From Tire Tracks to Treasure Trail: Cooperative Coosterism Along U.S. Highway 89

From Tire Tracks to Treasure Trail: Cooperative Boosterism Along U.S. Highway 89

BY CLINT PUMPHREY AND JIM KICHAS

For anyone who has ever struggled to find a parking place at a crowded trailhead in Utah’s backcountry, it is hard to believe that there was ever a time when the state’s scenery was inaccessible and unknown to many Americans. This was exactly the case, however, when representatives of civic clubs from ten Utah counties descended upon Richfield in September 1930. The resulting organization, which became known as the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah, declared its aim “to develop Southern Utah and its resources . . . thereby developing and benefiting the entire state.” They laid out four initiatives by which to achieve this goal:

[t]o attract tourists and homeseekers; to call the world’s attention to the wealth and beauties; to work for good roads and transportation; to broadcast by every conceivable means what Southern Utah has to offer in scenic wonders and partly undeveloped agricultural and mineral resources; and to work unitedly for such purposes. 1

The plan—a combination of marketing and infrastructure improvements—was so ambitious and far-reaching that it could not be carried out solely by the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah or any other single group, for that matter. Instead, these aims required significant contributions from leaders across the spectrum of business and government, including good roads promoters, highway boosters, state agencies, and local commercial and civic groups, many of whom came to see United States Highway 89, with its proximity to both major cities and national parks, as a backbone for Utah’s tourist economy.

Map of Highway 89

Collaborative efforts between public and private entities to promote tourism in the United States originated long before the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah gathered in 1930. Railroads and national parks, for example, began a highly visible campaign to promote sightseeing in the United States during the waning decades of the nineteenth century. Using modern marketing methods, these boosters sought to publicize tourism not only as a recreational activity but also as a confirmation of American identity. For these early travel advocates, soaring peaks and dizzying chasms were monuments to American grandeur that were just a train ride away. Such targeted promotion continued into the automobile era, when highways began to supplant railroad routes as the gateway to the country’s treasures and automobile clubs and “good roads” advocates soon joined the chorus of tourism boosters. 2

Tourist promotion kicked into overdrive in the post–World War II era, when the baby boom, paid vacations, interstate highways, and growing consumerism drew more Americans into the outdoors. Utah, like many states across the nation, sought to capitalize on the flow of money that came with these developments. State and local agencies, together with civic and commercial groups, saw tourism as a panacea for the economic woes brought about by the decline of extractive industries, particularly in the southern part of the state. Their shared goal was to brand Utah and market it to a national audience. 3

This article examines how these contributions from government and commercial groups played out not only in a specific region of Utah but along a specific route: U.S. Highway 89. It largely focuses on the first half of the twentieth century, a period when boosters lacked the benefit of postwar prosperity and road infrastructure in their bid to attract visitors. Their efforts succeeded thanks in large part to two parallel factors that the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah identified at their 1930 meeting that had served tourism promoters well since the railroad days: utilizing modern marketing methods to attract people to local attractions and taking advantage of a robust national transportation infrastructure to get them there.

At the turn of the twentieth century, roads, not railroads, were the most sorely neglected part of the national transportation infrastructure. With the expansion of railroads after the Civil War, roads became a secondary form of transportation and their quality began to suffer, particularly in rural areas. Commonly constructed of little more than earth smoothed by a heavy wooden plank, they were often rough in good weather and impassable in rain or snow. Early roads promoter and cycling enthusiast Colonel Albert Pope related one Connecticut resident’s frustration with the situation: “We let our road-menders shake us enough to the mile to furnish assault-and-battery cases for a thousand police courts.” 4 In response, an unlikely coalition of cyclists, farmers, and railroad companies brought attention to the muddy and cratered conditions of American thoroughfares and pressured lawmakers to finance improvements, beginning in the 1880s. Cyclists sought smoother roads on which they could practice their sport, while farmers and railroad companies hoped that better roads would provide easier access to markets (via the railroads, of course). 5

This “Good Roads Movement,” as it became known, highlighted the two major hindrances to innovation at the time: a lack of technical expertise to construct quality roads and dearth of tax revenue with which to finance them. Unlike Europe, which boasted institutions like France’s Ecolé des Ponts et Chausseés (School of Bridges and Roads), founded in 1747, the United States had yet to educate engineers on a large scale. Without the supervision of trained professionals, many American road builders continued to rely heavily on primitive construction materials, methods, and technologies. Further restraining progress in the United States was a system of road financing dependent on local taxes, which worked fairly well in densely populated urban areas but proved woefully inadequate in rural areas where the tax base was much smaller. Exacerbating both the expertise and taxation issues was the practice of statute labor in which residents of many states could pay taxes with labor instead of cash, virtually guaranteeing a deficit of both revenue and know-how for road construction. 6

Despite the efforts of cyclists, farmers, and railroads, what really spurred innovation and funding for better roads was the proliferation of the automobile. Between 1900 and 1917, the number of motor vehicle registrations in the United States jumped from just 8,000 to over 5.1 million. Motorists formed consumer groups such as the American Automobile Association during this period to promote their interests, while other groups, like the American Road Makers, represented state engineers, road contractors, road machinery manufacturers, and others with a financial stake in road construction. Together with local civic organizations, which stood to gain by attracting auto tourists to their communities, these groups lobbied state and federal lawmakers for better roads. In response, both states and the federal government created dedicated agencies to bring scientific design principles and a coherent vision to road projects and instituted significant increases in road funding throughout the 1910s and 1920s. These developments led to an increase in surfaced roads (using such materials as gravel, stone, shells, sand-clay, or macadam) from about 153,662 miles in 1904 to some 299,135 miles in 1919—a trend that would only accelerate in subsequent years. 7

Utah, given its sparse population and remote location, was quick to realize the insufficiencies in its road system. In 1905 Governor John Cutler called delegates from every county in the state to attend a Good Roads convention held in Ogden on June 2 and 3. There, in the Ogden LDS Tabernacle, road advocates from across

What really spurred innovation and funding for better roads was the proliferation of the automobile.

the state convened and listened to speeches from a variety of guests, including Colonel W. H. Moore, president of the National Good Roads Association, and Cutler himself, whose speech extolled roads through an economic lens. “The building of good roads is a matter of economy,” the governor declared to the crowd:

In transportation, as in all other matters, the line of least resistance is always followed with the best results. Looking at the matter from the economic standpoint, therefore, no wellsettled community can afford to have poor roads. 8

At the end of the convention, delegates formed a state Good Roads association and voted James H. Anderson, a former chairman of the Republican State Central committee and aide to Senator Reed Smoot, as its president. 9

The statewide Good Roads movement fizzled after an October 1905 convention drew scarcely more than twenty attendees, but it soon made a comeback. 10 On January 10, 1908 advocates again founded a Utah Good Roads Association and elected Ogden lawyer and civic leader Joseph S. Peery as the group’s president and Ogden banker and Ben Lomond Hotel founder A. P. Bigelow as its vice-president. The purpose of the organization was clearly defined from its first meeting, during which “the association adopted resolutions favoring the ‘Brownlow good roads’ bill . . . before Congress,” which would create a federal agency to oversee public roads and provide matching funds for state and local road projects. Peery’s group also appointed a committee to work with county commissioners in northern Utah to consider the continuance of a state road north through Davis and Weber counties that would link Salt Lake City to Ogden. 11 Good roads, they hoped, would be such a popular idea that they could even get both political parties to adopt it as part of their platforms. 12

The correspondence that flooded the offices of Utah government officials in the early twentieth century provides further evidence of the concerted push to systematically implement a coordinated road-building effort. Writing to Utah governor John Cutler in 1906, Pope, the cycling enthusiast and good roads promoter, posited the commercial need for better roads when he stated that “the time seems ripe for a serious consideration of the question of Federal aid in the construction and maintenance of such highways as would connect our larger cities and bring into closer relation the people of neighboring states, thus benefitting both State and Inter-State commerce.” 13 National Highways Association president Charles Henry Davis made another case for improving roads and connecting the nation’s highways when he wrote to Governor William Spry in 1915. Davis asked the governor to contact President Woodrow Wilson and impress upon him the “importance of highway intercommunication in any effort made towards preparedness for the adequate defense of the nation.” 14

Sustained calls for action, such as those from Pope, Davis, and local Good Roads advocates, encouraged bureaucratic shifts within Utah government to address the issue of improving the state’s roadways. The first such shift occurred on March 23, 1909, when the Utah Legislature created a commission to oversee and coordinate road issues for the state. The original composition of this new Utah State Road Commission included the governor, state engineer, and state treasurer, as well as faculty from the Agricultural College of Utah (now Utah State University) and the University of Utah. Given that both these schools offered engineering courses in highways, bridges, road construction, and road maintenance, it was clear that the state’s road construction efforts would, from this point forward, involve a degree of technological expertise that had been lacking prior to the formation of the commission. 15

From its inception, the road commission performed a variety of duties that directly reflected the questions and concerns held by road boosters and citizens alike. Among the new agency’s roles and responsibilities was the directive to begin selecting roads that would comprise an overall coherent state road system. The legislature also gave the road commission direct charge of the State Road Building Fund, and charged them with the development of plans, specifications, and estimates for future road construction projects in the state. Finally, the road commission served as the primary source of information and guidance for all officials having supervision over road construction projects in Utah. 16

The formation of the road commission can be seen as an important response by Utah government officials to the broad spectrum of concerns raised by the Good Roads Movement. Importantly, the road commission provided a needed bureaucratic layer of government that could effectively receive comment and respond to concerns raised by both citizens and road groups. In turn, the road commission could then use its power as an entity of state government as well as its technical expertise to make recommendations to the governor and legislature for actions that would specifically address those concerns. From the beginning, a broad contingent of Utah’s people looked favorably on the activities of the road commission. Writing in the 1911/1912 biennial road commission report to Governor John Christopher Cutler, Road Commissioner J. W. Jensen stated, “the people [of Utah] are in favor of the good roads movement and are willing that their property should be taxed in order get better roads.” 17

Of course, “better roads” represented something of a fluid concept that changed with advances in both engineering methods and available road surface technology. From its beginnings as general supervisor of road building in the state, the road commission advocated that all engineering associated with roads (such as culverts, bridges, and drainages) be built using concrete or metal, so as to ensure their viability over time. 18 Similarly, while the first roads overseen by the road commission tended to be of gravel, broken stone, or macadam construction, by 1913/1914 the road commission was pushing for the use of concrete construction for heavily trafficked roadways whenever possible. 19 These advances in material were matched by improvements in road construction methods as well, such as the shift in 1915 away from using horses to motor tractors for road grading work. 20

In the early 1920s, the road commission began to work closely with the federal government to coordinate the connection and signage of Utah’s roads with the rest of America’s highways. The 1923/1924 biennial report from the road commission articulated this position, stating that “the motor car has changed our conception of the roads from local thoroughfares designated and located to serve the needs of separate communities only, to routes of first State, and then National importance, the "Federal aid Act" being admirably adapted to permit Federal participation, but with State control.” 21 That “Federal aid Act” was the Federal Seven Percent System, which grew out of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 and was the first coherent, nationwide attempt to create a long-term plan for future road building. It provided all states, including Utah, with access to matching federal funds that could be used to designate and build up to 7 percent of the state’s roadways. 22

Road construction in the Salt Lake City area, September 1914. Note the use of a horse. In this instance, laying a supply main—a job handled by the firm of Lyman and Samuels—appears to have been part of a larger project to improve transportation in Salt Lake City. See Salt Lake Telegram, September 10, 1914. —

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One important result of the expansive growth of American roadways under the Seven Percent System was the creation of the first unified system of national highways and uniform sign designs. Officials hatched the plan during a series of meetings between state and federal highway representatives in Washington, D.C. beginning in February 1925. Among the red lines plotted on the group’s map was U.S. Highway 89. Early planning for the Seven Percent System hinted at its creation as state officials sought to improve access to scenic destinations in southern Utah. Highway 89 did just that, as indicated by the 1927/1928 Road Commission report, which detailed a route beginning in Spanish Fork, Utah, continuing through towns “on the Grand Canyon Highway to Kanab,” crossing into Arizona through Flagstaff and Phoenix to the border near Nogales. 23 The American Association of State Highway Officials in 1926, then the Utah legislature in 1927, approved the map born of these meetings. 24

As the national highway system evolved, so too did Highway 89. With the opening of the Zion– Mount Carmel Tunnel in 1930, local boosters began an aggressive campaign focused on advertising and signing the road as a connection to this and other attractions. Both the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Southern California Automobile Association joined in this effort, reflecting the potential for interstate commerce that opening the road would provide. A host of dignitaries, including Utah governor George Dern, attended the July 4, 1930, ceremony opening the tunnel, and the Road Commission report for that year designated it as hugely important moment in fueling the growth of Highway 89 and promoting the tourist connection between southern Utah’s national parks and the Grand Canyon. 25

Yet while the potential of Highway 89 as a tourist magnet was evident from its earliest designation, improvements to the road came slowly. In 1930, a local newspaper described the section of the road running through Sanpete County between Fairview and Thistle as being in “very poor condition,” 26 while a 1935 headline in the Garfield County News decried, “Portions of U.S. Highway 89 Are a Disgrace to the State.” 27 In each of these cases, local officials appealed directly to the road commission to improve roads and turn them into “asset[s] to the county.” 28

Certainly, improvements to Highway 89 were critical to the expanding tourist economies of southern Utah and Arizona, but extending the road north and connecting it to the Rocky Mountain parks of Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier became an increasingly important discussion in the 1930s. Writing to Utah state highway engineer K. C. Wright in 1935, W. D. Rishel, manager of the Utah State Automobile Association, promoted this viewpoint, insisting, “It is important that Highway #89 be continued on north with a view of reaching the Canadian border.” Early boosters for expansion, like Rishel, saw the powerful potential of tourism along 89, further suggesting, “the road is bound to become the most important link between Salt Lake and Jackson Hole as well as to Yellowstone Park when completed. It will be the shortest and most scenic to these points.” 29

Tourists in the Zion–Mount Carmel Tunnel, 1930s. The Mount Carmel Tunnel connects Highway 89 to Zion National Park. —

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In June 1936, Rishel and other proponents got their wish. That is when representatives at the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) designated the northern section of Highway 89, which extended from Spanish Fork to Piegan, Montana, on the Canadian border. There was some disagreement between highway officials in Utah and Wyoming about how the road would pass through those states, but in December 1938 the AASHO’s executive committee decided to route it from Provo to Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, Garden City, Montpelier, Star Valley, and finally to Yellowstone National Park. 30 Even before this decision, however, government officials and local civic organizations praised the northern extension and began to envision its future as a tourist thoroughfare. A 1937 meeting between such officials in Flagstaff underscored this point, as a report from that meeting in the Kane County Standard commented: “Highway 89 . . . is a most important link connecting the northern and southern part of the nation west of the Rockies. At the present time it is a desirable route for the tourist and traveler, who wishes to see the scenic wonders of the west.” 31

The Logan Canyon road, which connects Cache Valley to Bear Lake Valley and is now part of U.S. Highway 89, offers a specific case study about how the Good Roads Movement played out along the route. In 1866, the Utah territorial legislature incorporated the Logan Cañon Road Company to build the route but provided no funding, instead approving the sale of stock to shareholders and the institution of a toll to fund construction and maintenance. Crews headed by men like Henry Ballard (farmer), Peter Maughan (businessman and judge), and William Budge (farmer) almost certainly had no formal training in road building but nevertheless completed a road from Logan to St. Charles, Idaho, by 1871. In 1880 workers forged an alternate route that traveled from Logan to Garden City, along a similar alignment to present-day U.S. Highway 89. 32

Despite the addition of several tollgates, revenues were evidently insufficient to provide basic maintenance. An 1892 editorial described the road as “hardly passable. Here and there huge bolders [sic] adorn the drive way, while deep mudholes and dangerous washouts render a ride by that route somewhat exciting.” 33 The author implored the Cache County government to make the repairs needed to encourage trade with the agricultural and mining interests in the Bear Lake area. A week later the county court made the canyon route a county road and approved $500 for immediate repairs. Logan City also helped pay for maintenance in the ensuing decades as evidenced by a November 23, 1903, agreement between the county and Logan mayor Lorenzo Hansen that required the city to pay “[o]ne-half cost repairing Logan Canon [sic] Road.” Still, a June 1916 article in the Logan Republican stated,

There is considerable criticism due some body for the bad condition of the road between the Forks and Temple fork. There are at least five mud holes between these two points which should be repaired at once . . . . There is required the work of draining the water off the road and putting in a few loads of gravel which could be done with little expense and put the road in pretty good shape. 34

Like many rural roads across the United States, maintenance on the route through Logan Canyon suffered from insufficient local funding. 35

The types of people pushing for better roads in Logan Canyon and the surrounding areas resembled national trends as well. Farmers, in particular, were outspoken in their support for good roads. A November 1891 editorial in the Logan Journal entitled “More Trade Wanted” professed the benefits of an improved Logan Canyon road to agriculture in Bear Lake County and commerce in Cache Valley. “Not less than $75,000 a year in produce goes out of that county to the Evanston market that could as well find a market in Logan—which could find a better market in Logan,” the editorial suggested. “All that needs be done is to build between Rich and Cache Counties . . . and the trade is ours.” 36 Bear Lake rancher Elias Kimball agreed: “I need not say that I am heartily in favor of The Journal’s proposition. It will help us.” 37

Logan Canyon road, circa 1910. —

Courtesy USUSCA

As the number of automobiles in Utah increased, so did interest in improving the Logan Canyon road. While virtually no motor vehicles traveled down the state’s roads before 1900, the number grew to 9,177 by 1915. Largely in response to this trend, a network of local civic leaders, good roads advocates, and automobile groups pushed for state and federal funds to fund improvements. A resolution adopted by the Logan Commercial-Boosters Club on February 19, 1913 read:

Whereas there is no practical road extending between Logan, Cache County and Rich County, and

Whereas, there is an urgent demand for such a road,

Now therefore be it resolved that we ask the assistance of the Weber Good Roads Association and the Salt Lake

Automobile Association to render their good offices in behalf of the bill now before the State Legislature . . . asking for the construction of the said piece of new road. 38

In 1914 the Utah State Road Commission designated the Logan Canyon road as a state highway, and construction began in 1919. Because it was considered a Forest Road Project, the United States Bureau of Public Roads 39 supervised the work but shared the cost with the Utah State Road Commission. The road remained earthen; however, crews graded and widened it, constructing new culverts and bridges for the first time according to professional specifications. A report by the Logan Chamber of Commerce (formerly known as the Commercial-Boosters Club) and the Rotary Club reflected confidence in the technical skills of those involved: “Mr. Hart, the engineer in charge, has full knowledge of the work and is apparently a very competent and experienced construction man. He has the whole job fully in hand and knows exactly what he is doing.” 40 After these modifications, completed in 1922, the Utah State Road Commission described the thoroughfare as an “improved road generally good in all weather” by 1930. The Logan Chamber of Commerce continued to communicate its desire for improvements with road commission representatives until state crews eventually paved the highway and kept it plowed year-round by 1940. 41

Of course, civic leaders, good roads advocates, and automobile groups did not push for better roads—and state and federal governments did not build them—simply for the benefit of local residents. They intended for these improved thoroughfares to form a smooth, well-engineered connection with distant populations, supporting traditional commerce as well as the burgeoning trade promised by automobile tourism. For western boosters, good roads were just one aspect of an extensive marketing campaign aimed at attracting mobile American vacationers, who increasingly associated their national identity with the region’s unique landscape. Road and automobile technology could bring tourists West, but it was ever-evolving print, broadcast, and electronic media technologies that convinced them to go.

U.S. Highway 89, with its proximity to the some of the West’s most iconic scenery, was a prime candidate for promotion by Utah’s boosters. The resulting route traveled across five states—Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana—and through or adjacent to seven (current or future) national parks: Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier. This happy coincidence of geography earned Highway 89 numerous nicknames including, “Highway to Grandeur,” “Fabulous Boulevard of National Parks,” “The Scenic Route of Three Nations,” “Treasure Trail,” “Route of a Million Tourists,” “Border to Border National Park Highway,” and “Highway to New Enchantment”— monikers that boosters used in numerous brochures, guidebooks, films, and songs. 42

Even before federal officials designated the route as a federal highway, local commercial and government entities realized the road’s potential to attract tourists. As early as August 14, 1912, the Logan Commercial-Boosters expressed their desire for an improved Logan Canyon highway they claimed would bring tourists through Logan to Yellowstone National Park. Other groups tried to push the idea of an international highway stretching from Canada to Mexico with U.S. Highway 89 at its core. The first mention of such an effort occurred in the December 29, 1915, edition of the Parowan Times, despite the fact that many road segments along the proposed route had not yet been constructed. According to the article, local members of the Forest Service district office conceived of the route, described as “not the most direct route but the richest in interest, scenic beauty, and comfort to the travelers.” Cities along the circuitous route included Douglas, Phoenix, and Flagstaff in Arizona; Kanab, Salt Lake City, and Ogden in Utah; Pocatello, Boise, Garden Valley, Lowman, Stanley, and Salmon in Idaho; Missoula and Kalispell in Montana; and Spokane and Seattle in Washington.

Later, local civic organizations centered their efforts specifically on Highway 89, promoting it as a route convenient to many of Utah’s natural wonders. In March 1930 members of southern Utah’s commercial clubs, Lions Clubs, Kiwanis, and others met in Kanab, aiming “to advertise Highway No. 89 on the largest scale possible, and to convince the traveling public, eager to see the wonders of scenic southern Utah, that the logical route leads over that highway.” 43 While their plan to promote the road through billboards, maps, and advertisements in Scenic Utah Motorist represented fairly rudimentary marketing methods the effort certainly laid the groundwork for future endeavors. This loose association of local civic organizations soon consolidated under the name “Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah,” and by June 1931 their efforts resulted, albeit cryptically, in an advertising deal by longtime good roads advocate and Arrowhead Trail founder C. H. Bigelow, with “one of the largest and most successful commercial organizations in the Southwest.” The company, which he claimed boasted “radio sending stations, motion picture and nation wide newspaper and magazine releases,” would work with him to promote an area “between U.S. Highway 89 and the Colorado river, and from the Colorado River to the Mesa Verde National Park.” 44

Billboard directing tourists to Big Rock Candy Mountain on U.S. Highway 89, 1965. —

Courtesy USARS

In February 1938, J. R. Price, a local leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, revived the border-to-border highway proposal by incorporating the Great International Highway of America non-profit organization. “The project has a special significance to the members of the Mormon Church because it will tie together our activities in Arizona with those in Utah and Salt Lake City,” 45 said Price, president of the church’s Maricopa County stake. An international highway, traversing the present alignment of U.S. Highway 89 for much of the distance, would also be a boon to tourism, commerce, and relations with Mexico and other Latin American countries, Price reasoned. Media would play an important role in this endeavor, explained Bailey Russell, organization director for the Great International Highway group: “A newspaper and radio campaign is planned which should focus the attention of motorists throughout North America on the scenic and recreational advantages of the area served by the highway.” 46 Although the group’s activity appears to have waned by 1941, it succeeded in pressuring Arizona to pave the final thirty-five-mile stretch of the road and exciting commercial clubs and politicians alike about the possibility of an international highway. 47

By the 1940s, the growth of tourism’s share in the Utah economy compelled the state government to join the effort in promoting Utah as a tourist destination. The work of the road commission to envision, build, and maintain Utah’s roadways remained a critical imperative, but new methods and ideas were needed to translate those roads into tourist dollars. As a result, the bureaucratic landscape of the state’s government would shift again, leading to the birth of new agencies whose sole focus was to bring tourists into the state of Utah. Highway 89, and the various groups dedicated to promoting it, would become vital to this larger effort.

The first iteration of a Utah government agency specifically focused on developing the state’s tourist economy was the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development, a state agency born of legislation that initially came as part of a plan put forward by Governor Herbert B. Maw to overhaul and streamline state government. As part of this plan, the governor slated numerous existing state boards and commissions for dissolution or consolidation into new government agencies. Although many Utah legislators supported the creation of the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development, the department was controversial because its budget would come primarily from class B and C road funds (from motor vehicle registration), which until that time had gone directly to counties and local municipalities. 48 Rural legislators, in particular, opposed the plan. They felt that the current funding structure was necessary to shift money from wealthy urban areas to poorer districts that needed it for road improvements. Ultimately, the state legislature authorized the government reorganization and thereby formally established the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development; however, they did not approve the $800,000 in funding that Maw had called for. 49 Instead, that money was again allocated to counties and local municipalities, while the new department received the approximately $600,000 in motor vehicle registration funds that were left over. 50 Initial agency mandates included providing opportunities for increased employment in the state, sponsoring a program for industrial development of the state’s natural resources, cooperating with the federal government in the development of industries in the state, and cooperating with the federal government in national defense issues. 51

Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development worked closely with the Road Commission for the express purpose of opening and maintaining roads in southern Utah that were targeted as vital to Utah’s economic future. 52 As part of the effort to promote the state’s scenic wonders to potential tourists, the department spent heavily from its budget on advertising, primarily in western publications. Often, it was aided in this effort by civic clubs that tirelessly promoted the state’s rich tourist offerings on the pages of newspapers and journals—promotional efforts that, in effect, produced a wealth of free advertising for the state. 53

But while this focus on attracting tourists to the state was of vital importance to the department, annual reports to the governor reveal that it put even more effort into attracting Hollywood to the red rock deserts that were becoming increasingly accessible from Highway 89. Looking to Cedar City and Kanab as temporary home bases for film producers, the department began contributing funds to aid road development in southern Utah. Additionally, the department took on an advocacy role for the film industry, requesting a larger share of revenues from the state legislature to be spent on ongoing road development that department officials hoped might lure more filmmakers to the state. 54

These early efforts by the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development were progressive in the sense that they identified early on that tourism had the potential to become “Utah’s number one source of income.” 55 The department’s 1944/1946 report to the governor laid out a plan to achieve this end that entailed placing information centers at all state entrances, constructing access roads to open new scenic areas across the state, developing an educational promotion program for use throughout Utah, and distributing literature touting Utah as an ideal tourist destination. Much of this effort focused on southern Utah, which state officials felt could be marketed as a place of both remarkable landscapes and recreational opportunities, without alienating tourists who were wary of the state’s Mormon past. 56 This focus dovetailed well with the push for ever-better roads, a goal that the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development continued to pursue throughout the 1940s in its efforts to boost the film industry, tourism, and resource development. The development of roads such as Highway 89, the agency felt, would unlock the state’s potential as a magnet for travelers.

John Ford, Maureen O’Hara, and John Wayne on the set of Rio Grande, a western filmed in Utah, 1950. —

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The role of chief tourism advocate for the State of Utah would shift in form and composition in the decades ahead. In 1953, the legislature abolished the Department of Publicity and Industrial Development and assigned its duties to the newly created Utah Tourist and Publicity Council. The council, appointed by Governor J. Bracken Lee, was born during the 1953 general session out of a legislative compromise over two competing bills regarding the oversight of advertising for the state and its charge was to publicize scenic attractions while also generally promoting the state’s overall tourist trade. 57 To that end the council planned and conducted a program of information, advertising, and publicity relating to the recreational, scenic, historical, highway, and tourist attractions of Utah at large. The bipartisan importance of tourism to the state was reflected in the fact that the Council’s seven-member board (appointed by the governor from each of Utah’s judicial districts) could not include more than four members of the same political party. 58

The culmination of the effort to promote U.S. Highway 89 as the gateway to Utah’s scenic attractions was a collective of tourist-dependent businessmen known as the 89’ers International Highway Association. Commercial boosters had attempted in 1941 and 1950 to form two different groups specifically promoting Highway 89, but neither organization gained much traction. The 89’ers International Highway Association was a different matter. 59 Founded in 1954 and based in Salt Lake City, Utah, this organization consisted of a diverse coalition of boosters from Canada to Mexico, including motel operators, restaurant owners, car dealers, travel agents, and other interested parties—some 300 by September 1955. Their stated goal was simply to “improve the economy and increase the prosperity of every city and village served by and adjacent to, this three-nation Boulevard of National Parks.” 60

The logo of the 89’ers International Highway Association, taken from a piece of letterhead. —

Courtesy USUSCA

The 89’ers International Highway Association set itself apart from previous groups with its ambitious media campaign. In addition to tried-and-true highway signs, the 89’ers explored radio and film as avenues to get their message out. One early effort to break into radio involved the production of a Highway 89–themed album featuring “Treasure Trail: The Official 89’ers Song,” composed by Bernie Williams and performed by Frank Barker and his Latin Aires. Williams claimed in his discussions with the 89’ers that “‘I Get My Kicks on 66,’” referring to the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” had “increased traffic about 670% on Highway 66.” 61 The group hoped for similar success with their LP single—ruby-red with a bright yellow label—which they intended to be distributed to radio stations nationwide and placed in jukeboxes throughout the West. A radio audience could also be reached, they hoped, through public service announcements by stations along the highway:

Fifteen minute scripts in interview form and spot announcements would be prepared and key 89’er members in each area would work with their State Director in presenting the programs. The material used would serve to acquaint local folks with attractions adjacent to the entire route. Other scripts and spots could be worded, and directed to the special attention of tourists listening en-route. Such items as an “89’er Weather Report” would assist certain areas that are open all winter. 62

The 89’ers hoped to reach the public through a visual medium as well, endorsing the production of a “colored motion picture film featuring as many . . . attractions as footage would permit for showing on television and before various civic groups.” 63 Unfortunately, it is unclear if the group brought any of these plans to fruition or what ultimately happened to the 89’ers, because the person whose papers became the main source of archival documents about the group, vice president Edgar Bentley Mitchell, died in a plane crash on December 18, 1959. 64

Over the last century, the efforts of good roads promoters, highway boosters, state agencies, and local commercial and civic groups have made Utah, with Highway 89 at its backbone, a major tourist destination for travelers across the country and around the globe. This renown was, in part, the result of collaborative action to improve roads from earth and gravel to asphalt and concrete surfaces while simultaneously broadcasting the message of Utah’s scenic beauty ever farther through the airwaves. Such efforts have been so successful that the state now faces a new set of issues involving congestion and air pollution at some of its most popular natural attractions. Perhaps a new generation of boosters will find ways to address these problems with the enthusiasm of their predecessors. 65

Notes

1 Parowan (UT) Times, September 5, 1930.

2 Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880–1940 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2001), 4–5.

3 For more on the decline of extractive industry and the rise of tourism in southern Utah and the greater Four Corners region during the postwar period, see Arthur R. Gomez, Quest for the Golden Circle: The Four Corners and the Metropolitan West (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994). For more on the role state agencies played in marketing Utah to a national audience during the postwar period, see Susan Sessions Rugh, “Branding Utah: Industrial Tourism in the Postwar American West,” Western Historical Quarterly 37, no. 4 (Winter 2006).

4 Albert A. Pope, The Movement for Better Roads (Boston: Pope, 1892), 9.

5 Federal Highway Administration, America’s Highways, 1776–1976: A History of the Federal Aid Program (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977), 36; Stephen B. Goddard, Colonel Albert Pope and His American Dream Machines: The Life and Times of a Bicycle Tycoon Turned Automotive Pioneer (Jefferson, N.C.: Mc- Farland, 2000), 118; Stephen B. Goddard, Getting There: The Epic Struggle between Road and Rail in the American Century (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 44–47.

6 Goddard, Getting There, 44, 55; Federal Highway Administration, America’s Highways, 37.

7 “State Motor Vehicle Registrations, by Years, 1900– 1995,” April 1997, Federal Highway Administration, accessed September 17, 2014, fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/ summary95/mv200.pdf; United States Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919), 306–307; Federal Highway Administration, America’s Highways, 50, 52, 64, 67, 76, 87.

8 Salt Lake Tribune, June 3, 1905.

9 Salt Lake Tribune, June 4, 1905. This contradicted the long-standing tradition by which the state vice-president for the national association—in this case former Governor Heber M. Wells—would be selected as president of the state Good Roads association. The Salt Lake Tribune cried foul, claiming that Anderson’s election was the work of Smoot, an LDS apostle and U.S. senator. “It is always a serious question how far any good project or enterprise can be carried in Utah without encountering the trail of the hierarchic serpent,” the paper fumed in reference to the Mormon church. It should also be noted that Smoot was an ally of Governor Cutler, who beat Wells in the 1904 Republican gubernatorial primary.

10 Salt Lake Tribune, October 5, 1905.

11 Salt Lake Tribune, January 11, 1908.

12 “Utah Awakening,” Good Roads Magazine, February 1908, 63.

13 Box 2, fd. 37, Governor (1905–1908: Cutler), Correspondence (incoming), Series 202, Utah State Archives and Records Service, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter USARS)

14 Box 11, fd. 21, Governor (1909–1917: Spry), Correspondence, Series 226, USARS.

15 Laws of the State of Utah, 1909 (Salt Lake City: Skelton, 1909), chapter 119; University of Utah, “Bulletin of the University of Utah,” June 1908, accessed September 23, 2014, content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ir-eua/ id/1438; Utah State University, “Catalogue of the Agricultural College of Utah for 1908–1909,” May 1908, accessed September 23, 2014, digitalcommons.usu.edu/ universitycatalogs/33/.

16 Laws of the State of Utah, 1909, chapter 119.

17 Box 4, fd. 2, Secretary of State Public Documents Serial Set, Series 240, USARS (hereafter Public Documents Serial Set).

18 Ibid.

19 Box 5, fd. 1, Public Documents Serial Set.

20 Box 5, fd. 4, Public Documents Serial Set.

21 Box 7, fd. 5, Public Documents Serial Set.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Richard F. Weingroff, “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System,” AASHTO Quarterly, Spring 1997, accessed April 27, 2016, www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.cfm; Laws of the State of Utah, 1927 (Salt Lake City: Arrow Press, 1927), chapter 21.

25 Gunnison (UT) Valley News, June 19, 1930.

26 Box 9, fd. 3, Public Documents Serial Set.

27 Manti (UT) Messenger, December 5, 1930.

28 Garfield County (UT) News, August 23, 1935.

29 Box 3, fd. 41, Governor (1933–1941: Blood), Correspondence, Series 14207, USARS.

30 Salt Lake Telegram, December 13, 1938.

31 Kane County (UT) Standard, April 9, 1937.

32 Acts, Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Several Annual Sessions of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah (Salt Lake City: Henry McEwan, public printer, 1866), 218–19; Henry Ballard, transcribed journal, October 25, 1869, Special Collections and Archives, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, Utah (hereafter USUSCA); Deseret News, February 8, 1871; Leonard Arrington, Charles C. Rich (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974), 274.

33 Journal (Logan, UT), September 3, 1892.

34 Logan (UT) Republican, June 17, 1916.

35 Journal (Logan, UT), September 10, 1892; The County of Cache to Logan, Utah, February 12, 1904, box 7, fd. 23, Cache County records collection, #316, USUSCA.

36 Journal (Logan, UT), November 28, 1891.

37 Journal (Logan, UT), December 1, 1891; see also Journal (Logan, UT), September 23, 1893; Journal (Logan, UT), April 21, 1894.

38 Commercial-Boosters Club minutes, February 19, 1913, Cache Chamber of Commerce papers, Series I, box 3, fd. 1, COLL MSS 293, USUSCA.

39 According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration website, the Bureau of Public Roads was first created as the Office of Road Inquiry in 1893. Housed under the Department of Agriculture, it was known successively as the Office of Public Road Inquiries, the Office of Public Roads, and the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering before assuming the name Bureau of Public Roads in 1918. In 1939, the bureau was absorbed into the Federal Works Agency and became known as the Public Roads Administration. Transferred to the Department of Commerce in 1949, it was again referred to as the Bureau of Public Roads. Beginning in 1967 the bureau briefly operated under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) before its functions were completely absorbed by the FHWA on August 10, 1970.

40 Logan (UT) Republican, August 5, 1920.

41 U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919), 309; State Road Commission, Sixth Biennial Report: 1919–1920 (Kaysville, UT: Inland Printing Company, n.d.), 60; State Road Commission, Seventh Biennial Report: 1921–1922 (Salt Lake City: Arrow Press, n.d.), 47, 77, 103; State Road Commission, Eleventh Biennial Report: 1929–1930 (n.p., n.d.), rear map insert; “Special Meeting of Roads Committee,” box 3, fd. 4, Series I, Cache Chamber of Commerce Papers, COLL MSS 293, USUSCA; State Road Commission, Seventeenth Biennial Report: 1941–1942 (n.p., n.d.), 65, 145.

42 American Association of State Highway Officials, “For the Convenience of the Traveling Public a Limited System of State Roads Have Been Given Continuous Numbers Across the Country,” American Highways 6, no. 2 (April 1927); Mt. Pleasant (UT) Pyramid, June 26, 1936.

43 Richfield (UT) Reaper, June 12, 1930.

44 Piute County (UT) News, June 5, 1931; Commercial- Boosters Club minutes, August 14, 1912, box 3, fd. 1, Series I, Cache Chamber of Commerce Papers.

45 Kane County (UT) Standard, February 18, 1938.

46 Garfield County (UT) News, May 5, 1938.

47 Garfield County (UT) News, June 12, 1941; Kane County (UT) Standard, July 15, 1938; Piute County (UT) News, September 30, 1938

48 Salt Lake Telegram, January 14, 1941.

49 Roosevelt (UT) Standard, June 16, 1941.

50 Iron County (UT) Record, July 10, 1941.

51 Laws of the State of Utah, 1941 (Kaysville, UT: Inland Printing, 1941), chapter 75.

52 Boxes 11–15, Public Documents Serial Set.

53 Richfield (UT) Reaper, June 4, 1931.

54 Box 13, fd. 1, Public Documents Serial Set.

55 Ibid.

56 Stephen C. Sturgeon, “The Disappearance of Everett Ruess and the Discovery of Utah’s Red Rock Country,” in Utah in the Twentieth Century, ed. Brian Q. Cannon and Jessie L. Embry (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2009), 24–44.

57 Iron County (UT) Record, February 19, 1953.

58 Laws of the State of Utah, 1953 (Kaysville, UT: Inland Printing, 1953), chapter 123.

59 Boosters formed the U.S. Highway 89 Association in Manti, Utah, on November 12, 1941. Its effectiveness was limited by a membership from just six counties and an advertising agenda that never seemed to advance beyond highway signs. “Cement construction seemed to be favored by the majority of those in attendance,” read a report from one meeting. Another group composed of representatives from commerce and civic groups along the entire length of Highway 89 organized on October 26, 1950, in Montpelier, Idaho. Officers from Utah included E. W. Timberlake and Guy Glassford of Logan and Homer Bandly of Richfield. Though one account of the meeting expressed hope of “getting publicity long lacking on Highway 89,” little is known about what happened to this association. Piute County (UT) News, January 23, 1942; Manti (UT) Messenger, November 17, 1950.

60 News Bulletin, January 1957, box 1, fd. 15, Edgar Bentley Mitchell Papers, COLL MSS 322, USUSCA; Garfield County (UT) News, January 27, 1955; First Annual 89’ers membership meeting minutes, box 1, fd. 1, Edgar Bentley Mitchell Papers; Manti (UT) Messenger, September 23, 1955.

61 Board of Directors’ meeting minutes, October 24, 1955, box 1, fd. 3, Mitchell Papers.

62 Ten Point Promotional Program for 1957 and 1958, box 1, fd. 12, Mitchell Papers.

63 Convention Edition News Bulletin, November 1956, box 1, fd. 15, Mitchell Papers.

64 Ten Point Promotional Program for 1957 and 1958, box 1, fd. 12, Mitchell Papers; Manti (UT) Messenger, September 2, 1955; Logan (UT) Herald Journal, December 20–21, 1959.

65 For more information on the history of Highway 89, see the Highway 89 Digital Collections initiative (www. highway89.org). This project seeks to document the history of Highway 89 by providing digital access to an assortment of materials from special collections and archives throughout Utah and Arizona. Initially started as a joint project between Utah State University, the Utah State Archives, Salt Lake County Archives, Brigham Young University, and Southern Utah University, and Northern Arizona University, the online collection currently offers about 1,400 historic photographs and documents that help illuminate the history that has grown up alongside Highway 89.