home   events    farmer's market     helping hands    bands    gallery    history    guestbook    contact    latest flyer

THE ROCK FALLS BRIDGE The familiar stone arch bridge at Rock Falls Park, officially known as the Daughertys Mill or Doughertys Mills bridge, was demolished and replaced in the summer of 2011.  The following is a brief timeline and history of previous constructions and replacements.  1805-1806:   The "Pittsburg and Mercertown Road" is laid out.  (1883 Butler County History) 1812: "The Slippery Rock people also petitioned for a bridge in 1810, but for some reason or other it was not ordered built until 1812."   (1883 Butler County History) 1822-1823: The industrial complex known as the Mount Etna Furnace was established by Dr. John Thompson on Slippery Rock Creek.  The site consisted of a cold-blast, charcoal furnace for the production of pig iron that was shipped to Pittsburgh, a forge that produced wrought iron for local use, a gristmill, a sawmill, and a carding mill for the processing of wool.  The iron ore near the Etna furnace contained a percentage of copper which made it more valuable.  The village of Mt. Etna, the pioneer community in Slippery Rock township, grew up around the furnace and the original Slippery Rock post office was established there in 1824.  (The post office was moved to nearby Centreville in 1826.)  According to one source, a Methodist church and a burial ground were located in the area.  The mill site required that a timber dam be built across the Creek and an arched stone culvert be built under the roadway to carry water to supply the power to the wheels of the various mills.  The culvert was constructed for Thomson in 1822 by David McJunkin, who later purchased the mill site in 1829.  The mill remained under McJunkin family ownership, with various millers and operators until 1864.   The McJunkins refused to sell lots to establish a town, therefore Slippery Rock was located and established to the north. The original timber or log dam was built in 1823.   It was described as  "four feet high and raised across the creek, which turns the water into the canal, passing through a high bank, close to which stands the furnace."  Descriptions of earlier bridges and roadways indicate that conditions made travel difficult, the muddy tracks being a mere widening of former native trails and fordings.   In Early Life Along the Slippery Rock, Ralston asserts that the bridge at Mt. Etna was built in 1823, with the road running over the arch of the race and through the charcoal yard of the furnace.  He also locates the old fording, "a poor one", below the furnace. Read the Butler Sentinel report of the industrial complex that sprang up, "risen up by enchantment" on the banks of the Slippery Rock Creek, May 8, 1824. 1825: Local lore relates that General Lafayette traveled up the Butler-Mercer Turnpike and stopped at Mt. Etna to inspect the furnace. 1882: A truss bridge is erected over Slippery Rock Creek.  In Working Water, Dr. Raymond Ralston recalls "I remember the iron bridge that was there before the present one... It had planking... on it and you can see the old foundation is (still) there.  But when that was built, it must have been... after the Civil War.  I feel sure that there was a wooden bridge before that, because there used to be an old pier in the center of the place there and they would have had to have a pier for a wood stand." 1929: The Doughertys Mills bridge was built over Slippery Rock Creek, SR 173, by Woods and Golden, with engineer design by the Pennsylvania State Highway Department.  The bridge was built on a "skew" to eliminate the curve in the existing roadway, 50 ft. west of the 1882 truss bridge.  The stone abutments of the older bridge were left in place and the road was widened.  At the same time, the stone culvert under the highway was extended on the eastern side with a poured concrete extension.  The "new" bridge is 140 feet in length, with a roadway width of 27.6 feet and two arches. This year's construction will remove the tops of the stone abutments, rebuild the millrace gate and insert a lining tube within the underlying stone culvert to prevent collapse.  1946-1947: The old wooden dam disintegrated and was not repaired for a period of seven years, making Slippery Rock Creek unnavigable above the dam and eliminating swimming in all but a few deep holes.  The Slippery Rock Park Civic Association, most directly affected by this loss of recreational use, made various spurned overtures to the owner to finance the repairs and even obtained a deed from Stoughton and Straub to build a dam 50 ft. above the old dam.   Eventually, an agreement was reached with the owner's heirs and the Slippery Rock Park Civic Association built the current concrete barrier dam in 1956 at a cost of $17,500.  The concrete dam was built on the location of the old log dam.  A concrete flow barrier with a sluice gate was also constructed at this time to control the flow of water to the millrace and pond, no longer in use. 1976: Renovations to the bridge in 1976 included the replacement of the original deck and the removal of the original railings.  The replacements consisted of cantilevered deck sections and modern beam guiderail railings.  Today, these renovations disqualify the Daughertys Mills bridge for National Register of Historic Places status.  An assessment by the Historic Bridges website concludes that the demolition and replacement "will deal a serious blow to the beauty of the location, which includes Rock Falls Park.  From the park, one can enjoy a beautiful view of the appropriately named rocky creek with the graceful arches passing overhead." For more information: Butler County History, 1883 Doughertys Mills Bridge, Bridge Browser, Historic Bridges.org, 2010  A History of Slippery Rock Park and the Slippery Rock Park Civic Association, Slippery Rock Park.com and Slippery Rock Park Civic Association, Ralph A. Nicholas, 1973  Cultural Resource Studies, Dougherty Mills Bridge Replacement, 2009, ER No. 09-6005-019  Historic Resource Survey, Mount Etna Industrial District/Daugherty Mills, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2009 Early Life Along the Slippery Rock, William Alexander Ralston, 1967 Working Water: Gristmills in the Slippery Rock Area, Peggy Mershimer, Luanne Eisler, Shirley Cubbison and Edith Young, 1989 Butler Sentinel, May 8, 1824 Butler Sentinel, May 7, 1825 and a special thank you to Slippery Rock mayor Kenneth Harris for information shared

Rock Falls Park   111 Stoughtons Beach   Slippery Rock, PA  16057   412-614-0568   rockfallslive@gmail.com