For nearly forty years, couples from Arizona settlements left their homes each fall after harvest and traveled 400 miles to St. George, Utah, to be married in the St. George Temple, the only temple completed at that time. Following the old wagon road across the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, they wound through desert and steep canyons, crossed barren plateaus, and passed rivers and pools of undrinkable water. Couples from Snowflake and Taylor were the first known to make the trip in 1881. Some couples married in civil ceremony before leaving, others were escorted by chaperones, and a few, waiting until they could afford the trip, brought children who accompanied them. Couples frequently banded together for the long, hazardous journey, loading wagons with food in grub boxes, mounting water barrels on the wagon sides, and carrying hay and grain for their animals, while settlers along the way sometimes furnished food and water from their meager supplies. Reporter Will C. Barnes gave the route its name because of the romantic nature of these adventures. After the Atlantic Pacific Railroad was completed in 1885, a few couples went by train and later by auto. The journey was no longer necessary after the Mesa Arizona Temple was dedicated in 1927. The old trail still is visible in a few places, and the route was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. This route linked Arizona settlements to the St. George Temple and stood as a testimony to the faith and sacrifice of these settlers, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose pattern of sacrifice aided the settling of the Arizona and New Mexico wilderness.