This short article provides some information about the history of Titus Canyon.
The road was built by a con artist who pushed it through the canyon in 1925 to provide access to one of the most notorious mining hoaxes of the century. It was in Titus Canyon that Chauncey C. Julian “salted” the Grapevine Mountains and spawned a town near Bloody Gap he called Leadfield.
LINK: http://framework.latimes.com/2015/07/16/con-artist-builds-a-crooked-road-in-death-valley/