The Indian Territory in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River

A bit more evidence is offered to show that the 1909 bridge photoed in the cited Bridgehunters article, located in Hughes County, Oklahoma, was built on the foundations of the 1859 steel bridge built for the U.S. Beale Wagon Road going west from Ft. Smith to California and on which Col. Phillips, USV, is believed to have followed from Hillabee to Old Fort Holmes on his approach to the Battle of Middle Boggy in February, 1864. This evidence is given in the Initial Land Survey done by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for this area of Indian Territory in December 1895, about 14 years prior to the construction of the 1909 (Oklahoma) replacement bridge. You will see in the plat of T6N, R9E, IBM, in the SW 1/4 of NW 1/4 of Sec. 8 that there were wagon roads converging on both the north and south sides of Little River at the old/new Beale Road bridge site in Dec. of 1895. However, no bridge across the river seems to be there during the 1895 survey, suggesting to me that a good bridge (and a good road) was once there for a time, and that the old crossing was still being used in some way in 1895. Fourteen years later in 1909, Hughes County built the new (replacement) bridge structure shown in Bridgehunters, probably on the old existing stone foundations of the Beale Bridge of 1859.

You will find this described 12-1895 BLM Initial Survey at:

https://glorecords.blm.gov/details/survey/default.aspx?dm_id=20086&sid=wcksf5fu.uez#surveyDetailsTabIndex=1

Messages In This Thread

Battle of Middle Boggy
Re: Battle of Middle Boggy
Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Little River Town
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River
Re: Beale Wagon Road Bridge Across Little River