The Army Corps of Engineers Road System

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Fort Klamath Road

The engineers thought Fort Klamath Road should extend from the South Entrance for some 8 miles to Annie Spring, where Arant and his successor Will G. Steel had their headquarters. From there the road went north for another 3.3 miles, to where the engineers established "Camp 2," at the junction with the Rim Road in Munson Valley. Most of the work between Annie Spring and the South Entrance involved straightening and widening the wagon road route of 1865, though two minor realignments totaling 1.5 miles took place along that stretch. Engineers found a new location for only one small portion of the wagon road Arant built through Munson Valley, this being between Goodbye Creek and the lower end of the valley.

Aside from a small amount of clearing and grading that took place just south of Camp 2 in 1913, virtually all of the Fort Klamath Road was completed over the following summer. Clearing started with removing small trees from the roadway with teams, and then felling larger diameter trees before blasting the stumps. Laborers accomplished much of the grading work by hand, or with teams and drag scrapers, though a steam shovel also assisted by making three small cuts. Cross drainage initially consisted of four log bridges and culverts made of planks or corrugated iron, though the plank culverts and two of the bridges had to be replaced in 1918 by fills and iron culverts. Just as elsewhere in the park, surfacing remained on hold since the engineers lacked funding for that phase of construction.