Highway 12 “The Million-Dollar Road” – Garfield County UT

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the roads into Boulder UT, which has previously lacked any modern access.  The first road from Escalante to Boulder was along Hell’s Backbone, built in 1933, and the second – and first all-weather road – was the present State Highway 12, started in 1935 and finished in 1940.  A roadside information marker on Highway 12 explains in detail:

“Before the Highway 12 route was built, traveling through this region was slow, hard work. As late as 1940, Boulder (Utah) still received its mail by mule train for part of the year. The Civilian Conservation Corps had completed the Hell’s Backbone Road between Escalante and Boulder in 1933, allowing vehicle traffic in summertime. But when winter snows closed that road, the only routes between the two towns were wagon trails through the canyons…In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps crews began to build the Lower Boulder Road, now part of Highway 12. Nicknamed the “Million Dollar Road,” the road took five years, backbreaking effort, ingenuity, and many tons of dynamite to complete. Crews blasted through sandstone ledges down to the Escalante River and up Calf Creek Canyon. On June 21, 1940, jubilant community members celebrated completion of the first all-season automobile road between the two communities.”