Below is a speech made at the Replica Covered Bridge Dedication Services on July 4, 2004.

Revered Bridge …(Go To Dedication Pictures )

We have come here today to dedicate this bridge to the City and Citizens of Sedalia and citizens of our surrounding communities.

While this bridge appears to be made of heavy wooden beams, steel rods and wooden pegs, in reality, it is constructed of warm recollected memories of those persons who trod across, and bathed in the shadow of, the original bridge. Those persons’ lives, and memories of them, are as much a part of this bridge as are the timbers that hold it together … because this bridge is built of their memory. This bridge is a symbol of a happier time – a memory filled with warm summer days, cool water and picnics with family members.

It is our bridge – yours, mine … and all who will follow.

While in a physical sense, the bridge is constructed of timber and steel, here, today, it is a place of nostalgic recollections and a reflection of a bygone era.

In ensuing years we will visit here many times – as individuals and in small groups. It is then, in our own private solitude, we will remember those moments of long ago, and vivid reminiscences will come alive, here, in the shadow of THIS bridge.

Today, when you walk across this bridge – it is likely the fog of years will begin to lift away with each step as you progress to the far end. Greeting you as you step off the bridge will be the “Walkway of Memories” … where many of you have elected to place, in name-etched brick, the revered names of individuals involved and intertwined in your lives. As you stand there in a field of red brick, their names will stare up at you, and their memories will once again fill your thoughts. And those memories are why we built this bridge so that this replica Covered Bridge – and the “Walkway of Memories” - can become your own personal, private place of meditation.

Here then, ladies and gentlemen, is your Covered Bridge and Walkway of Memories, filled with the nostalgia of many years, and the promise of memories yet to be made. We hope you enjoy them.

Jack Clark – July 4, 2004                                 Go To Dedication Pictures