Bridge Hunting: Highway 13 Scotsguard

This post will explore one of Saskatchewan’s iconic “bowstring” concrete arch bridges. With their graceful lines, they’re a thing of beauty and are delightful subjects to photograph. They can be found all over the province and this example is located in the southwest quadrant. It’s close to ninety years old and once carried Highway 13 over a shallow valley (home to a creek and railway), but abandoned many decades ago.

Somewhere between eighty and ninety of this style bridge were constructed in the province during the 1920s and 1930s. Some remain. A few still carry traffic, others were converted to pedestrian use and some were abandoned in place. Much like this one. This sometimes happened during realignments and since they proved costly to demolish, many were simply left behind. That’s the case here.

This structure is located just west of the small village of Scotsguard and just off the current highway alignment. It dates from 1936 and during research a photo showing it under construction turned up. A good deal of wooden framework can be seen supporting the partly completed structure.

The old Highway 13 bridge near Scotsguard Saskatchewan.

This bridge uses a bowstring arch, aka tied arch, suspended arch, or rainbow arch for supporting elements. You may also hear it referred to as a concrete arch or reinforced concrete arch bridge (like it didn’t have enough names already) which works too since it is made from that material.

There is such a thing as a steel bowstring bridge, in case you were curious and no matter what they’re constructed of, the arches provide the main supports for the roadway.

This form is well suited for the low-height crossings common in flat Saskatchewan. There’s good clearance over the crossing (important when spanning railway lines for example) and that they were made from concrete meant they were low maintenance.

They could also tolerate soft or slightly unstable soil well and such conditions are quite prevalent in the province. Other types of bridges might be susceptible to shifting but this style would essentially float in place and not move. They are aesthetically pleasing too, but was likely no more than a passing consideration. They kept people employed and this was especially important during the 1930s depression period.

Since there were a lot of curves and complex elements in the design, the making of these bridges must have posed quite a challenge.

Most Saskatchewan bowstring bridges are pony style, meaning the arches are not interconnected above the roadway. At least one larger example, in the town of Borden, had horizontal elements tying the two together. The arches were tall enough that the cross struts could be high and out of the way of automobiles.

Most of the bridges in this style were either single or double arch. So shorter spans, typically over creeks and streams. Longer bridges, like this one, have multiple connected arches but they’re less common. The Highway 13 bridge has six and is one of the longest of this type.

Faint ghost lines from the old highway can be seen on Google Earth leading to and from the bridge. Those sections of the road are now plowed over and incorporated into cultivated fields, yet still somewhat visible from up high.

Highway 13 (the Red Coat Trail, or informally the Ghost Town Trail.) roughly follows the route used by the North-West Mounted Police in the 1870s as they travelled west. This force wore bright red uniforms and gave rise to this name – their successor the Royal Canadian Mounted Police still dons the colours.

The latter moniker is due to the high number of abandoned and forgotten places in the area. A ghost town does not mean a community devoid of people but one that has declined over the years. The next town just east of here, Scotsguard, has a population that could be counted on one hand. Those last residents have converted the village into a museum and are preserving its legacy.

The bridge spans a distance of almost 90 meters and at the highest point perhaps a couple dozen metres over the creek. Waterways in this part of the world are meandering in nature, and often with a barely perceivable flow. They’re more like long and skinny lakes.

Birds (Cliff Swallows) nest under the bridge and in wave after wave filled the sky, then were gone. They feed on the wing and dart about crazily, yet don’t seem to crash into each other. They eat whatever buzzing insects they can catch and make their homes of mud collected from the creek. In years past we found pair of owls had also made the bridge their home.

Dark orange lichens seem to thrive on the concrete surfaces here.

It’s not known exactly when the rerouting of Highway 13 happened and the bridge decommissioned. Research hints at some dates – sometimes in the 1970s – but this is as yet unconfirmed.

The highway jogged here before and the new route is straight so we expected this change might be obvious when comparing old maps. Nothing turned up in any we searched, however, but the scale on these might be too broad to display this. They did show the highway was gravel at least into the late 1950s and perhaps beyond.

Metal reinforcing bands were added to a few of the piers at some point and these help to stabilize the structure. The concrete is crumbling or separating in places and they tie things together. Other parts of the bridge are cracked, some metal reinforcing rods are exposed, and some chunks have fallen away. It’s doubtful that structurally it’s a big issue (yet, at least) and it appears to be one solid chunk of cement.

The bridge spans Notukeu Creek and the tracks of the Great Western Railway. The latter is a former Canadian Pacific Railway grain line built about a hundred and ten years ago.

By the late 1990s/early 2000s period, the then CPR wanted out of this business and put it (and other branch lines) up for sale. Hauling grain was not profitable enough for them, but it could be for a small efficient operator. Keeping rail service helped local farmers and municipalities too. Many of both in the area are part owners of the railway. The new operators took over in 2000 and they seem to be keeping busy enough.

Trains appear to run as needed, and in the week we roamed the area near the tracks, witnessed two separate freights using the line. There may have been more that we missed, but can’t say for sure.

This line, and a couple of affiliated railways, serves much of the southwest part of Saskatchewan. The line runs west from Assiniboia, where it connects with the Canadian Pacific Kansas City and two other lines which the Great Western operates as afffiliates. That’s the Fife Lake Railway and Redcoat Road & Rail respectively.

From Assiniboia, the track continues west and just before reaching Alberta, bends south where it doubles back to serve a few more communities down that way. The main commodity carried is grain and they also store surplus rail cars belonging to others. This is pretty common in the short-line business and helps the bottom line.

It dates from the 1930s and bypassed long ago.

There’s a railway bridge over Notukeu Creek, just a short distance away, and it’s a typical wood trestle. The present-day alignment of Highway 13 is visible from the concrete bridge and whereas it once crossed over the railway here, now there’s a grade crossing a bit to the west.

We’ve visited this structure a couple of times over the years and have included shots from those adventures in the photos presented.

Know more: (new tabs): Highway 13 Saskatchewan and Historic Bowstring Bridges Saskatchewan.

They’re saying…

“Chris and Connie have a unique way of documenting the places they visit, not copying the style or technique of others, but making it their own.” Alex Craig, Filmmaker.

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Backroads Saskatchewan.

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Date of adventure: June 2024, July 2017 and May 2014.
Location: Scotsguard, Saskatchewan.
Article references and thanks: Book – Admiral (the next two east) – Prairie to Wheatfields, Swift Current Museum, Saskatchewan Heritage Resources Branch and Rob Pohl.

It’s an iconic Saskatchewan Bowstring Bridge.

It crosses over the Great Western Railway & Notukeu Creek.

Shot late in the day.

The concrete is crumbling in places and exposing metalwork.

Lichen seems to thrive on the concrete.

It’s one of the longest of its type in Saskatchewan.

Here only the metal rods remain.

Scotsguard is just out of view in that direction but not far away.

Metals bands were added to help reinforce these piers.

They’d come out wave after wave and vanish back to their nests.

It’s one of 80 or 90 originally built in the province.

Once last look as the sun sets – now if only a train would show.

From 2017…

Visited during a rail-speeder trip.

From 2014…

Living under the bridge.

The Highway 13 Bridge hasn’t changed much since.