While automobiles became increasingly popular during the first two decades of the twentieth century, long distance roads were non-existent. Roads tended to be muddy, dusty, and poorly marked. Long distance transportation was dominated by the railroads. Automobile owners found that the government had little interest in developing roads for them.
Initially, Joseph William Parmley and his colleagues wanted a 25 mile good road from Ipswitch to Aberdeen in South Dakota. In 1912, a group of small town business owners from South Dakota formed the Yellowstone Trail Association to put pressure on counties to build usable automobile roads. They envisioned a transcontinental road and named it the Yellowstone Trail to capitalize on the popularity of Yellowstone National Park. There were no road maps at this time, so tourists had to rely on guide books which described the roads and the routes. Yellow painted rocks helped the tourists find their way.
By 1915, the Yellowstone Trail extended from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington, a distance of 2,445 miles. A timed relay race was held along the trail with the winner covering the route in 97 hours. By 1917 the Yellowstone Trail went east to Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1918, the Yellowstone Trail Association was incorporated, with its headquarters in Minneapolis. It formed state and local chapters throughout the Midwest and the West. Local members attempted to talk county governments into spending tax dollars on improving roads along the Yellowstone Trail. The Association also published maps and brochures and established information bureaus along the Trail.
The Yellowstone Trail Association were proponents of opening Yellowstone National Park to private auto travel. The road to Yellowstone was marked with yellow and black signs. Initially, park officials, and particular the army which was in charge of enforcing park regulations, were reluctant to allow automobiles into the park. On April 21, 1915, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane authorized private automobiles to enter the park. By the end of that first season nearly 1,000 automobiles carrying 3,513 people had come into the park, and there were conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. These conflicts were resolved by prohibiting horses on the park roads beginning with the 1917 season.
The Yellowstone Trail became the first coast-to-coast auto route across the northern tier of states. It was promoted as:
“A good road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound.”
Shown above is early car camping in Yellowstone National Park.
During the 1920s, people flocked to the national parks, including Yellowstone. There was a “See America First” campaign that encouraged automobile travel. While the United States moved into the automobile age during the 1920s, the Great Depression put the damper on automobile expansion. In hard times, people travelled less and in 1930 the Yellowstone Trail Association closed its offices.