Utah Centennial County History Series - Millard County 1999

Page 312

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEW DEAL

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good, matters were different for the route from Delta to Nevada. Utah Road Commission C h a i r m a n W.D. H a m m o n d assured anxious Nevadans that efforts would be made to improve the connection between the two states, and that the Utah extension would be placed on the federal aid system as soon as additional mileage was available. When pressed for a specific time, H a m m o n d could not commit, but he did affirm that n o other road in Utah held precedence over Highway 6. World War II soon interfered with further consideration of the highway, however.43 In 1938 a Tooele delegation came to Delta to seek support for a highway branching from the Eureka road to Tooele by way of Tintic Junction and Vernon. That road was already surfaced to St. John, with another section surveyed b u t n o t graded. This route would cut twenty-seven miles off the distance to Salt Lake City. Most Delta people were interested, and the state road commission was also enthusiastic about the proposal and proposed a possible extension of the road all the way to Panaca, Nevada. A road from Delta to Clear Lake utilizing a recently rebuilt river bridge at Deseret was already in progress, and Beaver County was constructing a road north toward Black Rock. These projects may have raised hopes in Milford and beyond in having that town be an alternative to Delta in linking Utah with Nevada. There soon was considerable talk of a road from Black Rock or Milford west to Baker, Nevada, with less firm support for Delta by the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern Utah. But as World War II loomed in Europe and United States officials expressed concern that the transcontinental highway system be completed as quickly as possible, the state road commission made its strongest assurances of favoring Delta as the point from which U.S. Highway 6 would head west. Pushing hard for this route was Dr. M.E. Bird. He served on several national road committees and traveled to Chicago at least once in the interest of this cause.44 A serious problem of the Great Depression was the continuing debt problem of the nation's farmers. Soon into Franklin D. Roosevelt's first administration, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) and the H o m e Owner's Loan C o r p o r a t i o n (HOLC) were established with the financial backing of the federal government to


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Utah Centennial County History Series - Millard County 1999 by Utah Historical Society - Issuu