Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: September 2013
Looking for a romantic Roadside Attraction? On our way to Sioux City to watch Matt play a college football game we stopped by the small rural town of Winterset, the birthplace of John Wayne and also the setting for the blockbuster 1995 Clint Eastwood – Meryl Streep movie “The Bridges of Madison County”. We visited a local bar, park and downtown square where many movie scenes were shot. Rosie lay in the park at the stone bridge and on the stone bridge (Photo #2 & #3) where Clint & Meryl Streep lay. Rosie sat on the bar stool that Clint Eastwood sat on at the Northside Cafe (Photo#4).
Since Madison County has the largest group of covered bridges that exist in one area in the western half of the Mississippi Valley, we drove to three of the bridges including one that was used in the movie. The Roseman Covered Bridge (Photo #5 & #6) was built in 1883 and is mentioned frequently in the novel and in the movie. I had to get my Rosie posing on the “Rose”man Bridge.
There is a paranormal slant to the bridge. In 1892, two sheriff’s posses trapped a county jail escapee on the bridge. It is said that the man rose straight up through the roof of the covered bridge, uttered a wild cry and then disappeared. He was never found and it was decided that anyone capable of such a feat must be innocent. Locals thus deemed the covered bridge haunted. We found the old bridge beautiful and peaceful with a gentle stream flowing underneath. Sounds like nothing more than an urban legend.
