Echo originated as a stopover along the Mormon trail. Later the town served as a junction between the First Transcontinental Railroad and a spur line to serve silver mines near Park City. Since the creation of U.S. Highways Echo has served as a highway junction, where the main road coming from Wyoming splits with one branch proceeding towards Salt Lake City, continuing towards San Francisco, California, and the other towards Ogden, continuing to Portland, Oregon. Originally the main highway was numbered U.S. Route 30S and the branch was U.S. Route 530; the modern freeway equivalents are numbered Interstate 80 and Interstate 84.