Tare Creek Covered Bridge

The Tare Creek Covered Bridge carries the Maple Highlands Rail Trail over Tare Creek in Geauga County, Ohio.

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The Tare Creek Covered Bridge carries the Maple Highlands Rail Trail over Tare Creek in Geauga County, Ohio. The trail occupies the former Lake Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, a line that once connected northeastern Ohio’s industrial centers with Lake Erie.

The railroad that later became the Lake Branch was organized in 1870 as the Painesville & Youngstown Railroad, extending between Farmington and Fairport Harbor. ³ By 1873, it was operating between Painesville and Chardon, and it soon expanded south to Niles and Youngstown, ultimately reaching 62 miles in length. ¹ After a series of reorganizations and a conversion from narrow gauge to standard gauge in 1886, the line came under the control of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1890 and was thereafter known as the Lake Branch.

For decades, the route served as an industrial corridor, moving coal north to Lake Erie ports and iron ore south to steel mills, while also supporting local passenger and freight service. With the decline of heavy industry in the region, traffic diminished significantly by the 1970s. Portions of the line were proposed for abandonment in 1974, ² and the Lake Branch was fully abandoned in 1982. ³

Following the abandonment of the Lake Branch, the Ohio Division of Parks expressed interest in acquiring the corridor for trail development. ² In 1986, the Geauga County Park District acquired the line within the county. ⁴

The conversion of the abandoned railroad corridor into a recreational trail proceeded in phases. In 2001, a 4.4-mile segment extending from Painesville south to the Geauga County line opened at a cost of $2.9 million as part of the Lake Metroparks Greenway Corridor. ^{4 5} The project was funded through a federal ISTEA highway grant administered by the Ohio Department of Transportation, with Lake Metroparks providing engineering and planning services. In 2002–2004, the trail was extended an additional 4.2 miles south to Chardon at a cost of $1.2 million, which opened as the Maple Highlands Trail. ⁵

As part of the trail’s development, a covered Howe through truss bridge was completed over Tare Creek in 2004. The structure was built by John Smolen, former Ashtabula County Engineer, whose work included several modern covered bridge projects in northeastern Ohio.

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Details

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Sources

1. Fleischer, Richard K. “Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Lake Branch and the Painesville & Youngstown Railway.” Trumbull County Historical Society, 2025.
2. Interstate Commerce Commission. Environmental Threshold Assessment Survey: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company Abandonment, Portion Lake Branch, North Warren to Chardon, in Trumbull and Geauga Counties, Ohio. 21 Apr. 1976.
3. “The Fairport Branch.” Abandoned Rails.
4. Downing, Bob. “Sweet excursions.” Akron Beacon Journal, 2 May 2010, pp. E6-E7.
5. Scott, Michael. “Soil under bike path being built in Lake County will be tested.” Plain Dealer, 8 Apr. 2001, p. 2B.