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BIG CREEK
Big Creek (U.S. 101)
1921 - ____
March 18, 1910: “From the Eugene papers we learn that L. N. Roney and Ira Walton were to start yesterday for the mouth of Big Creek in Heceta precinct to put in a bridge across that stream.” (The West)
October 6, 1921: "The story of how 25,000 feet of lumber for the erection of a county bridge across Big creek, on the coast road in the western end of Lane county, just north of Heceta Head lighthouse, was transported from the sawmill at Acme on the Siuslaw river by raft out in the Pacific ocean to a point opposite the site of the bridge, then turned loose from the tow boat and landed safely on the beach by the incoming tide, is told by J.W. McArthur, county bridge superintendent, who has just returned from that part of the county. The bridge is well along toward completion and the crew expects to be at work there for ten days or two weeks yet.
It is impossible to haul lumber over the road from Florence to Big creek on account of the deep sand and the only means of transporting the material for the bridge was to raft it and trust to the tide to land it on the beach. There is no place for boats to land in that locality and the little tow boat stopped 300 or 400 feet out from shore, the men cut the raft loose and the lumber floated toward the beach. It was cut loose a little too late, however, for the tide to take it clear in the same day the tow boat arrived with its 'trailer.' It lodged on the sand in water a foot or two deep and it was impossible to bring it to the shore that day so the members of the bridge crew, who had been waiting for the arrival of the lumber and were ready to take it out of the way of the next tide, fastened it with ropes and watched it all night. The next morning at high tide the raft was brought in closer and at low tide the workmen snaked the lumber in without the loss of a stick.
It was lucky, said Mr. McArthur, that the lumber was landed that morning for later in the day a storm set in and the ocean was exceedingly rough for two or three days afterward. The entire raft would have been lost had there been a few hours' delay, he said.
The lumber was landed within 200 or 300 yards of the bridge site and it was but the work of a few hours to transport it that distance." (Morning Register)
October 15, 1921: "Big creek which a fine covered bridge is now nearing completion.
This bridge located far from sawmills required the lumber to be transported in a unique manner. The contractor brought the lumber up the coast from the Siuslaw river and dumped it into the surf at the mouth of the creek, where it was gathered up as it washed ashore." (The Eugene Guard)