570 - Stephens' Bridge

About Its Namesake

The Stephens’ Bridge namesake originated from its proximity to the historic Roy Stephens’ farm. It is also known as the Knife River Bridge. Since completion in 1898, the bridge remains a local crossing and landscape memorial to the Stephens’ family, some of the earliest pioneer settlers in Mercer County. Joseph Stephens, Roy Stephens’ father, left southern Illinois in 1883 and came to North Dakota to settle in the Knife River Valley. Once in Mercer County, Joseph Stephens ranched sheep. An oral history with descendants Emery and Victor Stephens revealed also that Joseph and his brother C. W. helped build the Stephens’ Bridge before you today.



Crossing the Knife
The Stephens’ Bridge reflects a larger theme of the United States modernizing transportation routes within recently homesteaded areas. Organized in 1888, within a decade, Mercer County’s population reached nearly 1,800 pioneer settlers who concentrated in the fertile Knife River Valley. By 1898, the Mercer County Commission recognized a need to secure a reliable way across the Knife River. Mercer County contracted with Dibley and Robinson to build the bridge for an 1898 cost of $2,996.00. Once completed, farmers transported grain and farm-raised goods one way and another across this bridge. In 1914, twenty-six years after Mercer County organized itself, the Northern Pacific Railroad completed a branch line to Stanton.


Engineering and Design
This bridge provided Mercer County with its very first industrial vehicle crossing. The pin-connected Pratt through-truss design allowed for the bridge components to be manufactured in industrial metropoles, and the parts shipped to the build sites in rural locations. The Pratt was originally patented in 1844, designed by Boston architect Caleb Pratt and his son Thomas Pratt, an engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. The simplicity of the Pratt through-truss design also allowed for a greater ease of assembly. There was no need for bolts and rivets, which would add layers of assembly complexity. Rivets required an intense on-site heat source in which to heat the rivets so they could be forged into place, either manually by hammer or with air-compressor hammers. Pin-connections did not require this.


Knife River Valley
The Hidatsa (Hiráaca) and Mandan (Nuu’etaa) peoples have called the Knife River Valley home for over five centuries. The fertile bottomlands provided rich soil for heirloom corn, beans, squash and sunflowers. These seeds were grown from one generation to the next. Protein sources included elk, bison and deer, and fish from the river. Ancestral Hidatsa and Mandan villages are located along the Missouri River in central North Dakota. More about this enduring cultural legacy can be learned at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site in Stanton, the MHA Interpretive Center in New Town, and the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck.