Sugar Creek (Sangamon River tributary)

Infobox nrhp
name = Sugar Creek Covered Bridge
iucn_category = (US National Register of Historic Places)


caption =
locator_x =
locator_y =
location =
nearest_city = Chatham, Illinois, USA
lat_degrees = 39
lat_minutes = 38
lat_seconds = 24
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 89
long_minutes = 39
long_seconds = 44
long_direction = W
area =
locmapin=Illinois
built = 1880
architect =
architecture =
established = 1978
refnum = #78001185
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
governing_body = Illinois Department of Transportation

Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River, is a large creek in central Illinois. It rises in Talkington Township in southwestern Sangamon County, flows briefly through northeastern Macoupin County, and then runs northeastward through south-central Sangamon County before discharging into Lake Springfield. The creek drains Auburn, Illinois and Virden, Illinois.

Historic interest

Sugar Creek, during early historic times, offered a habitat for one of the southernmost groves of sugar maples in Illinois Territory. This fact, and the fertility of the surrounding prairie land, made the Sugar Creek drainage a focus of interest for early American pioneers immediately after the end of the War of 1812. A six-member kinship group led by Robert Pulliam built homestead cabins on the creek in 1817 near what is now the unincorporated suburban village of Glenarm. Many pioneers followed Pulliam's group to Sugar Creek in the 1820s and following years, helping to settle central Illinois and building a community of primarily southern heritage.cite book
last = Faragher
first = John Mack
year = 1988
title = Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie
publisher = Yale University Press
location = New Haven, Connecticut
id = ISBN 978-0300042634 ]

In 1880, township authorities built a Burr arch covered bridge going east-west over Sugar Creek near the site of the original sugar maple grove and Robert Pulliam's cabin (which has disappeared). The bridge has a span of 60 feet (18 m). As of 2008, the covered bridge is one of only four original covered bridges remaining in Illinois, although it has been rebuilt several times.

The Sugar Creek Covered Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [ [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/IL/Sangamon/state.html National Register of Historic Places: Illinois - Sangamon County] (accessed September 22, 2007)]

ee also

* List of Registered Historic Places in Illinois

References