One of the oldest bridges in Wyoming sits on a long abandoned “road” in the middle of Albany County, where the antelope roam and the wheels of a doctor’s auto in 1910 once crossed on his way to save the life of a sheepherder.
It also was likely a link on the Lincoln Highway that stretched across the continent in 1913 and may have seen future President Dwight Eisenhower pass over it as part of a coast-to-coast convoy in 1919.
The best way to see it now is from the air. It rests inside 10,000 acres of private ranch land where the Laramie River gets ready to enter Wheatland Reservoir Number 2.
Longtime Torrington-based crop duster and Goshen County historical society member Dean McClain decided to pour some time into tracking down the history of the structure and still feels like there is a lot more to uncover. Information from those living is hard to come by.
“I know the landowner, they don’t know anything about it,” he said. “They’ve been there for 20 years.”
A retired road and bridge supervisor in Rock River who grew up in the area and worked county roads all his life also drew a blank.
“Nobody knows anything about it,” McClain said. “It was abandoned.”
A call by Cowboy State Daily to current Albany County Road and Bridge Superintendent Rob Fisher also became a dead end. Fisher said he did not know anything about the structure.
An aerial view of the McGill Bridge over the Laramie River in central Albany County. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Timbers on the McGill Bridge show evidence of decades of exposure to Wyoming seasons. (Courtesy Dean McClain) 
The support system underneath the McGill Bridge shows its age. (Courtesy Dean McClain) Timbers on the McGill Bridge show evidence of decades of exposure to Wyoming seasons. (Courtesy Dean McClain) 
The McGill Bridge on the Old Fort Fetterman Road was once the only way across the Laramie River for those headed west or north from Laramie. (Courtesy Dean McClain)
Named For John McGill
The 163-foot-long structure called the McGill Bridge sits on the historic Old Fetterman-Laramie Road and is named for a pioneer Wyoming rancher and politician John McGill whose family’s Kite Ranch sits to the northeast.
Albany County newspapers back as far as 1880 refer to a “McGill Bridge” but the current iron structure across the river was built in 1900.
McClain said prior to the construction of the reservoir, McGill had a bridge on the river much closer to his ranch.
A notice in the Laramie Daily Sentinel on Dec. 28, 1878, gives notice that Albany County was seeking bids for construction of a bridge over the “Big Laramie River” on the “Laramie City and Fort Fetterman Road.”
A roundup in 1886 mentioned in the Laramie Weekly Boomerang on April 29, 1886, referenced the “McGill Bridge” as a boundary for cowboys working the No. 1 slot on the range.
A list of 70 bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record, part of the U.S. National Park Service, does not list the bridge. The only bridge listed in Albany County is a Pratt truss bridge across the Laramie River built in 1926 and carrying County Road 740.
If that list is accurate, only the historic Fort Laramie Bridge constructed in 1875 near the fort across the North Platte River is older.
A letter from the Pueblo Bridge Company dated Feb. 5, 1900, obtained by McClain is addressed to Albany County Board of Commissioners Chairman H.G. Balch. It informed Balch that the bridge would be delivered in a week.
“It has been very difficult getting steel bridge material from the mills for the past six months and we have followed up your work pushing the shops as we could,” Manager Fred H. Bullen wrote. “Will make quick work of erection. Our lumber and all other material is delivered at Rock Creek.”
A follow-up letter from the company dated March 2, 1900, stated that a C.A. Bullen would be in Laramie the next Wednesday to start work on the bridge. The company explained that a foreman got sick and created the delay.
The top of the steel bridge contains a plaque with the name of the Pueblo Bridge Company and the top of the end steel pieces boast a star design.
A Known Location
Once the structure was in place, it started to see a lot of use. Albany County newspapers make frequent references to the McGill Bridge in the first two decades of the past century.
A Sept. 26, 1912, story in the Laramie Republican reported that a George Nichols and Albany County Undersheriff James Stirling saw more than 100 antelope near the bridge. Another article spoke of a fisherman landing a big trout at the spot.
Some of the more dramatic events involving the structure included a trip by Dr. H.L Stevens from Laramie across the bridge to treat a sheep shearer named “Scotty.”
He had become sick and was medically treated and the “trip was done in excellent time” according to a report in the June 22, 1910, Laramie Republican.
Still another story included a lightning strike near the bridge.
“Coroner Miller was busy today seeking further facts concerning the reported death of a sheepherder near the McGill Bridge,” the Laramie Daily Boomerang reported on Aug. 28, 1915. “It is reported that the man was struck by lightning.”
McClain points to another story in the Laramie Republican on July 1, 1912, that stated a George Nichols and his father were painting “transcontinental” signs down the river all the way to the “McGill Bridge.”
He sees that as a reference to the Lincoln Highway which was first promoted in 1912 but not officially dedicated until 1913.
“We know in 1913 that it was the only way across the highway at that time,” he said. The bridge across the Laramie River in Bosler was not built until 1926.
McClain said he checked with the Wyoming Department of Transportation and they have no record of a structure across the river in Bosler prior to 1926.
A plaque on the McGill Bridge names the commissioners who approved the project in 1900. (Courtesy Dean McClain) 
A letter to the Albany County Board of Commissioners chairman in 1900 from the bridge company promises the bridge will go in. (Courtesy Dean McClain) 
A log of the cross-country military expedition in 1919 that included future President Dwight D. Eisenhower shows the two days in the Albany County region. (Courtesy Eisenhower Library) 
The lead brief in the Laramie Republican on July 1, 1912, shows the county was preparing for the bridge to be on a “transcontinental” route. (Courtesy Wyomingnewspapers.com)
Ike Crossed It?
And it could be that in 1919 Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower, who with 23 other officers and 258 enlisted men as part of the “First Transcontinental Motor Convoy,” crossed the bridge as military experiment went from Laramie to Rock River.
A daily log document at the Eisenhower Library website showed the convoy left Laramie at 6:30 a.m.
“Day’s run was across a plateau. At Rock River lunch was served by Red Cross Canteen Service,” the log stated. “Bridges were generally poor and 12 wooden bridges were reinforced by engineers with lumber furnished by the Wyoming State Highway Department.”
McClain said he believes that using the McGill Bridge at the time was the only way to get across the Laramie River going east to west.
The trip planted the seed for the national highway system put in place when Eisenhower was president.
Efforts by McClain to find when the road and bridge were abandoned have not yet yielded a clear answer.
In 1926 or 1927 when the Bosler bridge crossing the Laramie River near the intersection of Highway 30 and Highway 34 became operational undoubtedly motorists chose it rather than the McGill Bridge when headed west.
“I am assuming that it was abandoned and forgotten,” McClain said. “The ranchers, the sheepherders, they could use it, but it really was of no purpose.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
