The wagon road eventually became the subject of scandal and litigation ending with a United States Supreme Court decision in 1893.

The Stone Bridge and the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The wagon road adjacent to the Stone Bridge is owned by the United States Government and is administered by Bureau of Land Management.

In 1865, the Army decided it needed a fort near the Warner Lakes to facilitate the interdiction of Indian raiding parties passing through the area.

The 14th Infantry came by way of Fort Harney, arriving on the east side of the Warner Lakes in late summer.

The Army was unable to cross the chain of lakes which stretched more than seventy miles north to south.

It was constructed between 16 May and 24 July 1867 by forty men from the 23 Infantry Regiment under the supervision of Captain James Henton.

It was constructed by hauling basalt boulders and smaller rocks from nearby Hart Mountain and dumping them into the marsh.

In the meantime, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road had begun using the Stone Bridge to cross the Warner Lakes.

The roads were intended to facilitate the movement of Army units within the state and promote settlement along the routes.

Once the tracts were patented, the company could sell or lease the land to recover the cost of construction and create profits for its investors.

It then followed the Williamson and Sprague Rivers, claiming large parts of the Klamath Indian Reservation.

The road crossed Steen's Mountain through Long Hollow (near the present day community of Fields) going on to Camp C. F. Smith on Whitehorse Creek.

[4][5][8][9][10] On 12 January 1870, Oregon's Governor, George L. Woods, certified to the United States Secretary of the Interior that the road was complete.

Nevertheless, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road Company claimed a total of 875,196 acres (3,541.79 km2) of public land.

At the same time, the value of the land and its timber, minerals, and grazing potential continued to increase as the property rights were passed from one investor group to the next.

This led to a major court case, known as the United States versus the California and Oregon Land Company.

[4][5][13] At that point, the original road headed south through northern Klamath County past what is now the community of Chemult.