The Army's presence in Camp Verde contributed to settlement and road building in the Verde Valley area. A road ran from Jerome to a stagecoach stop several miles south of town, and west of that stop another road crossed the creek and entered the area before it was yet a town. The Munds carved a trail to the east to drive their cattle to summer grazing land, and local families later worked to make it into a passable Schnebly Hill Road. Dynamite for roads and irrigation ditches was a common item in many pioneers' sheds. J.J. Thompson's trail came down the canyon from Indian Gardens. A connection out the north end of Oak Creek Canyon was not completed until 1914, when the county stepped in. The new roads crossed Oak Creek 16 times and included tunnels. Trails and dirt roads remained the norm until 1938, when the state decided to pave the roads into Sedona and built Midgely Bridge. New and improved roads meant easier access to markets in Flagstaff and Phoenix, and the cattle guard in Uptown remained until the 1950s.