During Governor Bamberger’s administration, (1917-1921), a bond issue of $6,000,000 was earmarked to build a concrete highway south to St. George, but funds were exhausted before Provo was reached. Under Governor Charles R. Mabey (1921-1925), gravel roads were stressed in place of the more expensive concrete, and a gasoline tax to replace state and county road taxes was enacted into law, but the road to St. George had never been completed. A solution was proposed in 1924 at a meeting attended by G. G. Armstrong, Lafayette Hanchett, A. W. Ivins. George A. Smith, W. J. Halloran and Randall Jones, altruistic Utah citizens. The scheme proposed that each of the southern counties be given a quota of $5,000 and Salt Lake City, $10,000, to be raised through the chambers of commerce. This money was used by the State Road Commission to match federal funds for building the road over the black ridge between Ash Creek and Pintura in Washington County. Federal aid for roads had been available since 1916, but complications between state and federal rights and prerogatives delayed cooperation. By 1923, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads and the State Road Commission were both studying the problem of linking the scenic points of southern Utah and northern Arizona. B. J. Finch of the Bureau of Public Roads and Howard C. Means, Utah State Road Engineer, investigated the possibilities of a short-cut from Zion eastward toward Mt. Carmel or Kanab. In early June, 1923, they arrived at Orderville and rode horseback with two local guides along the east rim of Zion seeking a possible outlet. From study of topographic sheets, they had already conceived a possible route up Parunuweap Canyon. Failing here, they drove around to Zion Canyon via Kanab, Pipe Springs and Hurricane. Walter Ruesch, acting Superintendent of Zion, suggested that they confer with John Winder, the man best acquainted with the “lay of the land” who already had ideas on the subject. In 1880, when only ten years old, Winder had climbed the old Indian trail out of Zion where he later (1896) built the first East Rim Trail. He remembered that “old man Newman” of Rockville had always contended that timber could be brought down from Cedar Mountain if a road could be bored through the cliffs of Zion. Winder had explored every outlet and was convinced that there was only one possibility: a road up Pine Creek to the cliff and a tunnel opening in the Great Arch and coming out into the canyon above the cliff.