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The Yellowstone Trail
Chippewa Falls
Before
there were numbered highways in the United States there
were names attached to roads to help motorists navigate
from town to town or from county to county. In 1912 no one
thought in terms of an inter-state highway. However, a small
band of men including J.W. Parmley of Ipswitch, South Dakota,
envisioned a road from Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts to Puget
Sound, Washington and called it the Yellowstone Trail. They
wanted good roads to travel on and formed the Yellowstone
Trail Association in October of 1912, which remained active
until 1930.
The
Yellowstone Trail Association did not build roads. It lobbied
for "good roads" in every level of government
and provided instructions to local people for the construction
and maintenance of roads. They promoted cross-country tourist
traffic, marked the route with signs and provided maps raising
the interest in using the automobile for other than local
travel.
The
Yellowstone Trail began in South Dakota and quickly expanded
east to St. Paul, Minnesota, and west to Yellowstone Park
in Montana. By 1914 it extended to the Idaho border and
east to Chicago. By 1917, the entire route was firmly established
coast to coast.
The
Yellowstone Trail passed 406 miles through Wisconsin from
Kenosha to Hudson covering 18 counties. From the east the
road entered Chippewa County along what is now County Highway
X into Stanley, through Cadott, westward to Lake Wissota.
The road then turned onto what is now County Highway J west
to Chippewa Falls along Park Avenue, past this very site.
The Yellowstone Trail continued its cross county route through
Chippewa Falls along Park Avenue and County Highway J south
to Eau Claire.
With
the construction of new highways and the advent of a federal
numbering system, this transcontinental road finally faded
in the 1930s.
A
new Yellowstone Trail Association was formed in 2003 to
increase public knowledge about the trail and to promote
heritage tourism. Thanks in part to a small group of visionaries
in central Wisconsin and in cooperation with the Wisconsin
Department of Tourism, motorists can now once again experience
this storied piece of American history.
Chippewa
County Historical Society
Historic Sign #45
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