During the late 1800s and early 1900s, development slowly moved higher into the Stanislaus watershed in large part due to improvement of the Sonora Pass Highway. The former wagon trail up the Stanislaus canyon had operated since 1864 as a toll road (Sonora-Mono Toll Road) and was heavily traveled during the 1870s during the gold strike in Bodie. A number of trading posts and rest stops operated on both sides of Sonora Pass including Sugar Pine, Strawberry, Baker's Station, Leavitt's Station and Big Meadows. In the following decades, travel over Sonora Pass declined heavily. The road became part of the state highway system in 1901 and was improved in 1906 to service the construction of Relief Dam in the headwaters of the Stanislaus River. Today, most of the road has been replaced by the newer alignment of Highway 108.