The 1917 McKee Bridge is a covered bridge located in Jackson County, Oregon. Built on land donated by Adelbert (Deb) McKee, a stage station operator, the bridge originally carried a road over the Applegate River that linked the Blue Ledge Copper Mine to Jacksonville. The site originally included an ore-hauler rest stop, about halfway between the mine and the city, where relief horses were stationed. The bridge, about 8.3 miles (13.4 km) north of the California border, carried mining and logging traffic from the year of its construction through 1956.

McKee Bridge is tied as the oldest surviving covered bridge in Oregon. It is also distinguished as the longest covered bridge in Jackson County, spanning 122 feet, as well as the highest, rising 45 feet above the Applegate River. Its features include a Howe truss design, flying buttresses, open daylighting windows at the roofline, and a shingle roof. The McKee Picnic Ground, and a Rogue National Forest facility, are at the west end of the bridge along the Applegate River. McKee Covered Bridge marks the gateway to Applegate Lake and the Red Butte Wilderness.

Wooden covered bridges require frequent inspections and maintenance. Jackson County closed McKee Bridge to vehicles in 1956, declaring it unsafe for vehicular traffic. During the summer of 1985, more than $40,000 in labor and materials were dedicated to repairing the bridge and keeping it open for pedestrians. Jackson County officials then announced that future County investment in the bridge would be terminated, requiring private efforts for ongoing preservation of the McKee span.

The community organized to keep the bridge open to pedestrians, and in 1999, the McKee Bridge Historical Society was incorporated as an all-volunteer, non-profit organization. Area residents, assisted at times by government funding, had maintained the bridge since 1956, used by pedestrians but not by motor vehicles.

Closed completely for three years because of rot in structural components as well as damage to the roof, the bridge reopened in June of 2015 after major renovations. Grants totaling about $600,000 from the Federal Highway Administration, supplemented by matching funds of about $60,000 raised by the McKee Bridge Historical Society, paid for the project. Mowat Construction Company of Woodinville, Washington, carried out the rehabilitation.

McKee Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Located at:  N42 07.550   W123 04.361       -       WGCB #37-15-06

Photographed in May of 2025

Photos by Millard Farmer