1st Transcontinental Auto Route Across the Northern Tier of States.
Welcome to the Yellowstone Trail Association website.
If you have questions or need assistance, send an email to [email protected]
Click here if you are a Tourism Professional located along the Trail.
Alice and John Ridge have released their new book, “A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound, The modern Guide to driving the Historic Yellowstone Trail, 1912-
Click Here for more information about the book before ordering.
Today’s Guide to Yesterday’s Auto Route West, The Yellowstone Trail!
Note for the Newcomer:
In the 1910’s and 1920’s, the term “Trail” was used to mean a long-distance auto road.
Warning from the Trail:
“If you’re not pulling a car out of the mud, keep your horse off the road”!
Yellowstone Trail Association – Then and Now
Click Here, or, ⇓Scroll Down ⇓
In 1912, a group of small town businessmen in South Dakota undertook an ambitious project to create a useful automobile route across America, the Yellowstone Trail.
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This was at a time when roads were NOT marked, there were few maps, and, slippery mud was the usual road surface.
The Yellowstone Trail Association located a route, motivated road improvements, produced maps and folders to guide the traveler, and, promoted tourism along its length.
It became a leader in stimulating tourist travel to the Northwest and motivating good roads across America.
Today…
Almost all of the route of the Yellowstone Trail is on slower, less traveled roads.
Some sections of the Trail, especially in the West, have remained little changed and are a delight to visit.
We are the modern version of the YT Association with members who enjoy exploring the YT, learning about its history, researching its location, and exchanging information and ideas.
Yellowstone Trail Association (YTA)
Welcome to the YTA website!
Learn fun and interesting facts about the YTA, and, how it inspired the Yellowstone Trail, the first continuous automobile road from Boston to Seattle!
We invite you to Drive the current Yellowstone Trail today!
Check out our Photo Gallery.
Shop on-line for YTA Merchandise.
Visit the Discover – Learn – Talk page to get current status, share information, and participate in discussion about the Yellowstone Trail.
A quick time-line overview of the YTA:
⇓ 1912
The original YTA was formed in 1912 and worked formally to create the transcontinental highway from Boston to Seattle.
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⇓ Early 1930s
The Depression and aggressive efforts of state and federal governments to assume road building responsibility and route marking caused the YTA to fade, and over time, be forgotten.
The YTA was mostly inactive during this time until the end of the 1990’s.
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⇓ Around 1999
A number of local historians, several retired university professors, and representatives of the tourism industry, individually and then collectively, began attempts to spread the word about the historical significance, the tourism potential, and the just plain fun that could be found in this old auto route.
Those efforts slowly jelled into a modern YTA that is beginning to make its mark.
Yellowstone Trail
Yellowstone Trail was the very first transcontinental automobile highway in the United States through the northern tier of states from Washington through Massachusetts, starting in 1912.
Click Here to read more about the Yellowstone Trail.
The Yellowstone Trail Association accomplished many forward-
YTA did not build roads.
Instead, they badgered county boards and state highway commissions to create one long, connected road through counties instead of supporting roads that “went nowhere.”
Long, connected roads were their passion.
They sponsored Trail Days, (a day when all Trail towns would actually help the county build a road), set up travel bureaus, held races on the Trail for publicity, supplied the traveler with maps, weather conditions and lists of facilities in Trail towns.
The Association also encouraged towns to provide campgrounds for tourists.
PURPOSES OF THE ORIGINAL YELLOWSTONE TRAIL ASSOCIATION:
First and foremost, they wanted to get a route built from “Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound.”
Second, they wanted to attract tourists to the Yellowstone National Park, thus benefiting member towns along the route.
Third, they wanted to see road-
The spark ignited in Ipswich had inspired an entire nation!
The call-to-action was accepted, more or less, in the northern 13 states and work began.
The YTA stayed active until around 1930, when the obvious need for national, state, county, city and rural roads was taken over by government agencies.
In the 1990’s, the YTA was re-established by John and Alice Ridge.
Thanks to the Ridge’s dedication, research, hard-work, and financial contributions, the Yellowstone Trail Association continues today!
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Today, almost all of the route of the Yellowstone Trail is on slower, less traveled roads.
Some sections of the Trail, especially in the West, have remained little changed and are a delight to visit even today.
Visit our Map Page to see an excellent collection of YT Maps created by John Ridge.
YTA is currently building an updated, modern-day interactive map that will guide you while driving today’s Yellowstone Trail, expected to be released in Spring 2025.
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Today’s YT Association is active with members who enjoy exploring the YT, learning about its history, researching its location, and, exchanging information and ideas.
We cordially invite you to Join in our ongoing mission to preserve Yellowstone Trail’s History, the continual discovery of new facts, and, educate our children where today’s highway system came from and why such urgency!
To read the entire YTA story, click the link here.
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Enjoy a collection of photos organized state-by-state in the YTA Photo Gallery.
