Yellowstone Trail
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| Slogan: "A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound" | |
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| Route information | |
| Length: | 3,719 mi (5,985 km) According to the 1920 Yellowstone Trail Route Guide. |
| History: | The Yellowstone Trail was established on 23 May 1912. The Yellowstone Trail Association was incorporated in 1918, and ceased in 1930. |
| Major junctions | |
| West end: | Seattle, Washington |
| East end: | Plymouth, Massachusetts |
| Highway system | |
The Yellowstone Trail was the first transcontinental automobile highway through the upper tier of states in the United States, established on 23 May 1912. It was an Auto Trail that ran from the Atlantic Ocean in Plymouth, Massachusetts, through Montana to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, to the Pacific Ocean in Seattle, Washington.
The Yellowstone Trail was conceived by Joseph William Parmley of Ipswich, South Dakota. In April 1912, the first step he and his local influential colleagues wanted was a 25-mile (40 km) long good road from Ipswich over to Aberdeen, also in South Dakota. By May, the intent had expanded to get a transcontinental route built, including to the popular tourist destination to the west, Yellowstone National Park.
The automobile was just becoming popular, but there were few good all weather roads, no useful long distance roads, and no government marked routes. The federal government had not been interested in building roads in the 19th century, except for the National Road (aka National Pike) from Washington, D.C. to the Mississippi River. Many states had constitutions that forbade “internal improvements” as unconstitutional. The Yellowstone Trail developed in parallel with the nationwide effort for internal improvements, which included building and improving roads. Only the Yellowstone Trail, the Lincoln Highway, and the National Old Trails Road were transcontinental in length and notability, out of the 250 named Auto Trails of the era.
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Wikipedia