Mounds Bridge, County Road 115 Spanning Price River, 12 miles Northeast of Elmo, Elmo

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER UTAH,8-ELMO.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Spanning the Price River on County Road 12 miles northeast of Elmo, Emery County, Utah and 7 miles southeast of Wellington, Carbon County, Utah Quad: Olsen Reservoir, Utah 7.5 min scale UTM: 12/532260mE Date of Construction: Present Owner Emery County County Seat, Castle Dale, Utah

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER UTAH,8-ELMO.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Mounds Bridge is a steel Warren pony truss bridge. Historians: Loma Billat and Jenni Prince-Mahoney, JBR Environmental Consultants, Inc., June Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 2) H. fflSTORY A.

Need for the Bridge

Castle Valley is nestled below the Wasatch Range in east central Utah. The area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the late and in became Emery County.1 In the census, eight types of occupations were represented in Emery County: farmers ranchers a herder, a hamessmaker, a stonemason, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a lawyer. 2 The community was based solely on agriculture. By the occupational make-up of the community had greatly expanded with the census listing 61 types of occupations. Agriculture comprised 58% of the occupations3 at this time.

The shift from agriculture to mining in the northern portion of Castle Valley was well on its way by The northern part of Castle Valley petitioned to split from Emery County and in became Carbon County, named for its mining future.4 Castle Valley has the richest, most important coal fields in the state which furnish 98% of Utah's output of coal.5 The arable locations for crops and livestock grazing were on both sides of the Price River. It became apparent that a means of crossing the river was necessary to access the areas and to transport the crops and livestock.

In the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad came through Emery County and access across the river was necessary to utilize the railroad system.6 Castle Dale had hoped and expected the railroad route to pass through and stop in their town,7 but the route was changed with the stop Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 3) being northeast of what would be the townsite of Elmo. Therefore this county road was the main thoroughfare to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad for those coming from Castle Dale and the surrounding areas. The town of Elmo is located in Castle Valley, in the northwest portion of Emery County.

Elmo is an outgrowth of the town of Cleveland and began as a group of homesteads filed in by five men from Cleveland.8 It was an ideal area since it was so close to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad stop. In additional homesteads were filed in the Washboard Flat area. This would later become the location of the town of Elmo, some 12 miles northeast of the bridge. Irrigation canals were surveyed and dug. Residents lived in tents until when the first cabin was built.9 This was the year the townsite was surveyed and laid out Once the townsite was plotted, an additional irrigation ditch was dug to bring water into town. Elmo's economy has always been based on fanning and stock-raising.

Dairy cows and range cattle have been the most profitable stock, although poultry and hogs have also done well.10 In the first few years of settlement, the alfalfa and clover seed industry was lucrative. Farmers also kept bee colonies which proved to be profitable for several years.11 Rural roads are an integral part of the agricultural community providing links between the farm fields, settlements, and distribution lines. By the town of Elmo had grown in earnest, evidenced by the need for a larger building for church and social gatherings. The old Cleveland school house was bought and dragged on logs to Elmo.12 The first store Mounds Bridge HAER No.

UT-90 (Page 4) was in the front room of Lillard Tucker's house where he sold groceries and dry goods sometimes in exchange for butter and eggs. In the early years other mercantiles were run by Thursa Olsen, William J. Atwood, Ben Hansen, and Frank K. Jones.13 TTie first Post Mistress was Thursa Olsen in Other communities in the area were also expanding. As a result of this growth and the need to access the railroad, in funds were appropriated to build a permanent bridge over the Price River near Elmo." Elmo became an incorporated town in B.

Construction Chronology

The first road through the Elmo area was made in long before the homestead claims had been filed. This road ran diagonally through the present townsite and on to Wellington.16 The first organized road building crew in the county was supervised by Selectman Orange Seeley, In the year Emery County obtained aid from the territory and bridges were then constructed on the Cottonwood, Price, and Huntington streams.18 In the early years, territorial and county roads were financed through poll taxes and tolls. At the time it was instituted, poll taxes required one day of labor or per year from all able-bodied males of a certain age.

In the poll tax law in Utah was changed to two days labor per year or per day in lieu of that.14 Tolls were instituted to pay for maintenance on wagon roads and to keep the necessary structures over streams passable. In in Emery County, poll taxes required every man age 21 years to 50 years to pay or they could choose to work out the tax by using their teams or equipment to improve roads.15 Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 5) Knowlton acknowledged "this type of financing {was} very satisfactory for short sections of highway which involve primarily bridges, tunnels, or ferries".16 Railroad transportation was available in the area in when the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was constructed through the valley. This cut down on the need for road maintenance between many towns.

As a result of the increased utilization of the railroad system, the funding provided by the state for inter-community roads was greatly reduced. Therefore, rural community road maintenance became strictly a county and/or city concern17. The State Road Commission was created in At that time, Emery County roads were maintained mostly by the county. Only two segments of state road were present in Emery County by In the Utah State Legislature appropriated funds for construction of a permanent bridge over the Price River at Mounds, a stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.19 The road through Mounds was county owned, not a designated state route, which required that the County Commissioners of Emery County oversee its construction.

This contradiction triggered conflict between the county and the state that would last throughout the planning and construction of the bridge.20 The Emery County Surveyor requested a design and bid for a riveted steel truss bridge from James J. Burke, a Salt Lake engineer and contractor, in the fall of The county also solicited bids and designs from other contractors which upon review were all rejected by the Utah State Road Commission (USRC). The USRC stated that the plans and specifications were all inferior and lacking in State Road Commission standards. The road commission Mounds Bridge HAER No.

UT-90 (Page 6) refused to release the money appropriated by the legislature until the bridge design conformed to USRC specifications.21 Hie dispute was finally settled after almost a year; the agreement being that the state would design the bridge and the county would pay for construction and be reimbursed by the state appropriated funds. In August a contract was awarded to James J. Burke to construct the bridge at a cost of The superstructure steel was delivered via the railroad to Mounds.

Residents of Emery County completed the job by constructing the abutments and approaches and erecting the truss bridge.22 The Mounds bridge is an early example of a Warren Pony truss with verticals having a construction date of It is one of eleven such bridges built in the biermium using USRC design/specification plans.23 Several of these bridges with medium to long spans were constructed in the state in the and but few have survived.24 C. LOCATION The Mounds Bridge spans the Price River approximately 12 miles northeast of Elmo on a county road. It is in Emery County. It is seven miles southeast of Wellington, Carbon County, Utah. The bridge provides access to arable lands on both sides of the Price River and provides access to the railroad. Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page?) HI.

THE BRIDGE A.

Description

The Mounds Bridge is a single span steel Warren pony truss with verticals. It is triangular in outline with verticle braces. The diagonals carry both compressive and tensile forces. The verticals serve as bracing for the triangular web system.25 "Warren11 refers to Captain James Warren, who, along with Theobald Monzani of England patented the Warren truss design in "Warren" is the triangular configuration of the struts, while "pony" refers to the bridge having sides with no superstructure/roof. This bridge type is the most common form of truss bridge in the state.26 It has a maximum span of 90 feet and is 16 feet wide. The bridge is rigid- connected with rivets. The trusses extend about seven feet above the wood deck which rests on the steel substructure.

The deck planks are 2 inches by 10 inches. Vehicle trackways, consisting of a series of closely spaced boards lengthwise on bridge, are superimposed over the decking.27 The bridge is equipped for single lane traffic. The deck substructure consists of a series of joined lateral steel "I" beams supported by the lower chord. The abutments are concrete cast-in-place and anchored in the river banks. Wing walls extend from the abutments for erosion control. These are also cast-in-place concrete. B. MODIFICATIONS The bridge deck planks have been replaced periodically which is a normal and required part of maintenance. The construction materials and techniques used in this maintenance have been consistent with the original Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 G?age8) bridge design and workmanship.

The cast-in-place concrete abutments and wingwalls have not been replaced and are original construction. C.

Ownership and Future

The Mounds Bridge was built, owned, and continues to be maintained by the County of Emery. Recent study of the bridge indicated limitations in handling projected traffic volumes and loads in the years ahead. It was deemed necessary to replace the bridge in order to handle forthcoming use. Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 9) IV. FOOTNOTES 1. Powell, Allan K., Emery County: Reflections on Its Past and Future, p. vi. 2. Powell, Allan K., Emery County: Reflections on Its Past and Future, p. 5. 3. Powell, Allan K., Emery Countv: Reflections on Its Past and Future, p. 5. 4. Powell, Allan K., Emerv Countv: Reflections on Its Past and Future, p. 11. 5. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 11. 6. Beck, Warren A. and Ynez D.

Haase, Historical Atlas of the American West, p. 60. 7. McElprang, Stella, Castle Valley: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 22. 8. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 9. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 10. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 11. McElprang, Stella, Castle Valley: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 12. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 13. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 14. State of Utah Road Commission, Third Biennial Report and p. 15. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 16. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 12. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vailev: A History of Emerv Countv. p.

19. 18. McElprang, Stella, Castle Vallev: A History of Emerv Countv. p. 19. 14. Knowlton, Ezra C, History of Hiphwav Development in Utah, p. 21. 15. Wellington Municipal Corp., Wellington ... Citv on the move., p. 91. 16. Knowlton, Ezra C, History of Highway Development in Utah, p. 23. Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 10) 17. Knowlton, Ezra C, History of Highway Development in Utah, p. 78. 18. Knowlton, Ezra C, History of Highway Development in Utah, p. 19. State of Utah State Road Commission, Third Biennial Report and p. 20. Eraser, Clayton, Utah Historic Bridge Inventory Data: Mounds Bridge No. 21. Eraser. Clavton. Utah Historic Bridge Inventory Data: Mounds Bridge No. 22. Fraser, Clayton, Utah Historic Bridge Inventory Data: Mounds Bridge No. 23.

Montgomery, Jacki, Cultural Resource Inventory of the Lower San Rafael Bridge and the Price River (Mounds) Bridge Projects, p. 30. 24. Fraser, Clayton, Utah Historic Bridge Inventory Data: Mounds Bridge No. 25. History News, Comp, T. Allan and Donald Jackson, Bridge Truss Types: A Guide to Dating and Identifying, p. 7. 26. Montgomery, Jacki, Cultural Resource Inventory of the Lower San Rafael Bridge and the Price River (Mounds) Bridge Projects, p. 29. 27. Montgomery, Jacki, Cultural Resource Inventory of the Lower San Rafael Bridge and the Price River (Mounds) Bridge Projects, p. 29. Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 11) V. BIBLIOGRAPHY A. BOOKS Beck, Warren A. and Ynez D. Haase, Historical Atlas of the American West.

University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University, Emery County, Minutes Book B April - July Emery County, Minutes Book E January 5, - May 29, Knowlton. Ezra C. History of Hiehwav Development in Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah, McElpranp. Stella. Castle Valley: A History of Emerv County. The Emery County Company of The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Montgomery, Jacki A., Cultural Resource Inventory of the Lower San Rafael Bridpe and the Price River (Mounds) Bridge Projects. Emerv County. Utah. Abajo Archaeology, Bluff, Utah, February Powell, Allan Kent, Emerv Countv: Reflections on Its Past and Future. Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah, State of Utah, State Road Commission Third Biennial Report!

and The Arrow Press, Tribune-Reporter Printing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, Utah State Historical Society, Inventory of the Countv Archives of Utah No. 8 Emerv Countv (Castle Dale). Ogden, Utah, March Wellington Municipal Corporation, Wellington.... Citv on the Move. Mounds Bridge HAER No. UT-90 (Page 12) B. PERIODICALS History News, "Bridge Truss Types: A Guide to Dating and Identifying" by T. Allan Comp and Donald Jackson. American Association for State and Local History, Volume 32/ Number 5/May Mounds Bridge HAERNo.UT-90 (Page 13) y :V v^iu^O \ \^^ ^^ - MOUNDS BRIDGE KEY SPANNING PRICE RIVER NEAR WELLINGTON, UTAH FIGURE 1 BRIDGE LOCATION FEET L-. m uJ L_ .5 MILE t ibr * environmental consultants, inc. S t Low* c;iy. Utah c W uian Nwoaa imntSi