HIGHWAY 89 DIGITAL COLLECTIONS J IM
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316 Roads are an integral part of the American experience. They connect people in a literal sense, but they also help weave narratives and human culture across time and space. Highway 89 is one such road. In its long march from the U.S.β Canadian border in Montana to its historic terminus at the U.S.βMexican border at Nogales, Highway 89 transports its travelers through a distinctive slice of America. It is essential to Utah state tourism, chambers of commerce, and state and regional historians, as well as to those who live along its route. However, due to geographic and sometimes cultural distances, the complete story of U.S. 89 has yet to be told.1
Montana. Highway 89 has long served as a vital artery of western tourism as it passes through (or runs adjacent to) seven national parks: Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. It is little wonder that University of Wisconsin geographer Thomas R. Vale has described U.S. 89 as βa cross section of the West.β2
U.S. 89 has hardly received the nostalgic attention given to other fabled American thoroughfares, such as Route 66 or the Lincoln Highway, and yet it too can help unfold the complex history of the American West. Traveling from high mountains to low desert, it passes through five states: Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and
The Highway 89 Digital Collections initiative seeks to illuminate the history that has occurred along this road. Conceived and created through a collaborative effort among special collections and archives in Utah and northern Arizona, the project currently includes representatives from Utah State University, Weber State University, the University of Utah, LDS Church History Library, Utah State Archives and Records Service, Salt Lake County Archives, Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.
1 Portions of this piece originally appeared on the Highway 89 project website, www.highway89.org, and are used with permission here.
2 Thomas R. Vale and Geraldine R. Vale, Western Images, Western Landscape: Travels along U.S. 89 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989).
