Joseph Sherar

American bridge and hotel owner

Joseph Sherar (November 16, 1833 – February 11, 1908) was a 19th-century wagon road builder who, with his wife, Jane, owned and operated a Deschutes River toll bridge and a nearby stagecoach station and hotel in Wasco County in the U.S. state of Oregon.

The bridge and buildings were slightly downstream of Sherars Falls, the river's lowermost waterfall, and a traditional fishing spot for the native inhabitants of the region.

Sherar improved the bridge and about 60 miles (97 km) of the existing wagon road that crossed it.He and his wife, Jane, operated the Sherar Bridge Hotel from 1871 until their deaths in 1907–08.

A concrete bridge has since replaced Sherar's wooden bridge and carries Oregon Route 216 over the river near the waterfall.