Before a causeway existed, nearly seven miles of saltwater separated Antelope Island from the mainland, and for over one hundred years the island belonged to private industry and was virtually inaccessible to the public. Construction of a road linking the island with the mainland began in February 1964 with support from county legislators including Representative Bill Holt, known as Antelope Bill, the Davis County Commission, commissioners Wayne M. Winegar, G. Evan Taylor, and Glen W. Flint, Dale Smedley Construction, and volunteers from Hill Air Force Base and local communities. Despite sub-zero weather, equipment crossed a sandbar to within 1 1/2 miles of the island, and men and machines worked around the clock to complete the 5 1/2 mile road back to the mainland, reaching the Syracuse shore three months later. The road still ended 1 1/2 miles short of the island, so Commissioner Winegar sought support and financial aid from local communities while Senator Haven J. Barlow worked with state legislators and two governors to promote purchasing part of the island as a state park. After a delay of almost three years, Governor Calvin Rampton signed a bill in 1967 for the purchase of the north 2,000 acres of the island for $210,000, and the state built a bridge, raised the surface level, widened and paved the causeway, and opened Antelope Island State Park to the public on January 15, 1969. Two draglines on wooden platforms advanced across the lake muck by moving mats beneath themselves and digging a trench whose dried spoil formed a road base as solid as cement. After the causeway was completed, lake levels on the south side began rising by an inch a day, and after failed attempts to use drain culverts, engineers concluded that removing part of the road and building a bridge was the only workable solution. With legislation and Governor Scott M. Matheson's concurrence, the state purchased the remaining 26,000 acres from the Anschutz Corporation in 1981. Floods in 1983 completely covered the causeway, and after the waters receded the county raised it and reopened it in 1993. Volunteers such as Ira Thurgood donated equipment and thousands of hours, and after years of heavy flooding only the upper half of the gatehouse showed that a road had once existed. Through the vision, ingenuity, and persistence of Davis County's leaders and people, Antelope Island became a crown jewel of Utah State Parks.