State: | UT |
Type: | SR |
Route: | 31 |
Alternate Name: | Huntington Canyon Scenic Byway |
Map Custom: | yes |
Section: | 109 |
Length Mi: | 47.746 |
Length Round: | 3 |
Established: | 1915 as a state highway; 1927 as SR-31 |
Direction A: | West |
Terminus A: | at Fairview |
Junction: | near Fairview |
Direction B: | East |
Terminus B: | in Huntington |
Previous Type: | SR |
Previous Route: | 30 |
Next Type: | SR |
Next Route: | 32 |
State Route 31 (SR-31) is a state highway in Sanpete and Emery Counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It runs for 47.746miles from US-89 at Fairview to SR-10 in Huntington. The highway has been designated as part of The Energy Loop, a National Scenic Byway.
SR-31 begins at an intersection with US-89 at Fairview and runs east northeast for approximately 10miles, then turns southeast for the remainder of the route, terminating at an intersection with SR-10 at Huntington.
Just off State Route 31, about 15 miles (24 km) west north-west of Huntington, is Crandall Canyon, location of the Crandall Canyon coal mine. On Monday, August 6, 2007, at 2:48 A.M., the mine collapsed, trapping and killing six workers inside. A second collapse on August 16, 2007, killed a Mine Safety and Health Administration investigator and two more miners, bringing the total to nine.[1]
The road from SR-32 (by 1926 US-89) in Fairview east to the Sanpete-Emery County line, near the present north end of Electric Lake, was added to the state highway system in 1915. It was extended southeast to SR-10 in Huntington in 1918,[2] and in 1927 the state legislature numbered the Fairview-Huntington highway as SR-31.[3] A major realignment was made in 1976, when Electric Lake was created and a new route was built to the west. The old route in Sanpete County became a county road, and is now part of SR-264, but the majority of the road in Emery County was beneath the lake and thus abandoned.[2]