ASHTABULA - Wooded, hilly terrain meant a lot of ravines to span and lots of timber, helping Ashtabula County rank first in Ohio and fifth in the nation in the number of covered bridges.

The county, located at the northeast tip of Ohio between Cleveland and Erie, Pa., has 16 covered bridges and will celebrate that heritage with its annual festival Saturday and Sunday.

"If we don't preserve things like covered bridges and old buildings, they are going to be gone forever,'' Betty Morrison, organizer of the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival, said yesterday.

Ashtabula County has had 62 covered bridges. The others were lost to flooding, vandalism, fires and deterioration.

Terrain helped shape the bridge heritage, Morrison said. "It was a very hilly and heavily wooded area,'' she said.

That, plus lots of trees, said Ashtabula County Engineer John Smolen, who has jurisdiction over the covered bridges.

"If you go back to pioneer times, our area was all wooded. The forest needed to be cleared to make room for farming and homes. Timber was in excess and they used it for everything - homes, stores, fences, even their bridges,'' he told The News-Herald of Willoughby.

The county has built four covered bridges in the past 16 years and has a goal of refurbishing or building one each year, Smolen said.

The newest was dedicated Aug. 29 and has a new twist: it's painted red, making it stand out among 15 others that are weathered wood, stained or painted white.