Yellowstone Trail - Yellowstone Trail Association

Yellowstone Trail Association

The Yellowstone Trail Association incorporated in January 1918, with the head office in Minneapolis. It formed state chapters and smaller town chapters to oversee routing in the Midwest and West. Local "routing committee men" went out into their counties to find the best roads available, and then talk the counties' governments into spending tax dollars on that route. They then persuaded small towns on the Trail to join the organization, and pay a small fee to be included in the route's publicity materials.

The Yellowstone Trail Association also served travelers' information needs, much as the AAA—American Automobile Association had been doing for drivers in the U.S. The Trail Association published maps and brochures, and established information bureaus in popular hotels and in tents along busy sections of the Trail, to hand out these materials. Travelers could telephone the Trail Association before planning a trip, to see which roads were passable. The information bureaus also provided local information, much as Convention and Visitors Bureaus do in the present day.

After the Great Depression began in 1929, the Yellowstone Trail and other named Auto Trails lost their allure and affordability. The main Yellowstone Trail Association office was closed on 15 March 1930. Its replacement organization, the Yellowstone Highway Association, operated marginally until around 1939.

Eastern United States

In the Eastern United States, the Yellowstone Trail Association exerted little influence on the road's routes. Instead it functioning primarily as a travel information bureau to entice tourists westward along the Trail.