Butler County, Kansas, was a pioneer in stone arch bridge building. This county has a strong stone arch bridge heritage, and many of these structures remain in use in this county. In this post, we will look at what makes the Butler County stone bridges special, and why Butler County deserves recognition for its contribution to Kansas’s unique stone bridge heritage.
Butler County Stone Bridges
What makes Butler’s stone bridges unique? Here are some key facts regarding this county’s stone arch bridges:
- Butler’s High Number of Remaining Stone Bridges: Butler County has more documented stone bridges of all sizes than many other Kansas counties. Furthermore, in the matter of true stone arch bridges (structures with a waterway of 20′ or more), as opposed to stone arch culverts, Butler County takes the lead. There is very strong evidence that Butler County has more true stone arch bridges than any other Kansas county, including Cowley County. Though Cowley County has been designated the Stone Arch Bridge Capital of Kansas, Butler County has more documented stone arch bridges actively carrying the roads than Cowley, with Butler currently having 19 of these structures listed on the Kansas highway maps as compared to Cowley’s 14. Furthermore, this number does not include two more major Butler County stone bridges that are less known and high and dry, but which are still publicly accessible, one of these also still carrying the road.
- Pioneer Stone Bridge County in Southern Kansas: Butler County was one of the early pioneers in stone arch bridge building in southern Kansas. Thanks to this county’s success at building affordable stone bridges, which were at once durable and cost-effective, other counties, including Greenwood and Cowley, looked to Butler County for ideas, the commissioners of these counties even touring Butler County to view its stone bridges.
- Where Walter Sharp Rose to Fame: Walter Sharp, a famous Kansas stone arch bridge builder best remembered for his work in Cowley County, rose to fame in Butler. One of Butler’s earliest builders of stone bridges, this Marion County bridge builder became renowned for his work in Butler. After he moved to El Dorado, where he lived for many years, Walter Sharp’s work received much attention when the Greenwood and Cowley county commissioners toured the Butler stone bridges. Walter Sharp received the job to build Greenwood and Cowley’s first major stone bridges. He also rose to fame in Butler as a general building contractor, beginning with his well-publicized work on one of the incarnations of Butler County’s courthouse.
- Butler County’s Maintenance of Stone Bridges: Butler County has been putting effort in recent years to maintaining and restoring its stone bridges. Some fine recent examples include the refurbishment of the 1899 Wilson Bridge built by Walter Sharp near Augusta, and some work done on the 1908 Diller Bridge near Cassoday, which is Butler’s longest single-span stone bridge. Also noteworthy is the series of repairs and restorations done to the National Register of Historic Places—listed Polecat Creek Bridge near Douglass following flood damage.
Walter Sharp on Butler’s Stone Bridges
Even in 1905 Walter Sharp had something to say about Butler County’s stone arch bridges. In an interview that was published in a Kansas City newspaper, Sharp said:
BUTLER COUNTY, KANSAS’S, FINE EXAMPLE
“The county commissioners of Butler county, Kansas, estimate that they save from $500 to $700 yearly on the stone bridges erected over the steel structures, in repairs alone, and this is a very considerable item. To show you how well the stone bridge is thought of in that county, no wooden culverts are now put in, even on the country roads. They are all built of stone and the township boards have built almost 300 of them. Butler county, Kansas, is in the lead in stone bridges and culverts and in years to come in this respect its fame will go abroad. The county will have nothing else.”
From an interview with Walter Sharp, “For Stone Bridges Now,” The Kansas City Star, October 4, 1905.
Butler’s Stone Bridges
We have compiled a map and a list of Butler’s stone bridges. For those who want to see what makes these bridges so unique, we provide this map as a free download. We are still on the lookout for more stone bridges and culverts in Butler that are as yet little known, and we update this map as we find them. Butler County is a great place to visit to see stone arch bridges. Follow the link below for our list and maps.
Stone Arch Bridges 