Conkeytown Bridge, 1954

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Conkeytown Bridge

After the Turner’s selected the Silver Creek Bridge in 1951, they ventured to different sites in southern Illinois for their next two cards with the Dockers Riverside Hotel in Shawneetown (1952) and the Piasa Bird (1953), which is perhaps best known for being emblazoned on Piasa Rock in Alton.  In 1954, Fred and Betty decided to bring things a little closer to home again with their selection of the Conkey Town (or Conkeytown) bridge in neighboring Vermilion County.  The bridge was just around thirty minutes away from Urbana and was likely a familiar location to the Turners. 

“It spans the Salt Fork Creek at a point about two miles south of Muncie, a village on the Peoria and Eastern Railroad about half way between Urbana and Danville.  You leave the highway at Muncie, turn south on a crushed rock road through the corn and soybean fields for a couple of miles, then it comes to an abrupt end where you must turn.  If you turn right, you’ll find more corn fields and flat land.  If you turn left, you’ll discover that you must turn right again at once, and before you will be a rather steep downgrade.  You can look out over the trees and a little valley, and at the bottom of the grade and after another abrupt turn, there is the Conkey Town Bridge, as pretty an example of the old covered bridge as you’ll find anywhere.” 

Fred and Betty Turner

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Conkey Town Bridge Wood Block Print

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Inside of Conkey Town Bridge Wood Block Print Card

According to the Turners, this was the first card where the picture print was done from a single block (although this cannot be completely accurate unless they carved the print for the interior of the card on the back of the same block).   Every previous card used 2-4 blocks for the frontpage print.   Typically, a different block is carved for each color and shaded area(s) used in a print.  

The print of the Conkey Town Bridge is done in a deep red color and despite the use of a single block no detail is lost in its execution.  The portion of the print that shows the tunnel of the bridge is almost entirely covered in red ink.  It is just a series of small dots of missing paint along the top right portion that offers viewers a perspective of the depth and length of the bridge.  The small picket fence on the left side of the entrance was a feature added by the Turners not present at the bridge itself in 1954.  There was a small section of fence on the road leading up to the bridge, but it stopped short of the entry by a considerable length. 

The historical insert included with this card was the most thorough yet in terms of historical content and citations.  Beginning in 1952, the Turner’s included some citations of where they found the information regarding their selection.  The insert for this card is almost centered around the source material itself rather than being a narrative history.  Because of how little was known about the former village of Conkey Town, the Turners took it upon themselves to gather all the available resources they could find and dedicate each paragraph to a source and its mentions of Conkey Town.  Like the insert for the Silver Creek Bridge card of 51’ (and because the bridge was gone almost a year after this print), this card again offers contemporary viewers a work of art, piece of local history, reflection of the past, and valuable research source.