Roseman Covered Bridge, Iowa: History and the Haunted Posse Legend

The Roseman Covered Bridge crosses the Middle River in rural Madison County, Iowa, southwest of Winterset. It is a red timber span from 1883, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is known for two things: a local legend about a convict who vanished from a sheriff’s posse in 1892, and its role in the novel and film The Bridges of Madison County. The construction and the later history are well documented. The ghost story is a county legend that this post labels as such.

A short history of the Roseman Covered Bridge

The Iowa Department of Transportation dates the bridge to 1883 and says it cost $2,930. The state agency says the Roseman and Cedar bridges were both approved in 1877 and built in 1883 by local builders H. P. Jones and G. K. Foster, the last two covered bridges built in Madison County. A federal survey record, the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), agrees on the year and the builders. It adds that “for reasons unknown” five years passed between the 1877 vote and construction, and that county crews built the bridge under Harvey P. Jones.

HAER adds that between 1868 and 1884 Madison County put up nineteen wooden covered bridges, and only five survive. In 1870 the supervisors ruled that spans over 40 feet should be covered lattice truss bridges.

The bridge is also called the Oak Grove Bridge. Iowa DOT adds that it has been called the “Haunter Bridge” and calls that name inexplicable. County tourism says it was named for the family of Edward Monroe Roseman.

How the bridge is built

The bridge is a single-span covered timber bridge using a Town lattice truss, a design patented by Ithiel Town in 1820. HAER describes the truss as a lattice of sawn planks pegged together with wooden treenails, so that loads spread through a web of overlapping triangles. Iowa DOT says Jones probably designed the Roseman bridge and strengthened the lattice by adding a queenpost truss on top, “a structural redundancy that bordered on overkill.” That is one reason, the agency says, that it has survived while most of Iowa’s other timber trusses were demolished.

It rests on iron cylinder piers and has plank walls and a flat roof. Published lengths differ (about 104 to 107 feet in three sources), so no exact figure is given here.

Traffic used the bridge for almost a century before a new bridge nearby bypassed it, and sources disagree on the year (1981 in Iowa DOT and the county’s tourism page, 1985 in the HAER chronology). It was rehabilitated in 1992 for $152,515, with the help of a federal restoration grant, and it now stands in place at the center of a small park. It was added to the National Register on September 1, 1976.

The legend of the 1892 posse

The ghost story comes from county tourism, HAER and a covered-bridge website, and each tells it a little differently. County tourism says the bridge first gained fame as a “haunted bridge” in 1892, when a sheriff’s posse chased an escapee from the county jail. According to that legend, the convict entered one end of the bridge, so the sheriff split the posse in two and sent half in at each end at the same time. There were gunshots and some posse members were hurt. The convict let out a terrible scream but was never found, “as if he vanished into thin air.” Visitors since then, the tourism page says, have claimed to hear laughter or to feel a cold spot in the middle of the bridge.

A covered-bridge website tells a variant. In its version two posses trapped the escapee, and he is said to have risen straight through the roof, crying out, and disappeared. It adds that people decided anyone capable of such a feat must be innocent. HAER, a federal document, sums it up in one line: according to local legend, a county jail escapee who mysteriously eluded capture here in 1892 haunts the bridge.

What the record can and cannot support

The construction, builders, cost and listing dates come from official records and agree closely. The 1892 chase does not. None of the sources reviewed names the escapee, the sheriff or the date, and no contemporary newspaper account or jail record was found. The laughter and the cold spot are visitor reports. The fair summary is that the bridge is well documented and the posse story is a local tradition.

The Bridges of Madison County

The bridge’s larger fame comes from fiction. County tourism says the film adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County used it and that the crew worked to make the freshly renovated bridge look old and worn, then had to repaint it afterward. The covered-bridge website says the story’s central note is left there. HAER says tourism in the county rose sharply in the 1990s after the novel and the film. Sources give the film year as 1994 and 1995, so only “mid-1990s” is stated here.

Visiting the Roseman Covered Bridge

Iowa DOT places the bridge on Elderberry Avenue over the Middle River, about 7.5 miles southwest of Winterset (the county tourism page says eight miles). It stands in a small park beside the bypassed road. No hours or access rules are stated in the sources reviewed, so ask the county’s tourism office about current conditions.

• Treat it as a landmark: HAER notes that the county’s covered bridges have faced vandalism and arson, and that Roseman was the target of an arson attempt. Do not carve, burn or leave trash.
• Other bridges: Madison County’s other surviving covered bridges include Hogback, Holliwell, Imes and Cutler-Donahoe.
• Festival: HAER says the county has held an annual covered bridge festival since 1970. Check the tourism page for dates.

Frequently asked questions

When was the Roseman Covered Bridge built?

Iowa DOT, HAER and Wikipedia date it to 1883. The county approved it in 1877.

Is the Roseman Covered Bridge really haunted?

Nothing documented says so. The haunting rests on a local legend of an 1892 posse and a vanished convict, which the county’s tourism office and HAER both describe as legend.

Why is it called the Haunter Bridge?

Iowa DOT lists “Haunter Bridge” as an alternate name and calls it inexplicable. No source ties the name to the legend.

Can you still cross it?

It stands in a small park beside the bypassed road. The sources reviewed do not say whether visitors may walk or drive through it, so ask Madison County tourism.

More haunted covered bridges: For another covered bridge with a ghost tradition, see the Everett Road Covered Bridge in Cuyahoga Valley or the Sachs Covered Bridge in Gettysburg.

Sources

• Iowa DOT: Roseman Bridge: year built, builders, cost, truss, bypass and the “Haunter Bridge” name.
• Library of Congress: HAER IA-95, Roseman Bridge: federal history and chronology, builders and the one-line legend (read as the PDF from the record).
• Madison County Tourism: Roseman Covered Bridge: the 1892 posse legend, the 1992 renovation and the film.
• Covered Bridges: Roseman, 1883: a variant of the legend and the novel connection.
• Wikipedia: Roseman Covered Bridge: the National Register listing.

Top image: Roseman Covered Bridge in Madison County, Iowa. Photo: SanjayFays, CC BY 3.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons.