Lund Highway

Lund Highway
Route information
Length: 30.5 mi[1] (49.1 km)
Major junctions
South end: SR-56 in Cedar City
North end: Lund
Location
Counties: Iron
Highway system
Lund Highway looking east
Lund Highway looking west

Lund Highway is a road connecting Cedar City to the ghost town of Lund in Iron County, Utah. Although it is classified as a minor collector,[2] it was once an important connection between the Union Pacific Railroad at Lund and the national parks of southern Utah and northern Arizona.

Route description

The Lund Highway begins at an intersection with SR-56 in western Cedar City. It travels north through farmland before turning northwesterly through wide open terrain with only a few small access roads intersecting the highway before it comes to its end in the ghost town of Lund.[1]

History

The State Road Commission designated a state highway connecting Cedar City with Lund in August 1912.[3] The purpose was to connect Cedar City with the nearest railroad station, that of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (Union Pacific Railroad) at Lund.[4] A connecting road—now known as Gap Road—running west from the county seat at Parowan through Hieroglyphic Canyon (now Parowan Gap[5]) to the Cedar City–Lund road was added to the state highway system in December 1915.[6] In 1919, the state legislature redefined the state highway system to include only a short list of roads and any federal aid projects. The road to Cedar City was kept since it was improved with federal aid,[7] and the road to Parowan was dropped, but restored in 1921.[8]

The Union Pacific Railroad began to promote a "circle tour" connecting Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Zion National Park, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in 1922. A new Cedar City Branch from Lund shortened the off-railroad distance, allowing the Utah Parks Company, a Union Pacific subsidiary that operated the tour buses and park lodging, to begin at Cedar City.[9] Passenger trains on the branch usually operated only during the summer, however, while railroad-operated bus service on the Lund-Cedar City state highway ran year round.

The state legislature designated the roads connecting Lund to SR-1 at both Cedar City and Parowan as State Route 19 in 1927,[10] and in 1931 the Parowan branch was split off, first as SR-128[11] and then in 1933 as State Route 127.[12] A second connection between SR-19 and SR-1, following Midvalley Road past Enoch, became State Route 199 in 1935[13] but was given back to the county in 1943.[14] SR-127 was removed from the state highway system in 1953[15] and SR-19 in 1969,[3] automobiles having largely supplanted railroads as the preferred method of vacation travel.

Major intersections

The entire route is in Iron County.

Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
Cedar City0.00.0 SR-56 – Modena, Cedar CitySouthern terminus
Lund30.549.1Main StreetNorthern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi


References

Route map: Bing / Google

  1. 1 2 3 Google (January 1, 2011). "Lund Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ Functional Classification Maps: Iron County (Map). Utah Department of Transportation. February 14, 2005. Retrieved July 2008.
  3. 1 2 Staff. "State Route History" (PDF). Utah Department of Transportation. Retrieved July 2007.
  4. ↑ Third Biennial Report of the State Road Commission for the years 1913 and 1914 (Report). p. 139 (Iron County). During this biennium the principal road construction was that between Cedar City and its nearest railroad center, namely, Lund. Eighteen miles of this road was constructed during the fall of 1913 by the ordinary team and grader method. The remaining seventeen miles (27 km) of road was constructed during the spring and summer of 1914 by means of graders drawn by a traction engine.
  5. ↑ Utah Official Highway Map (Map). Cartography by Rand McNally. Utah State Road Commission. 1956.
  6. ↑ Fourth Biennial Report, State Road Commission, 1915 and 1916 (Report). p. 144.
  7. ↑ Fifth Biennial Report, State Road Commission, 1917-1918 (Report). p. 23.
  8. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1921). Chapter 62: Designation of State Roads. Session Laws of Utah. (r) From Parowan in a westerly direction via Gap, Wm. Adam's Well and intersect the Cedar-Lund road at a point sixteen miles east of Lund.
  9. ↑ Staff. "Pipe Spring National Monument: An Administrative History (Part II)". National Park Service. Retrieved July 2008.
  10. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1927). Chapter 21: Designation of State Roads. Session Laws of Utah. 19. From Cedar City northwesterly via Wye Junction to Lund, also from Wye Junction to Parowan.
  11. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1931). Chapter 55: Designation of State Roads. Session Laws of Utah. (128) From Wye junction on route 19 easterly to Parowan.
  12. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1933). Chapter 30. Session Laws of Utah. (127) From Wye Junction on route 19 easterly to Parowan.
  13. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1935). Chapter 37: Designation of State Roads. Session Laws of Utah. Route 199. From route 1 near Summit to route 19 near Mid Valley.
  14. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1943). Chapter 45: Highways. Session Laws of Utah.
  15. ↑ Utah State Legislature (1953). Chapter 45: Designation of State Roads. Session Laws of Utah.
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