Mission 66 Program

HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD ARCHES NATIONAL PARK
HAER No. UT-70

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK ENTRANCE ROAD
Leaving Highway 191 near the remains of a "dugway", or primitive cattle drive trail, the road travels up the north canyon wall through a series of dramatically ascending switchbacks, passes close to a number of scenic areas and terminates at a loop near the Devils Garden.

Completion of this road was planned as part of the National Park Service's MISSION 66 program initiated by NPS Director Conrad L. Wirth. Founded by the National Park Service in 1956, the MISSION 66 program was intended to develop and protect the natural and historic resources of these priceless possessions of the American people. The project would conclude after ten years, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the National Park Service.

In order to forge this section of the road, running up the canyon wall and over the rim, 185,000 cubic yards of rock was blasted and 30,000 yards of dirt and rock moved from borrow ditches to form the road base. The final costs for the road between the entryway and the junction with the Windows road totaled $742,740 during the 1958 fiscal year.

The official opening and road dedication was held Sunday, August 24, 1958. Mrs. Alvina Williams, age 80, cut the official ribbon accompanied by officials representing the National Park Service, the State of Utah and local interests.

Mrs. Williams was the widow of one of Moab's earliest settlers and pioneers, Dr. J. W. Williams, who had died in 1956. Ten years later, the American Society of Landscape Architects selected the Arches entrance road as one of the best roads of the Mission 66 program.