Grave Creek Bridge
Grave Creek Bridge is a 105-foot Howe truss covered bridge spanning Grave Creek near Sunny Valley in Josephine County, Oregon. Built in 1920, it is one of the oldest surviving covered bridges in southern Oregon and carries Covered Bridge Road through the canyon where Interstate 5 now passes.
The creek's somber name recalls a tragic episode from 1846, when a young emigrant named Martha Crowley died at this crossing along the Applegate Trail and was buried on the creek bank. The bridge over this historically significant waterway was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Grave Creek earned its name from the 1846 death of Martha Crowley, a young woman traveling along the Applegate Trail variant of the Oregon Trail. Her burial beside the creek gave the waterway its enduring name, and subsequent generations of travelers, settlers, and road builders kept the name in use.
The 1920 covered bridge replaced earlier crossings that served the farm and ranch country in the Grave Creek valley. Its location near the old Applegate Trail corridor made it part of a landscape layered with emigrant history. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.