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Jerry Rust deserves much of the credit for Lane County still possessing 20 covered bridges.

In fact, Lane has the most covered bridges (all built between the 1920s and 1980s) of any county west of the Mississippi River. The main reason so many were built in the county, according to Rust, a former Lane County commissioner, is geography. The county has several headwaters that converge into the Willamette River, and these smaller rivers are ideal for covered bridges.

Rust is fond of these bridges. He compares them to the temples of ancient India, a country he visited with the Peace Corps.

鈥淚n India, there’s a lake that has a temple with arches,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t spans across, and that temple looks like it’s floating on the water. I came home and I was struck by how that Lowell Covered Bridge out there on Dexter looked so special.鈥�

In retirement Rust wrote a novel about the bridges. 鈥淭he Covered Bridge Murders鈥� is a historical fiction mystery where the modern-day protagonists solve a pioneer-era murder connected to a covered bridge. Early in the book, there’s a passage where a character explains his fascination with covered bridges; it mirrors Rust’s.

鈥淧eople who live in a plastic, steel, concrete, and electronics world, trapped in traffic jams and pollution, are looking for fresh air and authenticity,鈥� the character said. 鈥淭hat’s what covered bridges are, authentic. Every beam, every board, every plank, and every truss.鈥�

Today, Lane County’s covered bridges are recognized as tourist attractions. But when Rust joined the Lane County Board of Commissioners in 1977, not everyone shared his enthusiasm for the bridges. He often butted heads with county road staff who preferred the comparatively low maintenance of more typical cement and steel bridges and wanted to replace them.

Both today and back then, Lane County maintained most of the covered bridges with gas-tax funds. But if a bridge is 鈥渙ff-system,鈥� it’s not eligible for those dollars. This is somewhat of a catch-22, because the county will take a bridge off-system because it’s in poor condition.

Rust shared several anecdotes for how he circumvented that challenge to save most of Lane County’s covered bridges.

One example was the Dorena Covered Bridge, approximately 12 miles east of Cottage Grove. Rust said he was visiting the bridge when a group of seniors approached him looking for a public bathroom, and there was none nearby. After that encounter, Rust got the county to add a restroom at Dorena, making it a rest stop eligible to receive road funds.

Another example was the Goodpasture Bridge 25 miles east of Springfield. According to Rust, staff told the commissioners the bridge was in danger, but he didn’t believe them.

鈥淚 went up there and went underneath the bridge and looked (as a) log truck (passed),鈥� Rust said. 鈥淭hat bridge didn’t twitch, didn’t move an inch.鈥�

Rust drove another county commissioner up to the bridge and showed him the same thing. He was ultimately able to convince the rest of the board to preserve the covered bridge rather than replace it.

Rust successfully convinced the state legislature to set aside a share of lottery funds for covered bridge preservation. That bill also established the Oregon State Covered Bridge Committee, which Rust was the first chair of for 鈥渁bout 15 minutes鈥� before stepping aside for famous former state Sen. Mae Yih, who was late to the meeting.

Today, Rust continues to serve as a covered bridge expert. He’s visited Qingyuan Covered Bridge Museum in China, and spoken in Indiana at the annual National Conference on Covered Bridges, which typically draws around 300,000 attendees.

In February, Lane County commissioners voted 3-2 to spend $500,000 in tourism funds to stabilize two off-system covered bridges. Rust actually disagreed with the decision. He said the county should convert the bridges into rest stops, like it did with Dorena in the past, and then spend road funds to restore the bridges and save tourism dollars to market the bridges.

However, according to Lane County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge, for the county to establish a rest stop, formally called a wayside, it must be 鈥渙n a road with a lot of through traffic,鈥� and the rural roads adjacent to the two bridges don’t meet that threshold.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Register-Guard and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.