A bridge to the past

For several years, the Town of Hanna has worked to relocate an old foot bridge to the Hanna Basin Museum.

The bridge, which once crossed a ditch that connected the town, was removed to discourage people from crossing the railroad tracks. Since then, the footbridge has rested near the ditch it once crossed and is in remarkably good condition.

To understand why the footbridge is important to the town, it is essential to have an understanding of how Hanna evolved.

"In the early years, citizens from all parts of Hanna could walk wherever they wanted on either the north or south side of the railroad tracks with only the railroad tracks as an obstruction," Hanna historian Bob Leathers said. "One Town, Jap Town, Mule Barn, Mine Office, Baseball Fields, Town Park, Mine Superintendent's Home and Tipperary were all on the south side of the tracks. The Business District (Front Street) Two Town, Three Town and Elmo were on the north side of the tracks."

Leathers explained the area mainly on the south side of the tracks–One Town, Baseball Field and the No. 2 mine in particular–would flood badly each spring.

"To solve the flooding problems the Union Pacific Coal Company, in cooperation with the railroad, dug two ditches from west to east to divert the water and carry it out of town," Leathers said. "They were called the 'Big Ditch' or 'Stink Creek' and the 'Little Ditch'."

When the two bridges were built for automobiles to cross the ditches, two pedestrian bridges were built to allow pedestrians and railroad workers to get over 'Big Ditch'. The two pedestrian bridges were built across from the Coal Chutes, which would be the one near Tucker Box (a restaurant that served the town and railroad workers) and one across from the depot which seems to have disappeared."

Leathers said it was in the late 1930s and early 1940s–over multiple years–No. 1 town was moved to Butler's Addition because of flooding and the two ditches were dug to drain the water from the No. 1 Town, No. 2 mine and No. 4 mine.

"In the early 1930s, after the closing of the No. 3 mine, the houses at No. 3 town were moved to Butler's Addition as well. In fact, No. 3 was moved first then No. 1 town was moved all due to flooding." Leathers said. "The pedestrian bridges were built for workers to cross the Big Ditch. I lived on Tipperary until I left Hanna for college and had to cross the two auto bridges, for Big and Little Ditch, to go anywhere on the north side of the tracks including school. There was no other way to cross the ditches unless you wanted mud up to your knees. It was never dry."

Once the overpass that crossed the railroad tracks was built, the footbridge was no longer needed. The overpass has a pedestrian walkway and the Union Pacific Railroad company felt it would be safer to remove with the footbridge to discourage people from crossing the tracks.

It has been on the Hanna Basin Museum's agenda to get the footbridge resting on its grounds to preserve a bit of Hanna's history.

Past museum president Diana Springsguth started the conversation with Union Pacific when "Big Boy" stopped in Hanna in 2017. The No. 4014–re-acquired and restored to operational shape by Union Pacific–was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful operational steam locomotive in the world.

Springsguth got Union Pacific's interest but, due to personnel changes at the railroad company, the transfer of the footbridge stalled.

When Hanna mayor Lois Buchanan took office, moving the footbridge to the museum was a project she took on in conjunction with the Hanna Basin Museum board.

"I just did a follow up when I first took office, and then they switched directors who handled this sort of stuff, and it sort of went by the wayside," Buchanan remembered. "Then we reconnected with the new director, Nathan Anderson, who has been absolutely amazing."

Still, Anderson had to make sure everything was in order to transfer the footbridge. Buchanan waited to hear something but some time went by and there was nothing.

"The other day I just had the bug to contact him by email because we hadn't heard anything from in a while and the next day he sent me the contract where they had given it to the town," Buchanan said. "Public works will move it from its current location to the museum."

The current president of the Hanna Basin Museum Pam Paulson, remembers crossing the footbridge vaguely as a child to explore the stockyards and corrals that were in the area.

"I didn't really play a lot in that area, because I lived over in Old Town," Paulson said. "I roamed over more in the hills but of course I knew of its existence."

Paulson is excited to get the footbridge given how important it was to the day-to-day life of residents.

Paulson concluded, "It is always a victory when we are able to rescue an artifact from the past of our town's culture and present it to the future generations."