Edna Collings Bridge

Located just outside the tiny little town of Clinton Falls, Indiana is the curious covered bridge called the Edna Collings Bridge.

GPS Coordinates: 39.72750, -86.97633

We decided to make the hour and a half road trip up to see this bridge just before Halloween as my daughter was interested in the ghost story attached to it. According to legend, it is haunted by a mother and her young daughter. The story goes that a little girl named Edna Collings would play in the Little Walnut Creek that flowed under the bridge, swimming and having a good time. Frequently, her parents, James and Sarah Collings, would drop her off at the bridge while they went into town to take care of their errands (though one story says they had gotten a job at a nearby shoe factory in Greencastle which is about ten miles away) and when they returned they would honk three times and she would come up from the creek, climbing into the car for the return trip home. One day, however, Edna failed to return to the car. She was found drowned nearby, her dog barking on the creek bank.

Little Walnut Creek travels under the Edna Collings Bridge; (c) Amber Reyes

There are variations to the story concerning her death. I have found some tellings that say her body was never found and that she had vanished into nothingness leaving behind nothing but her hair ribbon, while others say that her father found her body laying on the edge of the creek. Either way, the circumstances of her death are unknown.

Indiana Historical Society; c1940s

The legend continues that the parents divorced after Sarah accused James of the death of the little girl. He lost his job and began to drink heavily and Sarah cried every night without fail. She became so distraught over the death of her daughter, that she hanged herself, though this also has variations. One tale says that the mother hanged herself from the bridge and another at the nearby churchyard. The story also states that the father built the bridge in honor of his deceased daughter (this also has variations since in one story the bridge was built by James Collings in honor of the birth of his fourth daughter).

Interior of Edna Collings Bridge, (C) Amber Reyes

Many people travel to this bridge to encounter the ghosts of Edna and her mother. Supposedly, to see the spirit of Edna, one must drive onto the bridge, turn off the vehicle and honk three times. This is her signal to appear and she is said to attempt to get into the back of the car. Some have reported seeing handprints on the bumpers and doors of their cars. The mother, however, requires a little more of a hunt. One is supposed to take a piece of rope from the sign of a nearby church and return to the bridge. Once there, the shadowy figure of a woman is supposed to appear.

Elkhart Public Library; c1952

I do love ghost stories, especially ones that are attached to places I can drive to locally. And as I did research on this story, not really to debunk it, but to find out more about it, I did come across some interesting information which actually does kind of debunk the story. First and foremost, the bridge was not built by James Collings (or Collins) in 1922 in the memory of his daughter Edna. It was, in fact, built by Charles Hendrix (or Hendricks). The design is called a Burr arch-truss bridge and it spans 80 feet across the creek, 84 including the ramps up and down on either side. It is 14 feet wide and 13 feet high. An inspection in 2011 listed it as being in poor condition and in need of restoration. It is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, though it doesn't look like anyone has put in a formal application. Another story claims that it was built by a man named George Collins/Collings, but this isn't repeated anywhere else other than one story, so I don't give it much credit.

The bridge was built to replace a previous concrete bridge that was washed away during high water. When looking at the tiny little creek that runs underneath the bridge, it's hard to imagine that the water could have ever been high enough to wash out a bridge.

The bridge itself is in abysmal condition and I didn't dare drive across it. The road ramps up sharply on both entrances of the bridge and gouges have been dug into the asphalt from various vehicles. I know that this bridge gets regular use, but it creaked and groaned as we walked across it, so I wasn't taking any chances.

There is some confusion as to the families last name. I am not really sure where the confusion comes from, other than a misspelling somewhere along the way. The bridge reflects this misspelling, in fact. The side of the bridge that we approached from had a green sign noting that it was the Collins Bridge 1922 with the name Edna added on later.

The other side of the bridge shows a newer sign calling it the Edna Collings bridge with the same date of 1922.

There was, at one time in the recent past, a small brown sign attached to the inside of the structure that talked about the history of the bridge and the story of Edna. I didn't see it when we were there. I don't know when or why it was removed.

Another story I have found attached to this bridge is one that is much more controversial. In the mid 1800s, in the tiny town of Portland Falls, there lived a young doctor and his lover, who was younger than him. The girl eventually got pregnant and in a panic the doctor attempted an abortion that led to her death. In an attempt to hide the young woman's death, he tossed her body from the bridge into the creek. This story, of course, would have been from when the previous bridge was here, though it would have to have been before the concrete bridge as well, so maybe a wooden structure of some sort. It is said that the spirit is actually the young woman in this story.

But, there is a truth the story. And it doesn't involve the death of a young girl named Edna Collins. There was a woman named Edna Collings and she was born on August 30, 1851. At the time that the story takes place, Edna would have been 71 years old and could not have drown in the creek as a child. She is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery near Hollandsburg, Indiana with her older brother. The bridge was indeed named after her, but there is a very good explanation as to why. The Collins family owned the farm southwest of the bridge and the county commissioner's appeared to have taken the name of the closest family for the bridge. The name, however, is spelled both Collins and Collings due to a misspelling somewhere in various documents. It is likely that their last name was actually Collings since that it on both the headstone of Edna and her brother, as well as her parents John and Sarah (note, his name is John, not James, though James and John have been used interchangeably throughout time).

Wayne M. Weber Collection, c. 1950-70s

Even though Edna Collins didn't perish under this bridge, there is another story that seems to have a little more bearing on the tales. In 1911, a young boy named Cecil Slavens, son of Charles and Sarah Slavens, wandered away from the farm where they lived, his dog in tow. When the family couldn't locate the boy, two and a half years old at the time, they went searching for him. Alerted by the dog, they found him face down in the water of a tributary of the Little Walnut Creek, cold with death. A local doctor was summoned, who determined that the child must have drowned in the creek and he was laid to rest in the Long Branch Cemetery in Madison Township.

Where is the link with Edna, you ask? Young Cecil had an older sister. Her name? Edna Ruth Slavens. Age? 8 years old. It is likely then that the stories have been conflated over the years and poor Edna Collins has been turned into a small child who suffered a tragic fate while the real story of a child drowning nearby was almost lost.

If you do decide to travel to this bridge, be respectful of the structure and the neighbors. Oh and do look for Edna. Her name is bound to be somewhere.