PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

"Shall We Go This Way, or That Way?" - Officials Decide Best Route for Tourists

26. Church President Heber J. Grant at Angel's Landing, Zion National Park, undated (Courtesy Union Pacific Museum, image 557).

By 1923 primitive but passable auto roads reached Zion National Park, Kaibab National Forest, the Grand Canyon's North Rim, Bryce Canyon National Monument, and Cedar Breaks. Some routes, however, were either circuitous or had to be retraced in order to go from one park to another. Popular demand grew for improved roads, as well as for shorter, more direct routes. In 1923 both the Federal Bureau of Public Roads and the Utah State Road Commission intensified their study of the problem of linking southern Utah's scenic wonders with those of northern Arizona. In June 1923 Bureau of Public Roads District Engineer B. J. Finch and Utah State Road Engineer Howard C. Means met in southern Utah to conduct a five-day investigation of available routes in the region. The men's objective was to determine a way to link Kanab (the Kane County seat) with the business centers of south-central Utah, the railroad at Cedar City or Marysvale, and the Federal Highway System. There were three aspects to the problem, Finch wrote in his later report: 1) economic considerations, which had to do with the difficulty of providing a road to and from Kanab that could be traveled year round and its consequent effects on development of all of south-central Utah; 2) social considerations, which had to do with the possibility of improving life in the isolated communities east of Zion Park and south of Panguitch; and 3) scenic considerations, in that any improvement of the transportation conditions would make more accessible the points of interest in southern Utah and increase the number of people who would see its scenic wonders.

In June 1923 Kanab could be reached only by two routes, one from Marysvale via Panguitch, and the other from Cedar City via Andersons Ranch, Toquerville, Hurricane, and Fredonia. The first route involved crossing a summit (7,150-foot elevation) south of Panguitch, a route blocked by snow at least four months of the year and often impassable for another two months due to melting snow, muddy road conditions, or inadequate maintenance. If one got beyond this point, the Mt. Carmel-Kanab portion of the road crossed what was then known all over Utah as "the Sands of the Desert." Recent county road improvements had made this 17-mile stretch passable for automobiles within the previous two years. [441] The second route to Kanab from Cedar City posed its own set of problems, although it started out well enough. The portion from Cedar City to Andersons Ranch, known as the Arrowhead Trail, lay on the approved Federal Highway System. The section from Andersons Ranch to Toquerville was the route taken by travelers to Zion National Park. The Toquerville-Hurricane portion passed through irrigated farmland, then ascended 1,500 feet up the Hurricane Cliffs before running southeast toward Short Creek. From the Arizona state line, Coconino County had rebuilt the road to Utah's border for a distance of 15-20 miles. Finch commented that the new Arizona road was poorly located ("The previous location of the road in Arizona was much better..."), climbing a long, narrow dugway to the top of Cedar Ridge then "twisting and turning in all directions over rocks and ridges until it joins the former road." Neither this new route nor the original one "has been anything more than passable," Finch reported. [442] In fact, the Cedar City-Kanab road was so fraught with problems that Kane County had recently expended $40,000 to improve the alternate Marysvale-Kanab route. [443]

Economics aside, Finch remarked,

From the social standpoint the isolation of these Kane County communities is most pronounced. We found that a large percentage of the population had not been beyond the County line in years. Many of the younger generation have never seen a railroad.... An all the year round road to the railroad would bring new blood into these communities and stimulate those already there to a greater activity. [444]

From the standpoint of scenery and tourism he added,

In no other State is there to be found in so small a space three such scenic attractions as Cedar Breaks, Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon. Add to these the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the combination becomes greater in attraction to sightseers than any other part of the United States within a similar area. But the means of reaching these points of interest is over the two routes [just] described.... The round trip from one to the other cannot be made without more hardship than the average tourist will endure. [445]

27. Utah Parks Company map of southern Utah and northern Arizona, ca. 1923
(Courtesy Union Pacific Museum).
(click on image for an enlargement in a new window - ~88K)

For the purpose of finding an all-Utah, year-round route, engineers Means and Finch spent June 19 and June 20, 1923, in Orderville and Mt. Carmel interviewing Kane County commissioners and others familiar with the outlying territory. They were convinced by these informants (and by their own later observations) that the Cedar City-Kanab route south of the Virgin River (the one Mather had counted on to get tourists to the Grand Canyon via Pipe Spring) was impracticable. "This territory is so broken and faulted that any further investigation on that side was given up," Finch reported. [446] They explored the region west of Mt. Carmel by horseback, accompanied by county commissioners. The men then drove an auto from Kanab to Hurricane by way of Fredonia, observing the dismal road conditions described earlier.

On the morning of June 20, Means and Finch drove from Hurricane to Zion National Park where they spent the day riding horseback, exploring Pine Creek Canyon with John Winder of Springdale. They also walked portions of the route, at one point accompanied by Superintendent Walter Ruesch. "This is the only side canyon emptying into the Little Virgin of sufficient length to give promise of possibility of the necessary grade development," Finch observed. The men continued their investigations on June 22, concluding that there was indeed a feasible route from Zion to Mt. Carmel, one that would be no more than 25 miles long. Only six miles would entail heavy expense, Finch estimated, a section in which tunnels would be required to pierce the wall at the upper end of Pine Creek Canyon. The new road would shorten the distance from Cedar City to Kanab by 12 miles. An impressive 93 miles would be saved in traveling from Cedar City via Zion to Bryce Canyon. The driving distance from Cedar City to the North Rim was about the same, 186 versus 187 miles.

On June 25, 1923, Means and Finch presented their study findings and recommendations to Utah's State Road Commission Chairman Preston G. Peterson and State Road Commissioner Henry H. Blood. The two state officials viewed the Zion-Mt. Carmel road as a "very promising proposal," the newspapers reported the following day. [447] From this preliminary survey by Means and Finch evolved the route that later became the famous Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway.

While one source stated there was a great deal of skepticism by private citizens and public officials about the proposed Pine Creek Canyon route, there were a number of factors in its favor. [448] First (and perhaps most influential), being within park boundaries its construction would be completely federally funded. Second, this route had been promoted by Union Pacific as part of its planned circle tour since at least 1921. Thus, only one month after Pipe Spring National Monument had been designated by President Harding, its fate was irrevocably altered by an informal decision by Means and Finch (heartily supported by commissioners of Kane County) to recommend construction of a road that would divert tourist traffic across Zion National Park to Mt. Carmel, then southward via Kanab and Fredonia to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Nevertheless, it was well known that the new route across Zion National Park would be years in the making. Stephen T. Mather, along with local and state officials and tourism boosters, continued to focus their efforts on providing at least temporarily serviceable routes to link together the outstanding tourist attractions of southern Utah and northern Arizona. Pipe Spring National Monument was a one of those attractions.