In the early eighties the matter of road making was taken over by the army engineers. Until 1895 actual control was in the hands of non-resident officers, which proved unsatisfactory. After that the Acting Superintendent exercised supervision. Captain Anderson had a soldier’s and a surveyor’s eye for feasible routes. He favored the construction of twenty miles of good dirt road with fair grades to one mile of macadam and the resulting delay in opening the Park to the public.[247] The principal supervisors were Captain D. C. Kingman and Major Hiram M. Chittenden. Through their combined efforts the Grand Loop was planned and patiently constructed. In 1892 the road from Old Faithful to West Thumb was started. It took five years to get through to Jackson Lake. At the same time work progressed on the long section from Thumb to Fishing Bridge and thence to the East Entrance. That project was finished and accessible from Cody in 1903. Two years later the difficult Dunraven Pass and the scenic Chittenden Road to the summit of Mt. Washburn were ready. These were the last links in the Grand Loop. Of course, there have been continuous changes and refinements. In general the trend has been away from the plateaus to the more scenic river routes. Stretches through the Golden Gate, under Overhanging Cliff, and through the Gibbon and Firehole canyons are both interesting and costly.
In 1902 an experiment was made with the view of solving the dusty road problem. Several wide-tired sprinklers were tried out. The following year the number was increased, and more than thirty filling tanks were installed along the way. Most of them were filled by gravity and rams. In this way over a hundred miles of highway was moistened daily. Still, there were times when the dust was too thick for any effective treatment that man could devise.[248] Of course, nature had an adequate remedy, which it occasionally employed. Superintendent Albright related an instance:
Once I had a large congressional party in Yellowstone. It was in charge of the late James W. Good. Yellowstone’s roads were terribly dusty and the water sprinkling was of little value. We wanted Congress to adopt an oiling program but every night while the Committee was in the Park it rained and the roads were perfect. Nevertheless every day I told of the dust menace and urged the improvement, but the congressmen only laughed and some member would say “Albright’s going to tell his old dusty road story again.”[249]
Continuing the narrative, Superintendent Albright told this story:
“Another year, I met a sub-committee of the House Appropriations Committee at the Grand Canyon National Park. Congressman, now United States Senator, Carl Hayden, was with the party when they reached the park. Here again we had a problem of terrible roads. The committee had not had much sleep the night before arrival due to changing trains, and when I took them over the worst road in the park they went to sleep on me. I bounced them into every rut and hole I could find, but even then I had to shake them to wake them up. For a long time they contended that the road was a boulevard, but finally authorized the improvement desired. On the same trip, Congressman Cramton of Michigan, for years the stalwart champion of national parks, saw a camper stop his car near the Grand Canyon Park office. He went over to him seeking information about the conduct of the park. The tourist gave him a vigorous denunciation of the roads in the park, and Mr. Cramton always claimed that I planted the camper there to trap him.”
The suggestion frequently came to the Superintendent that he should sprinkle the roads with water from Alum Creek. That would shorten the distance and simplify the task!
In 1917 the National Park Service assumed control over all road construction and maintenance. Since then a comprehensive policy of scientific road making has been followed; grades have been modified, while at the same time great cuts and fills have been avoided so far as possible; turns have been eased and widened; and in recent years all the roads have been paved with oil mix. An appropriation of $3,369,450 in 1933, under the National Recovery Act, became the basis of the marvelous improvements made in recent years. In 1937 a remarkably scenic highway was completed from Red Lodge, Montana, to the Northeast Gate. After 1928, Cecil A. Lord directed the engineering activities of the Park until his death in 1943, whereupon Park Engineer Philip H. Wohlbrandt assumed that important responsibility.
The year 1915 was indeed a banner one in Yellowstone transportation history. It was the first year automobiles were admitted, and consequently heralded the end of the stagecoach. Actually, staging lingered through another season, but the race was over as the poet said:
Here’s to you, old stage driver,
We’ll hear your shout no more,