Chippewa Valley Times

The Wisconsin Historical Society named the 143-year-old High Bridge to the state register in May after it was determined to be significant to Wisconsin’s heritage. With state approval, an application has been sent to the National Park Service for consideration for the bridge to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

“I think this is service-learning in the truest sense,” says Dr. John Mann, professor of history and director of the university’s public history program. “In this case, students learned about preservation, they applied what they learned and they directly benefited the community by helping the city comply with federal preservation laws.”

The 900-foot-long High Bridge that spans the Chippewa River just downriver from Dell’s Dam is officially named the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway Bridge but is referred to locally as the High Bridge because its deck is approximately 80 feet above the normal river level, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The iron lattice deck truss bridge was built for rail traffic in 1881. The structure was abandoned in 1992, converted into a scenic pedestrian bridge along the Chippewa River State Trail in 2015, and recognized as a local landmark by the city of Eau Claire Landmark Commission a year later.

In 2017, Mann was a member of the Landmark Commission and aware that city officials were interested in seeing Eau Claire structures nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. Students in Mann’s public history seminar class do archival research on topics of history interpretation for community partners during their spring semester classes. The High Bridge was among the topics examined that year under historic transportation in the Chippewa Valley.

A class group researched the history of High Bridge, critiqued work, and created an application draft for submission to the state historic register. The draft was reviewed, revised, and submitted by Megan Beer-Pemberton, a historian with Wisconsin engineering firm CORRE Inc., who received her bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in public history from UW-Eau Claire.

Beer-Pemberton was a student of Mann’s during both her undergraduate and graduate studies where she was introduced to many opportunities outside academia. Beer-Pemberton calls work on this project “a perfect example of how collaboration among all three can work in a real-life scenario.”

“Though a student may graduate from an institution such as UWEC, you never really stop being a ‘student’ and we are fortunate that staff is so accessible for us to reach out even after graduating,” Beer-Pemberton says. “It’s a great example of how alumni can help current students with their coursework and provide guidance post-graduation.”

The historic designation application faced delays after damage occurred during a storm in June 2021 when inspectors found significant cracking and settling of limestone piers prompting closure. After $3.4 million repairs on multiple piers, it reopened to pedestrians in March 2022.

Beer-Pemberton noted that Eau Claire city officials supported historic designation efforts providing engineering information from repairs so updates could be made for consideration by State Historical Society.

Bridge rehabilitation received two awards: The Wisconsin Historical Society Historic Preservation Award and American Public Works Association Wisconsin chapter award for Small Cities/Rural Communities Project of Year.

High Bridge marks second project from spring 2017 UW-Eau Claire class named State Register; Soo Line Railroad Bridge near Banbury Place earned state/national registers recognition last year.

Rachel Lange curator at Chippewa Valley Museum participated researching S-Bridge while completing undergraduate work returning home when news broke acceptance onto register occurred.

“We knew it was possible early on bridges could end up on register but knowing they did incredibly cool,” says Lange who earned bachelor’s degree public history at UW-Eau Claire adding time effort put projects full-circle moment personally valuable aiding approach projects variety angles best outcome results everyday job skills.