At the entrance to the Park, they were welcomed by mounted rangers and by an orchestra and chorus from Dixie College at St. George. At the Wylie Camp, they were cheered by five hundred local people and tourists and serenaded by the college musicians during lunch. After the meal, the caravan proceeded to the end of the road at the Grotto campground, and twenty-four men, including the President, went horseback two miles farther to the foot of the cable. The caravan then retraced its route to Cedar City, where in the evening, both President and Mrs. Harding gave short talks to the assembled multitude before bidding farewell and boarding their train. The trip had been unmarred by trouble of any kind and seemed to have been immensely enjoyed.
Before leaving Washington, President Harding had signed a proclamation making Bryce Canyon a national monument, but had left it under the direction of the U. S. Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. The transfer to the Department of Interior was to come later. The Forest Service went ahead with plans for its development.
By 1923, passable auto roads reached Zion, Kaibab, North Rim, Bryce Canyon, and Cedar Breaks, but some of the routes were circuitous and it required a great deal of extra travel to make the loop. Thus the road from La Verkin to Zion had to be retraced in order to go from Hurricane to Pipe Springs, while to reach Cedar Breaks a special side trip was necessary from either Parowan or Cedar City, and to get back to Cedar City from Bryce required a routing through Panguitch and Paragonah. Popular demand was growing for shorter and more direct routes as well as for better roads.
During Governor Bamberger’s administration, (1917-1921), a bond issue of $6,000,000 was earmarked to build a concrete highway south to St. George, but funds were exhausted before Provo was reached. Under Governor Charles R. Mabey (1921-1925), gravel roads were stressed in place of the more expensive concrete, and a gasoline tax to replace state and county road taxes was enacted into law, but the road to St. George had never been completed. A solution was proposed in 1924 at a meeting attended by G. G. Armstrong, Lafayette Hanchett, A. W. Ivins. George A. Smith, W. J. Halloran and Randall Jones, altruistic Utah citizens. The scheme proposed that each of the southern counties be given a quota of $5,000 and Salt Lake City, $10,000, to be raised through the chambers of commerce. This money was used by the State Road Commission to match federal funds for building the road over the black ridge between Ash Creek and Pintura in Washington County.
Federal aid for roads had been available since 1916, but complications between state and federal rights and prerogatives delayed cooperation. By 1923, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads and the State Road Commission were both studying the problem of linking the scenic points of southern Utah and northern Arizona. B. J. Finch of the Bureau of Public Roads and Howard C. Means, Utah State Road Engineer, investigated the possibilities of a short-cut from Zion eastward toward Mt. Carmel or Kanab. In early June, 1923, they arrived at Orderville and rode horseback with two local guides along the east rim of Zion seeking a possible outlet. From study of topographic sheets, they had already conceived a possible route up Parunuweap Canyon. Failing here, they drove around to Zion Canyon via Kanab, Pipe Springs and Hurricane. Walter Ruesch, acting Superintendent of Zion, suggested that they confer with John Winder, the man best acquainted with the “lay of the land” who already had ideas on the subject.
In 1880, when only ten years old, Winder had climbed the old Indian trail out of Zion where he later (1896) built the first East Rim Trail. He remembered that “old man Newman” of Rockville had always contended that timber could be brought down from Cedar Mountain if a road could be bored through the cliffs of Zion. Winder had explored every outlet and was convinced that there was only one possibility: a road up Pine Creek to the cliff and a tunnel opening in the Great Arch and coming out into the canyon above the cliff.
Means and Finch found Winder running logs down the cable. He immediately suggested the Pine Creek route and tunnel. The next day, the three men studied Pine Creek and the possible route up to the Arch. Winder then took them horseback to his ranch on the East Rim, via East Rim Trail. They walked down Pine Creek afoot to the top of the cliff. Encountering difficulties of grade and outlet at the top, they studied alternative possibilities and finally evolved the route now followed by the present road and tunnel.
The Salt Lake Tribune (June 25 and 26, 1923) published a sensational report of their investigations, but there was much skepticism in and out of official circles. In the end, however, the Pine Creek route was finally selected because it traversed the National Park, where federal funds would be available without being matched by the state.
Congressman Louis C. Crampton of Michigan, chairman of the House Committee for the National Park Service, took a personal interest in the route and tunnel and sponsored the appropriations that made it possible. During the planning and construction of this superb highway, which was to become an attraction second only to the canyon itself, Crampton made several trips to the park to watch its progress.
Since it was realized that the Pine Creek route would be years in building, several short-cuts were provided. A road connecting Cedar Breaks with Highway 89 on the summit between Hatch and Glendale was opened in 1923 so that parties making the loop could return to Cedar City via Cedar Breaks instead of Panguitch and Paragonah. In 1924, another cutoff was made from Rockville to the plains leading to Pipe Springs, thus eliminating the long trip down river to Hurricane and back. This road was firmly financed by a contribution of $5,000 from Stephen T. Mather.