PRESCOTT — Noah Collins of Prescott completed his project to become an Eagle Scout, working hard to restore the historic gear house at Mercord Mill Park.

Collins was taking a walk around Prescott in search of inspiration for his project when he found exactly that, a building with a lot of history that was in need of a makeover.

“I noticed a lot of the boards on this historical building were starting to fall apart and degrade. There were cracks, the paint was falling off,” Collins said. “Just noticed it during the right time I guess.”

Collins got some help to repair a crumbling roof, replaced some boards that needed to be custom made at the high school because of the special board type, used binding primer on the building and touched up the stairs.

“It looks really nice when you drive by it and I feel really proud of it,” Collins said. “Hopefully this will be good for the town. We just had our Prescott DAZE, so lots of people saw it.”

Collins is now an Eagle Scout, a rank that means a lot to him.
“I put in lots of hard work, so I’m pretty proud of that,” Collins said. “It’s a lot of work and dedication, but it’s all in the Scout Oath and Law. Really just doing your good term daily.”

Dallas Eggers, a representative of the Prescott Area Historical Society with a century of knowledge of the bridge, said the gear house has always meant a lot to the people of Prescott.

Hearing that makes Collins all the more proud.

“Pretty happy. That makes me know that a lot of people were at least focused or interested in the project,” Collins said. “Glad to kind of bring awareness to that building.”

The bridge opened back in 1923, with a significantly different look than the current bridge. It was narrow and there was not a walkway. Eggers said it looked like ‘Star Wars’ at night because semis would lose mirrors frequently on the bridge because of how narrow it was. Additionally, a semi was once stuck under the clearance, requiring a lot of hands to help clear the way.

In the summer of 1993, the gear house was removed. Eggers credited iron workers Bill and Patricia House for the gear house remaining in Prescott as they asked the company to cut the gear house loose.

“If they hadn’t advocated for it, I don’t know if we would have it,” Eggers said.

Eggers said the gear house operators knew all the kids in town because they used to head to the bridge when it was about to move to ride on it from below.

“The bridge was also important to the Driver’s Ed class in Prescott,” Eggers said. “That was one of the rites of passage when you could take Mr. Hoffman across that bridge in the Driver’s Ed car without fainting in terror.”

People did not always drive the bridge, as they could stop leading up to it and allow the police to take their vehicle across the bridge.

Mary Beeler’s wall features stock No. 1 from the bridge, which was passed down from family. Eggers said stockholders saw a share increase of 4-800% back in the day. In 1946, ownership of the bridge transferred from the private company, putting an end to tolls and causing celebration throughout Prescott.