CHAPTER
20
ROADS, RAILROADS, AND AIRPORTS Wagon Roads Building roads and bridges was an immediate demand settlers faced in establishing themselves in territorial Utah. The country was mountainous and rough, and even valleys were scarred by washes and gullies that needed bridging or their banks cut to permit crossing. Thickets of oak brush or juniper trees impeded trail builders, and sagebrush and greasewood had to be broken down or axed to allow passage. Road builders worked with picks, axes, and shovels. The main territorial roads roughly formed a cross intersecting at Salt Lake City, with the base of the cross tapering off toward the southwest as it passed through Iron County. The first wagon had come up the southern route in 1848 with returning Mormon Battalion members, following the Spanish Trail to Little Creek and then north to the Salt Lake Valley. The road needed much work when the Iron Mission settlers came from Salt Lake City to the Little Salt Lake Valley in 1850 and 1851. This vital southern route, with a few minor exceptions, was maintained entirely free of toll franchises. The first territorial legislature recognized the importance of 378
