Plans to convert Rollins Pass into an historic automobile road were first published in November 1949. Several years later, on Saturday, September 1, 1956, Colorado lieutenant governor, Steve McNichols, opened Rollins Pass as a non-vital and seasonal recreational road.: Each summer, from 1956-1979, Rollins Pass served as a complete road over the mountain pass for automobiles until a substantial rock fall in Needle's Eye Tunnel in 1979 closed the path over the pass. In 1989, after several engineering studies and structural strengthening of Needle's Eye Tunnel were accomplished, the complete road was re-opened only to close permanently in 1990, due to a rockfall injuring a sightseer. For the past years—since July 1990—no motorized route connects across the Continental Divide, effectively making each side a dead-end uphill route that must be traveled again, downhill, to leave the pass.