyn Davis House	1.2 miles	2022
Rockville Historic District	1.3 miles	1993
Rockville Chautauqua Pavilion	1.5 miles	1999
State Sanitorium Bridge	2.4 miles	1978
Catlin Bridge	2.7 miles	1978
Crooks Bridge	2.7 miles	1978

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78000384 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Parke County	All 47 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.