Off the beaten path in the Hill Country of Texas — and almost a mile down a dirt road coming off Farm-to-Market Road 500 — there is a famous suspension bridge in the middle of nowhere.
Travelling down San Saba’s County Road 137 to the river you will come to the Regency Bridge crossing on the Colorado River, and if you keep going, you end up on Mills County Road 433.
This one-lane bridge was an important early link between San Saba and Mills counties, and it tells a very interesting little Texas story of its own.
Bridging The Colorado
The Colorado River is the 11th-longest river in the United States. It stretches 862-miles from it’s source in Dawson County, to the Gulf of Mexico.
Like many of our rivers, it tends to take a meandering approach to the gulf.
At this time of year — desperately awaiting the wet season — Mills County’s bank on the north runs steeply to the water, while the cliffs of San Saba County tower over the south side.
Turtles sunbathe where layers of rocks have been carefully driven back by a few-million years of erosion.
The Mills County side is a much more gradual soil slope. It backs up several hundred feet into the surrounding fields during floods.
Armadillos and rabbits scurry along, and as night falls, the small canyon fills up with the howls of coyotes –especially on the night we camped out — below a full moon.
The surrounding fields, now choked with mesquites in areas, we’re once outstanding grazing country, with thousands of years of flooding providing the soil with nutrient rich silt.
Settlement of Hanna Valley
It’s no wonder that a settlement was raised in this valley by the Hanna Family and their slaves in 1854. In those early days is was referred to as Hanna Valley and Hannaville.
The first store was established here in 1871. Postal service was established in 1876. The town was formally organized in 1884 under a new name, Regency. It reached its population peak of 200 in 1895.
It was a fully-fledged community with saw and flour mills, a physician, and a constable.
First Bridge Constructed 1903
The first bridge here was built in 1903, completed in May of that year.
The Lampasas Leader newspaper reported on May 22nd that the bridge, under supervision of the Midland Bridge Company, will be completed and inspected by the County Commissioners Court.
It took some time to finish the project. Earthworks were still needed to fill in the approaches (Goldthwaite Eagle, May 23, 1903).
A large section on the San Saba side collapsed on May 9, 1924, killing a young boy named Raymond Jernigan, 11, along with his horse, and several cattle.
More than 99-head were being led from a nearby operation across the bridge in small groups. Raymond’s father was with him at the time, and was pinned under rubble for several hours, but survived. (The Llano News, May 15, 1924)
Washed Out and Rebuilt
The floods of 1936, known well by San Angelo historians, washed the bridge out, and carried away several homes in the area without loss of life; even flooding several homes built on higher ground. (Denton Record-Chronicle, Sept. 22, 1936)
Almost three years later, plans were drawn up to rebuild the bridge with the Austin Bridge Company in charge of the project. (Goldthwaite Eagle, April 28, 1939)
The 1939 bridge still stands today with several structural repairs made by TXDOT.
Suspended by 475 strands of galvanized wire hangs a gapped roadway of wooden planks, and concrete pillars pockmarked by the wooden forms built by hand decades earlier.
Regency Bridge Restored
In 1999, a major restoration was finished, with a ceremony attended by then Governor Bush, and hundreds of spectators.
The historic marker proclaims it as “the pride of the area, [where] youths gathered there to picnic, dance, and sing.”
Time and the rest of Texas seemed to move on without Regency. Its population slowly dwindling to only 40 residents between 1920 and 1940.
Eighty years after settlement, it remained as a simple crossroads, with its final store closing in 1971. This was 117 years after Mills County lore states the women of the Hanna family requested their party stop in this spot because of the songbirds.
The study of the rivers of Texas, and of the world, reveal to us histories slipping away. Stories that over centuries built up along the banks are swept away by the awesome forces of time and nature.
Every crossing tells its own tale.
Reporter’s Notes
Although this reporter was not able to nail down whether the Mills County commissioner involved in the 1999 restoration was related to the Jernigan family involved in the 1924 tragedy, but it seems very likely that they could be related, as several families have lived in the area for a century or more.
