As settlements grew and the quest for gold and silver brought prospectors and miners, transportation for people and goods became critical. Entrepreneur Joseph Lamb started a ten burro pack train to carry goods from Cañon City to the Upper Arkansas Valley mining camps. In the 1860s an official wagon road was built on Lamb's route and stagecoaches began running from Cañon City. Transportation needs quickly outgrew the capabilities of wagons. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad won the right to lay tracks upriver from Cañon City and Salida and Poncha Springs began to flourish in 1880. Soon railroad branches headed west toward Gunnison over Marshall Pass, south over Poncha Pass to New Mexico, and up the Monarch Spur through Maysville to the quarry at Monarch Pass. Railroad operations continued through the mid-1900s, but by the turn of the 20th century the automobile captured the American imagination. Existing wagon roads were too rugged for automobiles, so shorter routes between Cañon City, Salida, and Gunnison were created. Work on the Salida-to-Cañon City road began in July 1913 and was completed in September 1915, with all but ten miles built by convicts. Monarch Pass opened for auto travel in September 1921, the route to Gunnison continued to evolve through the 1970s, Highway 50 was officially designated in 1931, and the route now known as US 285 was established in 1926 by consolidating several existing roads, with the direct Buena Vista-to-Poncha Springs route built in 1942 and the full highway paved in 1946.