Built primarily during the auto trails period of the 1910s, prior to the establishment of the United States Numbered Highway System, the road was replaced in 1926 by U.S. Route 91 (US 91) and subsequently Interstate 15 (I-15).

[4][5] Small portions of the route in California, Nevada (Las Vegas Boulevard) and Utah are sometimes still referred to by the name, or as Arrow Highway.

Starting in 1915, auto racing champion Charles H. Bigelow drove the entire route many times to generate publicity for the road.

[6][7] The "Silver Lake cutoff", which would save about 90 miles (145 km),[8] was proposed by 1920,[9] and completed in 1925 as an oiled road by San Bernardino County.

The new "cutoff route" was added to the federal-aid secondary system in 1926,[15] which helped pay for a mid-1930s widening and paving, including some realignments (parts of the old road are now known as Arrowhead Trail).