Bicknell lay in a sparsely populated, remote area of Utah that was difficult to reach when it was settled, so early residents built their own roads and traveled on foot, horseback, or in horse-drawn wagons. The wagon era reached its height from 1850 to 1920, the same period in which Bicknell was settled, and most settlers arrived by wagon or handcart from Nauvoo, Illinois, between 1847 and 1868. Traveling by wagon, early residents needed two to three days each way to reach the county seat in Junction, Utah, or Sevier County to visit relatives or conduct business. In 1893, a poll tax of three dollars or two day's work was imposed on each able-bodied male to support road building. A favored road-building method was to tie several large logs behind three or four yoke of oxen and drag them over the proposed road, loosening rocks and brush that were later removed from the roadway by hand.