In 1950, the State Highway Department began planning construction of a new alignment of US 66 through Yucca. Construction was planned to start near Topock and head northeast through Yucca to connect with the existing highway near Kingman. At the time, the section between Topock and Kingman still followed the steep and winding path through Oatman into the Black Mountains and through Sitgreaves Pass. This section was built across this rough terrain instead of following the more level route to the east adopted by the railroad because the road followed the National Old Trails highway which was for gold mining in Oatman and Goldroad (now a ghost town). It was fraught with hairpin turns and was the steepest along the entire route, so much so that some early travelers, too frightened at the prospect of driving such a potentially dangerous road, hired locals to navigate the winding grade. By September 1950, the Oatman bypass was given priority on the state highway construction agenda, as US 66 was crucial to military defense traffic. The State Highway Department contracted the Phoenix-Tempe Stone Company to construct the first of the new route on September 15, 1950, at a cost of $262,152 (equivalent to $ in ).