PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

The Fredonia-Toroweap Approach Road

In October 1936, with an allotment of $5,300, the National Park Service authorized a reconnaissance study by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) for a road that would link Fredonia, Pipe Spring, and the Grand Canyon in Toroweap Valley. The road, if it met eligibility requirements, was to be financed by federal park highway funds. Fieldwork began in November 1936, was suspended for the winter, and resumed in May 1937. On November 9, 1936, Kuehl met with BPR Engineer W. J. Ward in Fredonia for a preliminary review of a tentative route. At Pipe Spring the two men agreed that the existing monument road could not be followed as the distance between the fort ponds and "historic cottonwood trees" would only allow a 16-foot road width. [1103] A new route was proposed that would pass through the monument but 30 feet further south of the existing road, thereby leaving historic features and tunnel spring undisturbed. [1104]

When Superintendent Pinkley got word of the plans, however, he strongly objected to the new location for the road as it cut through the new campground and parking area. He wrote, "I cannot sacrifice the work which we have already expended at Pipe Spring in order to give it [the road] such an extra width across the monument." [1105] He recommended the new road pass just to the south of the monument's southern boundary instead. Preliminary sketches were later modified incorporating Pinkley's suggestion. In June BPR Engineer Ward prepared a report on the road study, recommending that the 65 mile, 24-foot wide, bituminous surfaced road that passed just south of the monument boundary. The monument was to be accessed from a spur road to Moccasin passing east of the monument. The cost of the new road was estimated at $2,140,500. [1106] Staking of the proposed route began in July 1937.

On July 20, 1937, a company of officials convened on the Arizona Strip to study the proposed Fredonia-Pipe Spring-Grand Canyon road. The group included Landscape Architect Charles A. Richey, Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Minor R. Tillotson, Division of Grazing Director F. R. Carpenter, Al Kuehl, and two of the Bureau of Public Road's engineers. The route appeared satisfactory to those present and was being flagged. [1107] The following October another meeting was held in Kanab to discuss the road and inspect the proposed route. Attendees included Bureau of Public Roads Engineers McLane, Ward, and Brown; Dr. Farrow; District Engineer A. F. Space; and Landscape Architect Richey. At this meeting Dr. Farrow strongly opposed certain sections of the proposed alignment due to the way in which the proposed road subdivided reservation grazing lands.

As it turned out, Dr. Farrow's concerns were not what stopped the proposed road project from moving forward. It was determined from the 1937 survey that the road from Fredonia to the Grand Canyon could not qualify as approach road because 16.4 percent of the land was unpatented and state-owned. For an approach road to qualify for federal park highway funding, no less than 90 percent of its total length must be on land owned by the federal government. The Park Service came up with several alternative routes, which would have placed more of the route on state-owned "Indemnity School Land." In November 1937 Demaray asked Senator Carl Hayden for assistance in asking Arizona state officials if they would withdraw their application from the General Land Office for lands affected by the proposed road location, thereby allowing the Park Service to meet the government's requirements for qualifying as an approach road. The Congressional authorization for funding park roads and approach roads, however, expired at the end of FY 1937, so time was of the essence in Demaray's attempts to engage the cooperation of Arizona officials. [1108] Demaray's efforts proved unsuccessful. Once the Park Service learned the road could not qualify for federal park highway funds, hopes for a new approach road quickly dimmed.

All of the existing road from Fredonia to the monument (and for some distance further to the west) was located on the Kaibab Indian Reservation. While the Hayden-Cartwright Act of June 16, 1936, authorized appropriations of up to $4 million each year for Indian roads in the United States for fiscal years 1937 and 1938, the Office of Indian Affairs requested only $3 million for FY 1937 and $1 million for FY 1938. Referring to the Office of Indian Affairs, Senator Hayden wrote to a Phoenix attorney in February 1938, "They seemed... to be more interested in increases for schools and for other services on the reservations than for roads." Hayden wanted Indian Service officials to ask for more road funds for FY 1938, but held little hope, pointing out they had in the past "been unenthusiastic about road work on the reservations." [1109] Because of the lower amount requested for FY 1938, men were to be laid off, equipment purchased in FY 1937 would sit idle and rusting, and roads would be inadequately maintained. This is one reason why much of the work of maintaining the approach road to Pipe Spring National Monument fell to the Division of Grazing's Camp DG-44. Since the hands of Park Service officials were tied, the road problem was ultimately left to the Indian Service, Mohave County, and the Division of Grazing to solve. Nothing of consequence would happen in the planning and construction of a new approach road until the summer of 1940. When that happened, however, it would be known as the Hurricane-Fredonia road, whose alignment bore little resemblance to the road proposed by the Park Service in 1937.