DELTA: The sad and angry citizens of this Keokuk County town will have to rebuild the landmark bridge destroyed by arson Wednesday or repaint their water tower, which proudly proclaims: “Delta home of the covered bridge.”
“People around here are sad and irate about the bridge,” Nicki Leathers, a clerk at L & J’s Country Convenience Store in Delta, said Thursday. “They have been dropping money in a collection can for a reward” for information leading to the arrest of whoever set the 136-year-old wooden bridge on fire Wednesday evening.
“The fire was intentionally set,” said Special Agent Jim Thiele of the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Thiele said he based that conclusion on “my years of investigating fires and the lack of accidental causes.”
Laboratory tests of materials collected at the site, at a county park 3 ½ miles southeast of Delta, should determine if gasoline or some other accelerant was used to start the fire, Thiele said.
The fire occurred exactly one year after an unsolved arson destroyed a famous covered bridge in Madison County in western Iowa. Several Delta residents believe publicity surrounding that anniversary prompted a copycat to burn the Delta bridge, said Joe Kiesling of nearby Haysville.
Built in 1867 to carry traffic across the North Skunk River, the bridge was of an antique design called Burr arch truss.
“The wooden arches on each side of the bridge were hand-sawed to make the curves,” said Dave Long, director of the Keokuk County Conservation Department, which owns and manages the 3.6-acre Delta Bridge Park.
Long said the Delta bridge was the oldest Burr arch truss bridge west of the Mississippi. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Whether to rebuild it will be a “hot topic of discussion” for the Keokuk County supervisors, Long said. |
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The county may have to forfeit a recently received $150,000 federal grant for restoring the bridge, he said.
“If the bridge is rebuilt, it won’t be the same,” said Ed Fowler of Delta, whose aunt’s and uncle’s initials were among the hundreds that had been carved into the bridge over the generations.
“You feel like they stole a part of your history that you were proud of,” said Dixie Shipley of Delta, whose late husband M.L. “Tobe” Shipley painted a locally famous likeness of the bridge.
Connie Denny, who lives 1 ½ miles south of the bridge, said she saw the flames shooting up above the trees about 9 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters tried valiantly to save it but couldn’t, she said.
“It was just a big ball of fire when we got there,” said Delta Fire Chief Tracy Kerkove.
Leathers said the arson has put a damper on this weekend’s annual Delta Fun Days, which features the Delta Covered Bridge Run.
Thiele said anyone who was at the park Wednesday evening should call the Keokuk County Sheriff’s Department at (641) 622-2727. Anyone with information about the fire should call the state’s arson hotline, 1-(800) 532-1459.
Delta, population 410, is about 65 miles southwest of Cedar Rapids.
Covered bridges
The State Historical Society of Iowa reports these historic covered bridges are known to be standing in Iowa:
Cutler-Donahue Covered Bridge, Winterset city park
Hogback Covered Bridge, four miles north of Winterset
Hollowell Covered Bridge, four miles southeast of Winterset
Imes Covered Bridge, IA 251 near St. Charles
Owens Covered Bridge in Ewing Park, southeast side of Des Moines, moved from the Carlisle vicinity in Warren County |