Michigan Covered Bridges - Bowens Mill

Historic Bowens Mill and its
covered bridge.  4/28/18 dwm photo

I called the folks at Historic Bowen's Mill to see if they would be open in mid-May when we were in the area.

The helpful person who took my call said while not everything was open I was welcome to drive down to see the grounds.

My reason was to add another covered bridge to my collection.  I didn't learn on the phone or from the pictures on the website what I might find.

Just to be fair, I didn't specifically ask if their covered bridge was used for horse or car traffic.  If I knew it wasn't, we might not have driven an extra hour-plus to add the Bowen's Mill bridge to this series.

It looks nice and it may be historic.  If you enter a search request online for "covered bridges in Michigan," you get a Wikipedia page and links to other pages which list any and all covered bridges.

The Bowens' Bridge
4/28/18 (dwm)

The Mill & wheel.
dwm photo

The Grist and Cider Mill dates to 1864 and sits impressively above the adjacent mill stream with waterwheel in position.

There are several other covered bridges in Michigan that upon closer look never did handle horse or car traffic.

There is a replica based on an historic Michigan bridge and I hope to include the Zehnder's bridge in this covered bridge blog series.

I hate to waste the trip and the photos, so here is the Bowens Mill Bridge to represent other small bridges.

Bowen's Mill Bridge Facts:

Built:  1982 by Neal H. Cook with wood from the former Middleville Mill

You can read about more bridges in Michigan and the rest of the upper Midwest by clicking here.