Good news for aficionados of history, the open road and small-town America.

After three years, the Yellowstone Trail Association is once again issuing copies of its newsletter “The Arrow” The first issue, found here, is free. Future issues are available with membership.

The association was founded to help preserve the history of the road.

The Yellowstone Trail was one of the first early national highways. In 1912 businessmen began lobbying for highway routes and promoting tourism.

Grassroots efforts such as the Yellowstone Trail and other early cross-country roads (such as the Lincoln Highway) blazed the way for a national system of highways.

While the Yellowstone Trail never traveled through Chaska, it came close. The highway cut diagonally across Carver County, through what is now Chanhassen, Victoria, Waconia and Norwood Young America, roughly following Highway 5, before hooking up with Highway 212.

The route follows closely through Highway 212 on its way through southwest Minnesota. Yellowstone Trail historian and promoter John Ridge once described the trail as "the grandfather of 212."

For a 2008 Herald story about the Yellowstone Trail, click here and to visit the Yellowstone Trail website, click here.