My friends who live in Iowa are already seeing snow, so I have been thinking of some snowy Iowa images from my Grandma’s Scrapbooks.
This first picture is a drawing by editorial cartoonist Frank Andrea Miller. The barn that he drew in this picture is in Ida County, Iowa.
An Iowa Winter Picture
First came the land, the hills, the fields, Then came the men who built the barns and planted the trees and crops. Then came the winter with the snow and the long reaching shadows. All this came together in a grand design and produced a composition that took millions of years to compose. The artist’s job is simple: a few hours to find it, a few minutes to sketch it. All the long and hard work to make that picture has been done for him. —-FRANK MILLER
Whenever I search through my Grandma’s Scrapbooks, I always pause when I come to this picture. The picture fills up almost an entire page in the scrapbook and was actually a bit larger than my scanner.
My Grandma had written ‘Iowa in Winter – ’61’ at the bottom of the picture, so you can see that the right side of the pictures is clipped off.
I really like the snowy scene in this picture. The two boys look like they have had a very successful hunt.
Of course what I really like about this picture is the covered bridge.
This is the Cutler-Donahoe bridge. The bridge was built as a crossing over the North River near Bevington, Iowa in 1871.
The bridge was moved to a park in Winterset, Iowa in 1970 and rehabilitated in 1997.
At one time there were 19 covered bridges in Madison County, but today there are only 6 remaining.
I had a difficult time determining which bridge this was as the wording on the end of the bridge is very blurry on the original picture in the scrapbook. However, I can now make out that it does say Donahue Bridge.
It was also difficult as this picture was taken at the original location of the bridge. The approaches to the bridge were longer in the original location and there have also been a few other structural and painting changes when it was rehabilitated.
I tried to find another picture of the bridge in the original location, but did not have any luck.
The post has wandered a bit from the original title, but then again this is Braman’s Wanderings 🙂
Have you ever walked across a covered bridge?
Steven
Braman's Wanderings 
Great pictures. What was the reason for covered bridges?
Andrew, they were covered to protect the structure of the bridge from the elements. An uncovered wood bridge would last only a fraction of the time that a covered one would.
That makes sense, thanks for the information!
Oh, How I remember those Iowa winters!! 1948-66 and 1976-84! Thanks for posting.
I have walked across a covered wooden bridge about 15 miles from where we lived here in Arkansas when I was a kid.
Have just started re-reading the Bridges of Madison County, so this made me smile. Thanks for sharing.
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