Lund Highway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Lund Highway | |
|---|---|
 Lund Highway highlighted in red | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 30.5 mi[1] (49.1 km) |
| Major junctions | |
| South end |  SR-56 in Cedar City |
| North end | Lund |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Utah |
| Counties | Iron |
| Highway system | |
| |
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
 State Route 19 | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cedar City–Lund |
| Existed | 1927[citation needed]–1969[citation needed] |
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.[citation needed]
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.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar City | 0.0 | 0.0 | SR-56 – Modena, Cedar City | Southern terminus | |
| Lund | 30.5 | 49.1 | Main Street | Northern terminus | |
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
Gallery
Lund Highway looking east
Lund Highway looking west
