YAB (yet another bridge)

This is the abandoned railroad bridge from yesterday, taken from the bank of the St. Joseph River.
Still a lot of bridges left -- I may need to come back to this topic!

Rocky River Rocks

Fun to do this in a kayak. Under the bridge in Scidmore Park.

Hoffman St. Bridge

A view from the water of the Hoffman St. Bridge over the Portage River, with a bit of the old abandoned powerhouse showing.

Another bridge to nowhere

This is the abandoned railroad bridge that parallels the Broadway Bridge over the St. Joseph River. I wonder where it used to go? Taken the day of the Bridge Walk.

Three Rivers' history mural (1)

The first section of the mural shows a Native American man looking west across the undeveloped river. Although no particular people is represented - the figure is only symbolic - the first French Traders and US settlers found that the Pottawatomi had beaten them to the area by 100 years or more. The Pottawatomi were farmers and traders, driven to the area from their original homeland near Detroit by the Iroquois in disputes over valuable fur hunting areas. Other disputes were recorded from oral histories, including the Great Battle for which there is a marker in the park.

The Pottawatomi are the "fire keepers" of the Anishinabe Three Fires Confederacy. The nearby Pottawatomi town of Nottawasepi, now called Mendon, was as large as many US cities in the west at that time. They were settled farmers and were Christian from the 1600s. Many Pottawatomi tried to hang on to their land through filing lawsuits and other legal and political maneuvers, but most lost their land in the tragic "Indian Removal" period spearheaded by still-controversial president Andrew Jackson. Today, most Pottawatomi live in the west, but a few "bands" (family groups) that refused removal - or escaped and returned - remain. One local group purchased a large tract of land about an hour east of Three Rivers, and remain there. There are many interesting - and bloodcurdling - stories about the collision of the US settler and Pottawatomie cultures, but they are a little hard to find. Local historian Sue Stillman in the 1930s wrote in her history of Three Rivers some of the stories, when it was still fairly close to living memory.

Before the Pottawatomie, other peoples lived here, but the archeology record is sketchy (and much of it was plowed under.) The Miami peoples were known to live here, and before them, peoples of the Mississippian Mound Culture. Along undeveloped stretches of river the "wild rice", a staple grain, that they planted may still be found in large tracts. In more settled areas, the emigrant farmers pulled it out, seeing it as blocking navigation - and not knowing what it was.

Bridge mural

The Peeler Street Bridge that spans both a river and the railroad tracks has on its abutment a very long mural giving an outline of the history of Three Rivers. I will post closer up pictures of it this week - mostly taken last in winter, when it was easier to see. Email me if you know about the history of this mural! It is growing more faded and has a lot of water damage, I hope repairs are planned.

Bridge Walk - 6th Street

Here's my attempt to look two ways at once - Bridge Walkers crossing the 6th Street Bridge, which has a beautiful view downriver on one side and an equally nice view upstream to the power dam on the other side. Jan McEnroe was stamping Bridge Walk passports here.

Bridge Walk - Hoffman

Some Bridge Walkers on the Hoffman Street bridge over the Portage River. According to the Passport, the bridge is 91 feet long and was built in 1917. You can also "drive" over it on Google Maps.
My favorite part of the walks was talking to people who had stories to tell about growing up in the area and their memories of the bridges and rivers. Here a woman told me that just upstream was an old swimming hole where kids would swim 'au naturel' and "get in trouble for it!"

A look downstream, where a sandbar has formed under the bridge. Hazard to navigation?

Bridge Walk - Broadway

There are two parallel bridges over the St. Joseph on Broadway, one for the roadway and the other, a spookily abandoned railroad bridge. The road bridge, according to the Three Rivers Woman's Club Passport brochure, was originally built in 1878! It was "updated" in 1990 which accounts for the modern look.

One woman passed me on the sidewalk, map in hand, and said "I'm going the wrong way!" Oh no, people were walking the trail in both directions. Here are some walkers on the Broadway Bridge, where Jo Barton and her daughter (above) were stamping passports.

Bridge Walk: 5th Ave.

Along with the walking maps, the Three Rivers Woman's Club "Passport" had a lot of interesting information about the bridges. This bridge over the Portage River on 5th Ave. was built in 1917, although it looks very modern.
Here, a group of walkers that did the long 4.6 mile (7.4 km) trail approach volunteer Shirley Blum to have their "passport" stamped.

I love this spot. Stop on the bridge here, almost downtown, but which ever way you look it could be wilderness.

Labor Day Historic Bridge Walk

Oh the bridge walk was so much fun - they said "first annual" so if you missed it, come next year! Three Rivers is a fantastic town for walking, and not just the park; the streets are lovely too. Maps were provided for a variety of routes and a brochure with bridge photos was "Your Passport to the Bridge Walk" and was stamped by volunteers waiting by each bridge.

This is a photo of only a few of the volunteers:
Jo Barton and her daughter (Broadway Bridge over the St. Joseph)
Shirley Blum (5th St. Bridge over the Portage River)
Jan McEnroe (6th Ave Bridge just below the power dam)
Diane Foghino (who forgot a chair so was standing over by the Memory Isle bridge for hours!)
Map of the routes:


More pictures tomorrow.

Bridge to Nowhere

This abandoned beauty is frequently chosen as a subject by local painters. Grass grows on the roadbed, and the masonry crumbles. Paddling under it I discovered an exciting "drop" that kept me from taking a planned photo from below.

Tomorrow, Labor Day, Sept. 5, there will be a Bridge Walk in Three Rivers, sponsored by the Women's Club. Register (free) starting at 9am in Scidmore Park, get a "passport" and have it stamped for each bridge you cross! See the website: http://trbridges.wordpress.com
There is a Facebook events page for the bridge walk but you have to sign in to FB to look at it. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173659086038753

Memory Isle Bridge for a wedding

My favorite bridge - which I have painted many times - is the little red bridge to Memory Isle in the park. I took this yesterday evening, and there was a lovely chuppah or wedding arbor across the bridge, waiting on the island, in the sunlight.

Check out the nice article in the River Country Journal about the Bridge Walk - with two more of my bridge photos. Thanks, Bruce! http://www.rivercountryjournal.info/2011/09/02/three-rivers-bridge-walk-set-for-monday-labor-day/

(Closeup...)

Peeler Street Bridge

A cooling change of season for this bridge picture, part of a series of bridge pictures I'm doing in honor of the Womens' Club sponsored Three Rivers Historic Bridge Walk on Monday, Sept. 5, see http://trbridges.wordpress.com (or previous posts) for more info.

This is the Peeler Street Bridge as seen from the park. The bridge features a very large mural showing the history of Three Rivers - and some interesting graffiti. The bridge spans both the railroad track and the Rocky River.

Portage River Bridge

This is my favorite bridge to paddle under, with those big cool arches. At the mouth of the Portage River, where it flows into the St. Joseph. Highway M60 passes over this bridge and into downtown Three Rivers.

Bridge to downtown

This is the M86/Main Street bridge over the St. Joseph River. With its beautiful arches it looks like an old bridge, but actually it is (almost) brand new, replacing the 1903 concrete bridge that had interesting detailing that resembled masonry. I think there was something else historical about the old bridge, but I don't recall what it was.

The two signs visible on the bridge to the right are part of the water trail system in St. Joseph County, meant to be seen by travelers on the water. One sign (SJ18) is for the Stillman House (photo taken from the Stillman House grounds) and the other (SJ19) for the close by Jesuit Mission site on the north bank of the St. Joseph; the mission was established in the late 1600s. For more on the water trail system: http://bit.ly/ql9v2I

Labor Day, Sept. 5, there will be a Bridge Walk in Three Rivers, sponsored by the Women's Club. Register (free) starting at 9am in Scidmore Park, get a "passport" and have it stamped for each bridge you cross! See the website: http://trbridges.wordpress.com
There is a Facebook events page for the bridge walk but you have to sign in to FB to look at it. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173659086038753

Little Bridge

Today's bridge is, I am sure, the smallest of Three River's city bridges. It passes over the city's smallest river (unnamed, coming out of the duck pond) which flows prettily into the Rocky via the city's tiniest waterfall.

Three Rivers has lots of bridges, and on Sept. 5th there will be a Three Rivers Labor Day Historic Bridge Walk, sign up starting at 9am in Scidmore Park. More, http://trbridges.wordpress.com/

Bridges

This is the Highway M60/Michigan Ave. bridge over the Rocky River -- the main part of the river, not the race, which parallels the river through Scidmore Park at this point. Looking upriver.

This coming weekend the Three Rivers Womens' Club will sponsor a bridge walk - read more on their Facebook Event page, http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173659086038753.

To see more Three Rivers bridges, click the "bridges" tag to the right, or use this link:
http://threeriversdailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/bridges

Art in the snow

The Plein Air Artists of West Michigan (http://www.paawm.org) came out to paint in Three Rivers' Scidmore Park this weekend -- gray, drizzly, snowy, cold... about a dozen artists were seen through the park, trying to feel the gray. Brent Spinks here working on his railroad bridge and river view. He said he was hoping a train would go by so he could put it in the picture.

Monochrome Race

Seen in monochrome is the race from the Rocky River as it exits the old powerhouse. The race then goes under Michigan Avenue, through Scidmore Park, and joins the St. Joseph River just above the point where the main part of the Rocky flows into the St. Joseph. In the distance is a barn in the park.

The old powerhouse provided electricity for downtown Three Rivers in decades past; the building now fuels the area with expresso, dispensed at LA's Coffee, which shares space in the former powerhouse building with a travel agent.

Leaving the cafe yesterday morning with my coffee in hand, the scene just looked like a perfect monochrome. To see more of the world in monochrome, just click over to The Monochrome Weekend, presented by Aileni.