Historic structure one of only a few left in area

By Sheila Harris [email protected]

The historic, iron Star City Bridge — located just north of the end of U Highway on Barry County Farm Road 1142 — is slated for replacement.

“It’s no longer sound enough to support all of the heavy trucks that use it,” said Steve Blankenship, Barry County presiding commissioner.

Blankenship said most of the bridge’s use is by area farmers and ranchers who pull cattle trailers and drive feed trucks across it regularly. Blankenship said construction will begin on the bridge project any day.

Trees have already been cleared from the area in advance of bat migration season, which typically begins in March.

“The crossing will be closed for about 120 days,” Blankenship said.

Hartman & Company Construction, based in Springfield, submitted the winning $1.2 million bid for the project.

The Star City Bridge is located along a historic route, known at various intervals throughout the past century as “The Trail of Tears,” the “Butterfield Overland Mail Route” and the old “wire” road – now formally referred to as the “Old Wire Road.” According to a December 1939 article in the Cassville Democrat, the road was one of the most heavily traveled in the county, at that time.

According to the diary of a Union soldier, Civil War troops crossed Flat Creek 13 times on the Wire Road between McDowell and Cassville.

The iron bridge, one of only a scant handful now remaining in the county, was erected around 1949, to replace a former low-water, concrete iteration, which had crumbled, making the Flat Creek crossing treacherous for travelers.

A 1939 Cassville Democrat article states that the Star City Bridge project was initially given the stamp of approval by the county and the Monett Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a WPA project, that year. The iron structure was removed from the old “Feeney” crossing over Shoal Creek, near Pioneer, two years earlier, and was being held in reserve for the Flat Creek crossing at Star City. That construction, although approved, didn’t materialize for over a decade.

Jeremiah Buntin, Barry County Museum historian and research specialist, speculates that U.S. involvement in WWII had something to do with the delay.

A December 1948 news article states that work was expected to begin on the iron bridge installation at Star City in 1949, although financing plans had changed. The project would no longer be under the auspices of the WPA, which was dissolved in 1943, but would be the result of a state law known as the “King ‘Milk Route’ Law.” Under that law, the State of Missouri would supply up to $750, per mile, for milk, mail and school bus routes, with counties expected to match the state grants.

As a part of what was called the Flat Creek bridge building program, funds were approved for installation of three iron bridges in the county: one across Flat Creek at Star City; one at Melton Ford, the Flat Creek crossing east of McDowell, near the late Missouri Senator Emory Melton’s childhood home; and a third near the historic community of Carney, across the “old Carney ford.”

Anderson Construction Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, began work on the Star City Bridge in August, 1949, with the Melton Ford Bridge scheduled to be second in line, followed by the Carney Bridge.

According to a December 1951 article in The Cassville Republican, T.J. Anderson, of Anderson Construction filed a claim against Barry County in 1950 for non-payment of money the county allegedly owed him, after work on the Star City and Melton Ford Bridges had been completed. Materials had also been delivered for the Carney Bridge, he stated. Anderson’s case was based on allegations of expenses he entailed due to “unreasonable delay” on the part of the county’s engineer.

The case was heard in a Joplin court by Federal Judge Albert Ridge. Ridge awarded Anderson $2,078 of the nearly $36,000 he requested, and Anderson’s contract to build the Carney Bridge was rescinded. A sum of almost $24,000 was set aside in a bridge fund for future construction of the bridge.

It is unclear whether those funds were later used to construct a bridge over the current Flat Creek crossing on State Highway EE, near the historic community of Carney, or if an iron bridge was constructed elsewhere along that section of creek.

In addition to the Star City Bridge, the bridge over Flat Creek on Highway 248, south of Jenkins, is scheduled for demolition and replacement. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) states that work on that project is scheduled to begin this week. That crossing, too, will be closed for about 120 days.

Steve Blankenship said aside from the old Jenkins Bridge in Jenkins — which is no longer open to vehicular traffic — he believes the bridge at Melton Ford, on Farm Road 2080, will be the last of its kind still in use in the county. He’s heard no complaints from inspectors about the condition of the Melton Bridge, he said.

Past news clippings used for this article were provided courtesy of Jeremiah Buntin, at the Barry County Museum, in Cassville.