On May 10, 1869, the tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways met at Promontory, Utah, the "golden spike" was driven, and the nation's transcontinental railway was completed. The nearby town of Corrine, Utah, 70 miles north of Salt Lake, grew as a transfer point for passengers and freight to be loaded onto wagons and stagecoaches headed to the gold camps and towns of Idaho and Montana. The time it now took to get to the Rockies from St. Louis was greatly diminished.

Traffic over Bannack Pass increased steadily as the freight road became a favored route. During the height of its life, within the 60-mile stretch between Bannack and the pass, five well-spaced stage stations provided food and shelter to travelers. By 1873 though, 11 years after its inception, use dwindled as the area's gold began playing out.

Today, the old wagon ruts of the Corrine-Bannack route can still be seen as they point southward up the hill out of Bannack. Modern-day explorers are able to trace the old road, most of which is now a well-maintained gravel and dirt county road (impassable in wet weather and snow-clogged in winter). Where the original trail crossed through the bottoms in Nicholia Basin, the route is yet visible. The county road somewhat parallels the old path, then rejoins it before reaching the Continental Divide.

Even more evident than the Corrine/Bannack Road is the main trail that led north to Virginia Caity, Helena, and other communities in the Territory. From the center of town up the east side of Hangman's Gulch, its well-worn marking are imprinted in the steep grade. About fdour miles from town, the route passes a formation known as "Road Agent Rock," the site of many holdups and other outlaw activity.

-from the seventh section, "Getting the Goods to Bannack"