The Colrain Historical Commission has installed an informational sign at the eastern end of the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge. The restored covered bridge over the North River was opened to vehicular traffic in 2020 after being placed back on its abutments in 2007.
The Colrain Historical Commission has installed an informational sign at the eastern end of the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge. The restored covered bridge over the North River was opened to vehicular traffic in 2020 after being placed back on its abutments in 2007. Credit: Staff Photo/Paul Franz

COLRAIN — A poem written by Colrain’s “unofficial poet laureate” and an informational sign with historical details have been installed at the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge to emphasize the structure’s importance to the town.

“This is sort of the final word on the Arthur Smith Bridge,” said Belden Merims, a member of the Colrain Historical Commission, which led the effort to install the poem and sign.

The western entrance of the bridge on Lyonsville Road features a poem written by Carol Purington, a longtime Colrain resident and poet who died Dec. 8, 2020, and a complementary drawing created by Heath artist Fred Burrington. The eastern entrance of the bridge features an informational sign that describes the history of the Arhtur A. Smith Bridge.

“We want to focus on the bridge,” Merims said. “Not everyone knows the history of the bridge and the poem simply celebrates the bridge.”

Merims said the poem serves a “double purpose” because the Historical Commission was already planning on installing the poem before Purington died. She shared a story that Purington supposedly requested Colrain Ambulance drivers take her through the bridge one last time when she was coming home from the hospital, a request that the drivers happily granted.

“We planned this before she died because she wrote this poem about the bridge, which she really loved,” Merims said. “After she died, there was all the more reason to put it there. … It’s very special having that poem up there.”

The installation of the poem, drawing and informational sign was funded using leftover money from the bridge renovation project in 2007, which was raised by the Historical Commission.

Merims said this is a project the Historical Commission should have tackled a long time ago and the process still took some time once members finally got it rolling.

“Both of these, especially the information sign, are way overdue. We should have done it years ago,” Merims said. “(The process) took over a year and I’m just thrilled.”

The Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge had been closed to vehicular traffic from the early 1980s until 2020, when the Selectboard approved a reopening policy for two-way motor vehicle traffic.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.