In the late 1940s, National Route 731 was built through the town, which had, by that time, nearly become a ghost town, due to people moving away to larger communities. La Ponderosa was "spared" from becoming a ghost town during the second half of the Twentieth Century, due to the construction of National Route 731 at the end of the first half of the century and Dragoonasag Interstate Route 92 nearby in the 1960s.