The Plank Road grew out of the early automobile era and competition between San Diego and Los Angeles as San Diego leaders sought roads to link communities and promote commerce across Southern California. Businessman and road builder "Colonel" Ed Fletcher helped advance the effort after winning an October 1912 race from San Diego to Phoenix in 19½ hours, beating a Los Angeles Examiner reporter by 10 hours despite the challenge of crossing the Imperial Sand Dunes by horse-drawn assistance and using a railroad bridge over the Colorado River at Yuma. Support from Imperial County Supervisor Ed Boyd, local newspapers, local communities, and plans for a bridge over the Colorado River in Yuma helped secure approval for a road through the dunes. The first planks of a two-track road were installed on February 14, 1915, but traffic and maintenance quickly wore it down, leading to a second plank road of continuous 8-foot planks in 1916. That road remained in use until 1926, when the State Highway Commission built a 20-foot-wide asphalt-like concrete road. After years of decline and little use, a major 1973–1974 effort by the Bureau of Land Management, the Imperial Valley Pioneer Historical Society, the California Off-Road Vehicle Association, and Air Force personnel reassembled a 1,500-foot section from surviving pieces in the dunes, with more than 400 volunteers helping preserve it. Today, fragments of the Plank Road remain in the Imperial Sand Dunes as an important example of transportation technology, while the surrounding area draws thousands of visitors each year and contributes to the local economy.