The most revolutionary proposal for a change in travel facilities, coming in 1894, was a demand for railroads. There were propositions wholly independent of the Montana segregation case. Many people sincerely favored the entrance of trains on their own merits. The issue was discussed in the House of Representatives on December 17, by the Hon. Henry H. Coffeen of Wyoming. Speaking of the operators, he said: ... they are holding on to a theory of sacred maintenance of the stage coach and broncho riding method of reaching this great Wonderland at a time when the superior advantages of railroad travel ought to be granted to the people.... These journeys going round the Park, so to say, and coming in at the back door by tedious night and day stage rides are so expensive, the time and inconveniences so great and the season so short (three months) that the great bulk of our population must forever stay out and remain in ignorance of the scenes of the Park. Not one hundredth part of one per cent of our people per year could possibly visit the Park by these methods.[246] While this argument did not produce a change of policy it did give an impetus to road building. A brief review of that important development would be appropriate. Reference has already been made to the rude trails hacked out by government expeditions and early tourists and also to the trace improvised by C. J. Baronett and his associates, which led from Mammoth to his bridge at the forks of the Yellowstone and along the east branch to the mines at Cooke, Montana. In 1877 General Howard’s captain, W. F. Spurgin, made a faint apology for a road in bringing his wagons from Mary Mountain to Tower Falls. It was the next year when the first wagons managed a round trip from Mammoth, and also the West Entrance, to the Upper Geyser Basin. In building a road across the base of Obsidian Cliff, Colonel Norris employed a unique tactic in road making. Great bonfires were burned over the black glass, which made it expand; then cold water was dashed upon it, shattering the material so that it could be chopped out. [Illustration: Golden Gate drive]