Discover-Learn-Talk page is a place to find out whats happening with the YT currently and in the past as well as a place to ask questions and give us input.
Discover the Trail
Drive the Trail by following our Maps.
We are working on a new, interactive YT map which will provide directions, local accommodations and more!
Learn about today’s YT and YTA.
We provide information from different sources, mainly the book by John Wm. Ridge and Alice A. Ridge, “A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound”.
Scroll Down to Learn about YT and YTA!
Talk about it here.
Ask questions, get directions, tell us about your YT adventure(s), and more!
We regularly hear new stories and find new evidence, Click Here to Talk Now!
Ses, essays, and notes related directly or loosely to the Yellowstone Trail:
(Click on a title to read.)
1. Introduction to the Yellowstone Trail
2. The 1909 Ocean to Ocean Endurance Contest by Curt Cunningham
3. The Yellowstone Trail Garage by Mark Mowbray
6. NEW: Time Travelling on the Yellowstone Trail by J.J. Johnston
Hand-cranking was the only way to start your car; it required a special technique for each model year.
A flat-tire required the tire be removed from the wheel and repaired on site.
To begin to try and envision what life was like in the Yellowstone Trail’s early years, the 19teens, imagine a time when one cranked the Tin Lizzie, when one had to change tires-often.
A time when your telephone was on your wall and you answered your particular ring; a time when camping was just coming into vogue, as was indoor plumbing.
1920’s Yellowstone Trail Camping
Ads from 1914 show the new luxury that could be offered by indoor plumbing.
Telegraph, telephone and the railroad would be your long-distance tools.
Trains were a plenty, but on their schedule, not yours.
Photo above shows the “Waterville Special” (train) picking up riders to Sunday School.
(Photo courtesy Douglas County Museum)
The beginning of the 20th Century also was a time when auto road maps were few (people tried to use railroad maps).
A time when you bought gas by the five-gallon jug from a barrel.
A time when some roads had names, not numbers.
The 1909 Washington State Map shows “proposed numbers”, most of which were later changed, some many times.
Cars were selling like hot cakes, but roads were atrocious when wet and dusty when dry.
Auto manufacturers were able to ship cars throughout America on existing railroads.
It was a time when governments were recalcitrant about doing anything to better the awful roads, so associations of ordinary citizens took action.
The Yellowstone Trail was not the product of rich, influential men, nor of a government committee.
The Yellowstone Trail Association was the product of ordinary town folk who had a vision of the necessity of good roads and routes that went long distances.
»Their Tool was Persuasion«
They badgered counties and states to build the road which the Association would mark and advertise its routes.
You, as an individual, and small town America were depended upon to support, maintain, and participate in the creation of the Trail for trade, tourists, and pleasure.
