The first governmental survey of lands west and north of Moreland, completed in 1893, notes the "Wood Road", so named for the settlers' use of it to harvest trees from the lavas. In the map created by those first surveyors, shown below, the road (which no doubt began closer to Moreland--or "Keever", at that time) is shown runnning from East to West, starting 3/4 mile north of Parks Road on North Ash (remember, none of today's roads existed at the time of the survey) and heading slightly northwest for the next six miles to just south of the E-Z Street and Township Road intersection.
From there it splits, one leg continuing across Springfield-Taber Road westward before hitting the lavas, after which it follows that "finger" of rock for another mile, where a cache of "cedars" (junipers, really, as there are no cedars in the area) no doubt provided fence posts and wood for the fire, while another leg heads northwest along a different section of the lavas.
To the southwest of that road, not that far away as the crow flies (or as the wagon rolls, at that time), but distant by modern day standards tied to paved roads, the 1888 survey displays the way from Springfield toward the Big Butte. That road, by the surveyor's appraisal, is already abandoned--the route to the Lost River area, once going from Blackfoot southwesterly along the Snake and then due west to Springfield, had been shortened around 1880 when James McTucker "found" a path not far from where the Arco Highway would eventually run; Theodore Danilson then started a stage line from Blackfoot to Root Hog, Arco, and Mackay, shortening the old path shown on the map below by thirty miles. The old road went from Danilson's Falls (Archie's Falls in the local vernacular) northward to bypass Danilson Springs, then headed out toward the Big Southern. The 1895 survey of the township to the north, completed seven years later, leaves no record of that road's continuing path. Presumably, the surveyor considered it immaterial.
But the 1914 survey of the townships to the northwest show trails south of the lavas. Those acquainted with desert roads can confirm or disconfirm their presence today.
The survey maps in this blog are public domain images, courtesy of the BLM. You can find similar images from early surveys where you might have interest at https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx#searchByTypeIndex=1&searchTabIndex=0
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