Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

For more than 20 miles between Austin and St. Ansgar, Iowa, the Cedar River did not have a modern bridge crossing it in 1950.

That’s why the Mower County Board embarked that year on building a new crossing for County Road 5 over the Cedar in Lyle Township.

With County 5 just a month from completion, a major mishap happened in June 1951 downstream on the County 6 bridge over the Cedar.

On the morning of June 30, 1951, two trucks hauling gravel met on the narrow County 6 bridge – built in 1888 – northwest of Lyle. This collision caused one driver to veer into the bridge’s side.

County 6 then collapsed, bringing both trucks down into the Cedar with it.

Both drivers, whose companies were hauling gravel for the same road project near Rose Creek, avoided serious injury but the 192-foot, old bridge was a twisted mess, breaking up a 3.5-mile stretch of road between Minnesota Highway 105 and U.S. 218 South.

State Line Road, running parallel to County Road 6 one mile south on the Iowa border, became a detour road with both County 5 and 6 bridges unavailable.

Soon after, Mower County announced it would replace County 6 within a year, barring any steel shortages, the Austin Daily Herald wrote July 10, 1951.

The old County 6 bridge was 16 feet wide with a 10-ton limit and posted warnings for motorists about its narrowness. Plans were to widen the bridge to 24 feet, add length and straighten it.

Timing for County 6 was difficult, though, because the county was just finishing the County 5 bridge.

“Raising money to finance the new bridge is a big problem,” the Herald wrote Aug. 11, 1951.

County 5 reopens; plans unveiled for County 6

Days later, the county opened the new County 5 bridge to traffic, offering a better connection between Hwy. 105 and U.S. 218. During the bridge’s construction, “two weak structures were used by motorists,” the Albert Lea Evening Tribune wrote Aug. 17, 1951.

That winter, the county passed a resolution asking the state to help replace the bridge on County 6, a state-aid roadway. The county “had the extreme misfortune” of its bridge being destroyed accidentally, leading to a “considerable economic and utility loss to the county,” the Herald wrote Feb. 25, 1952.

Two months later, the county was in civil court for a jury trial in its lawsuit against the two trucking companies involved with the County 6 bridge collapse.

County officials claimed the crash was caused by negligence by the two drivers – one who died before the trial unrelated to the crash. The county estimated bridge repairs at $25,000.

The other driver admitted in court that his truck hit the side of the bridge when he pulled over to make room for the approaching truck.

After discussions, a settlement was reached with an unusual aspect.

“It’s a new twist in jurisprudence – one that occurred in a hatchet-burying ceremony” after the county settled its suit for $12,250, the Herald wrote April 23 1952.

During the trial, the county engineer told the driver who crashed into the bridge that “when it was all over, they’d bury the hatchet,” the Herald wrote. The driver bought a hatchet and charged its purchase to the county engineer.

After settlement, the two went outside the courthouse for a newspaper photo showing them bury the hatchet with the sheriff as a witness.

‘A real bargain’

By late summer 1952, the county was estimating about $90,000 to replace the County 6 bridge by November 1953 or June 1954.

That price, however, was covered greatly by state and federal funds, and the new bridge was completed by October 1953 with 125 tons of steel, 700 tons of concrete and more than 20,000 cubic yards of dirt moved.

Spanning 219 feet long, the three-span County 6 structure cost about $80,000, with another $10,000 in costs for removing the old bridge, road grading and buying additional right-of-way.

Federal aid funded $40,000, with the state chipping in $20,000. The county also had another $12,500 from the two truck companies involved with its court settlement.

“So the total cost to the county was only $17,500 – a real bargain,” the Herald wrote.

In October 1953, the Mower County commissioners – “quivering in the chill, fall air” – visited the new County 6 bridge for a ribbon cutting opening it to traffic.

“It took two years, three months, six days and $90,000 to undo the damage done to a bridge by a truck,” the Herald wrote, “but the project finally was completed.”