The White Spar Road is the portion of Arizona State Route 89 that is located within the boundaries of the Prescott National Forest. And for that reason, it was the US Forest Service that paid for the entire 18-mile stretch of the road, committing $145,000 in 1922 (worth nearly $3 million today) for the project, but much more money and over two years would be required to finish construction.
It passes through an area known as White Spar, where a campground of the same name is located today.
In June 1922, four civic leaders of Prescott requested that the Yavapai County Supervisors provide $2000 to survey the White Spar Road. It was approved, and JM McHugh was tasked. White Spar was one leg of what would become US 89. When Arizona took over maintenance, it became Arizona Highway 89.
McHugh completed the survey for the road in 1923, and after reviewing it, the Forest Service budgeted an additional $81,228, bringing the total to $226,228 (or nearly $4.5 million today).
However, a hurdle appeared in April 1923 that “according to the Prescott people, influence [was] being brought to bear on the forestry department for a change in the route of the highway,” the Arizona Republican reported. The paper offered no clue as to whom these influencers were or what their motive might have been.
In response, Gov. Hunt telegraphed the US Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads with this concern. Since the next southern leg of the north-south highway depended on meeting the White Spar at the current proposed location and bids for the White Spar had already been advertised, any change to the route would cause immense delays. “Final approval on the [White Spar] road has already been made by the Department of Agriculture [which oversaw the national forest],” the Republican noted, and the original survey was kept.
By June, the National Forest Service budgeted $528,613 for the portion going through the Prescott National Forest (worth over $10 million today). “The road is to be 18 miles in length and will run from Prescott, Arizona to the western boundary of the Prescott National Forest,” the Williams News chronicled. And the construction began.
By February, 1924, a second steam shovel was sent to the northern end of the work, and workers started construction from the southern end at Congress Junction to meet it.
After attending Frontier Days and delivering a Fourth of July address, Governor Hunt stayed over the weekend to inspect the Route 89 construction both north and south of Prescott. That same month the feds announced that the White Spar was one-third finished. “The government’s project extends for 15 miles between the two points of Prescott and White Spar,” the Republican reported. “Maximum grades are 5%, and the road will be one of the best in the southwest, government experts believe.” (Yet, many of today’s seniors remember when the road was terribly narrow and caused many nerve-racking, “white-knuckle” moments, particularly when trucks were traveling in the opposite direction).
Four months later, just another 7% was added, meaning only 40% was complete despite half the allotted time having passed. Despite the delay, it was still hoped that it would be completed by August 1, 1925.
Meanwhile, three different stage companies applied to the Arizona Corporation Commission to run buses over this route, but all were rejected, citing that “the Santa Fe railroad company was furnishing adequate transportation service between Phoenix and Prescott.
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| A portion of White Spar when it was brand new. |
On August 25, 1925, the road from Phoenix to Prescott opened. Local traffic used it starting August 15, but a storm “brought down 1000 cubic yards of rock slide at Copper Creek, causing a detour,” the Republican reported.
Phoenix’s Republican newspaper began calling the new road the Hassayampa Highway, but people around Prescott continued calling it White Spar and still do.
Meanwhile, three different stage companies applied to the Arizona Corporation Commission to run buses over this route, but all were rejected, citing that “the Santa Fe railroad company was furnishing adequate transportation service between Phoenix and Prescott.
“The number of Maricopa automobiles one meets on the highways of Arizona, and particularly at distant mountain resorts, now are surprising,” the manager of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce stated.
The Republican stated: “[The] largest and most important of the forest highway projects constructed this year was the Prescott-White Spar road [for] $458,000 to the government” (or nearly $9 million today). However, improvements were required almost immediately. More than 100 men were busy “slicing down the sides of mountains and smoothing off the debris,” the Republican reported. “There will be, however, some very steep grades and sharp turns on the edges of high precipices. But no special provision for safety rails has been made.” (YIKES!) By the end of 1925, the paper declared that aside from a two-mile stretch “where a steam shovel had recently been working, the road [was] in excellent condition.”
In January 1926, two men travelled from Phoenix to Flagstaff in just under six hours. The Coconino Sun reported that the pair weren’t even trying to break any record. “Both are enthusiastic in their praise of the new White Spar road, claiming it is one of the best and most scenic in the state.”
“No highway in the entire program of highway construction in Arizona is of equal importance to the Hassayampa Trail,” the Republican stated. It would be the state’s main north-south artery [for decades and] a comfortable 3.5-hour automobile drive from Phoenix to Prescott. “The entire length and breadth of [Highway 89] will be a paradise for the motorist and tourist.”
Some serious landslides occurred occasionally, closing the road for a time, but it remained the major north-south artery until the construction of Interstate 17.
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The founding and history of the Senator Highway in Prescott, AZ
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SOURCES:
Arizona Republican:
5/25/1922, Pg. 2, Col. 5.
4/28/1923, Pg. 9, Col. 1.
12/20/1923, Pg. 7, Col. 3.
1/30/1924, Pg. 3, Col. 4.
2/17/1924, Sec. 2, Pg. 3, Col. 2.
7/6/1924, Pg. 9, Col. 6.
7/19/1924, Pg. 4, Col. 7.
11/20/1924, Pg. 5, Col. 3.
12/28/1924, Sec. 6, Pg. 6, Cols. 1-2.
8/2/1925, Pg. 5, Col. 2.
8/25/1925, Pg. 1, Col. 2.
9/25/1925, Pg. 1, Col. 3.
11/29/1925, Sec. 4, Pg. 1, Col. 1.
12/31/1925, Pg. 9, Col. 8.
Coconino Sun, 1/15/1926, Pg. 14, Col. 3.
Tucson Citizen, 7/17/1925, Pg. 1, Col. 2.
Weekly Journal-Miner:
6/21/1922, Pg. 3, Col. 2.
7/12/1922, Pg. 1, Cols. 3-4.
Williams News, 6/29/1923, Pg. 4, Col. 3.
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