When Davis County's Bluff Road was gated

 

BLUFF Road is a prominent north-south corridor road in west Davis County today.

The highway traverses through Syracuse on the south and proceeds into West Point and Clinton.

However, in 1926-1927, during the decade when automobiles began to become popular, the road was gated shut.

According to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Bountiful on March 11, 1926, Thomas Sessions from Syracuse appeared before the Davis County Commission to complain that despite being "a public road -- the old Bluff road -- was closed by a gate having been built across the road."

The Commission referred to the matter to the Davis County Attorney, with instructions to have the road opened to the public.

The next time this issue came up in any newspaper, it was some 19 months later, in the Dec. 22, 1927 Weekly Reflex. This article stated that Lawrence Corbridge constructed the gate across Bluff Road.

O.W. Willey of Syracuse objected to the road being closed, it blocking access to some of his property. The County Commissioners ordered the road to be county property and that the gate can be opened at any time.

The Bluff Road was one of the key pioneer trails in Davis County in the 19th Century.

                 The monument to Bluff Road's pioneer legacy.

Utah Highway Facts and Fancy

                Highest paved road point in Utah, Bald Mountain summit.

OVERALL, Utah's highways provide a pleasant contrast of geography for sightseers, with paved and unpaved roads traversing some of the nation's most spectacular scenery.

Besides U-143 being Utah's steepest paved road with a 13 percent grade, the following tidbits about other Utah highways have been gathered from Utah maps, the Utah Department of Transportation and other sources:

·         Highest paved road in Utah — Mirror Lake Highway (U-150), which crosses Bald Mountain pass, 10,759 feet above sea level. The road is usually open June to early November, depending on the weather. Its latest-ever opening was June 29, 1995.

·         Highest paved road along the Wasatch Front — The Mount Nebo loop road that reaches 9,353 feet above sea level at the Monument trailhead.

·         Highest gravel road in Utah —From Big John Flat to a high ridge in the Tushar Mountains, between Beaver and Marysvale, at 11,500 feet above sea level.

·         Highest gravel road along the Wasatch Front — Skyline Drive in Davis County between Farmington and Bountiful. A spur road that heads north to the Francis Peak radar domes above Fruit Heights tops out at almost 9,500 feet above sea level. The road is passable by cars in the summer.

·         Lowest elevation paved road — River Road in Washington County south of Bloomington Hills and St. George at 2,697 feet above sea level.

·         Lowest elevation unpaved road — Several jeep roads in the Beaver Dam Wash area, west of St. George, that approach 2,500 feet in elevation.

·         First Utah roads to be hard-surfaced — Richards Street, in downtown Salt Lake City, from South Temple to 100 South and also State Street, from South Temple to 400 South — both in 1891 and probably paved with a combination of granite blocks, asphalt and brick. Main Street, in Salt Lake City — from South Temple to 300 South, was the next street paved.

·         Longest straight stretch of road — I-80 on the Salt Flats between Wendover and Knolls with an approximately 50-mile straightaway.

·         Longest tunnel — Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel (U-9), 5,613-feet long, the nation's fifth-longest land tunnel. It opened in 1930 and is in Zion National Park.

·         Worst paved road test for acrophobiacs — Probably U-12, between Escalante and Boulder, where the highway traverses a knife-edge with high cliffs on both sides of the roadway and no guardrails.

-By Lynn Arave and first published in the Deseret News, May 26, 2000.

Back when the road to Huntsville went through a duck pond

                     Pineview Dam dominates the west side of Ogden Valley today.

BACK in 1885, access to Huntsville, Utah, in Ogden Valley was a real nightmare.
According to the Ogden Standard-Examiner of July 21, 1885, "The approach to Huntsville is through a duck pond, three or four feet deep, which is a terror to pedestrians, and it should be looked after."
The story reported that the road in Ogden Canyon was suitable, but once a traveler emerges into Ogden Valley and heads toward Eden, there are also two very bad places in the road, besides the duck pond. One is caused by a stream that creates "a very bad mud hole" and the other by a risky bridge across the North Fork of the Ogden River, "which will, if not fixed, cause a serious accident."

(Above photograph by Whitney Arave.)

When Straight Roads Aren't Straight in Utah

            The north end of 4500 West in West Point: notice the jag after the intersection.

                   Another look at the uneven intersection at 1800 North and 4500 West.

By Lynn Arave

Have you ever wondered why some roads don't line up?

When is a straight road not a straight road?

When it’s 4500 West Street (also State Road 110) in West Point, Utah.

Anyone who’s traveled this north-south corridor in northwestern Davis County knows it has a large bend in it on its south end, to the west, near 700 South and the Syracuse border.

They may also know it does not line up directly with a continuing segment of 4500 West in the northern edge of West Point, that travels north of 1800 North (State Road 37) into Hooper City. To continue further northward on 4500 West, a jag to the west of about 150 feet is required.

        At the south end of 4500 West Street is this bend that realigns it back to normal.

                    Another look at the 4500 West curve on is west end.

However, it is also clear that the extreme south and north ends of 4500 West line up, if they could be connected. It is only that long, middle segment, about three miles long, that is out of alignment and likely closer to being 4400 West.

How did this important corridor end up being mismatched?

“It has been that way since pioneer times, way back 100-plus years ago,” Max B. Elliott, Davis County Surveyor, said. “It is the road by usage,” he said of the section that’s out of alignment.

He speculated that some homesteads were in the way of having a straight road and over time that simply became the legal right of way as there was likely too much property to displace.

“There are other roads like that,” Elliott said of 4500 West, though it is the one most visible in its misalignment.

Howard Stoddard, 86, former West Point Mayor, said he didn’t know why the road was crooked.

“It has been that way all of my life,” he said.

Val Hinze, who has lived on 4500 West for more than 35 years, said while he has been keenly aware of the misalignment of part of the road, he too has never heard any cause mentioned.

Today, 4500 West is the most western north-south corridor in Davis County. Lacking any traffic signals or stop signs, it also remains the lone, free-flowing road on Davis County’s west side.

Although the exact cause of the crooked road can’t be identified, a further look at a history of that road and adjoining highways, contains some interesting information.

The 4500 West Street was first designated as a state road, U-195, in 1935, connecting U-37 with U-108 (today’s Antelope Drive).

Back in 1935, U-37 (1800 North or the “Clinton Road”) ended at 4500 West. It wasn’t until 1945 that the road officially looped into Hooper and past “Pig Corner” at its bend.

And, before Hill Air Force Base was established, 1800 North (U-37) used to go all the way east, up and over a sandy hill into Weber Canyon. So, it is more than a coincidence that this road lines up with the mouth of the canyon.

Elliott said the lack of direct access to Weber Canyon would have been cut off by Hill Field in the early 1940s.

The 4500 West Street was dropped as a state route for a time starting in 1947, but when it became a state thoroughfare again, it was renamed U-110, being 3.5 miles long, and at an elevation of 4,230 feet.

U-107, or 300 North Street, was improved and officially designated as a state road in 1931, and offered eastern access off 4500 West.

(-Originally written by Lynn Arave and published in the Syracuse Islander, March 13, 2013.)