Today, Highway 212 is on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

However, about 100 years ago, everyone would have been talking about the “Yellowstone Trail.”

Before the days when the government plotted the course of roads, a group of small-town South Dakota businessmen spearheaded one of the first transcontinental automobile routes.

The original Yellowstone Trail followed existing Highway 212, before hitting Norwood Young America, and roughly following the path of Highway 5, before veering northeast, through Excelsior, Hopkins and into Minneapolis.

 “In a real sense, the Yellowstone Trail was the grandfather of 212,” said John Ridge.

John and Alice Ridge, of Altoona, Wis., are the torchbearers of the Yellowstone Trail legacy. The Ridges, retired University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire professors, operate www.yellowstonetrail.org; run the Yellowstone Trail Association, have authored “Introducing the Yellowstone Trail”; and sell Yellowstone Trail-related merchandise.

J.W. Parmley, of Ipswitch, S.D., conceived of the trail in 1912, related the Ridges. The Yellowstone Trail Association was formed as a lobbyist group to advocate routes and tourism. However, it didn’t build the roads – that was the duty of local government.

Automobile owners pushed the concept of well-maintained, long-distance highways. Rural small-town residents would order a car, shipped via train. However, once it arrived to their town, travel distance was limited. So, there were thousands of stranded cars along the Yellowstone route, with “nowhere to go,” John said.

And the number of drivers was rapidly increasing. In 1915, Carver County had 907 vehicles, or one for every 22 people. A year later, there were another 600 vehicles in the county.

Parmley traveled to the Twin Cities in 1913 to promote his road, speaking with Gov. Adolph Eberhart and the state’s chief road engineer.

“Parmley was so persuasive that this interstate route was going to do marvelous things for everyone, that he persuaded the governor and (road engineer) to pick out logical routes,” Alice Ridge said. In one day, the group essentially chose the route that would become Highway 212, Alice said.

While the original association disbanded in 1930, the original Trail wasn’t forgotten.

In 1957, a group was formed to petition the state for Highway 212 improvements. The Herald reported that “the organization also has hopes of reviving the former Yellowstone Trial Association which years ago extensively advertised Trunk Highway 212 as the arterial highway across Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park.”

Traveling the Trail

John Ridge remembered his father’s tales about “this crazy road that was marked with yellow stones.” Governments didn’t regularly assign highways numerals until 1918, when Wisconsin began numbering roads, state the Ridges.

Before then, the Yellowstone Trail was marked with yellow “Yellowstone Trail” tin signs and, in some cases, merely by yellow-painted rocks. The Ridges, frequent travelers of the Yellowstone Trail, found one of those original yellow-painted rocks in South Dakota, with only a few flecks of paint remaining.

Nowadays, the original Trail is not an easy route to follow. In many cases, the original route is a frontage road. In one Carver County location, the original Yellowstone Trail serves as an access road to a Hydes Lake residence, just west of Waconia (detailed in a 2005 Herald article).

The original trail followed rivers and is sometimes covered by dammed rivers. In Montana, there are still stretches of the original road that are gravel, or worse, sticky gumbo.  The Ridges have found that their Jeep and a Global Positioning System comes in handy.

The couple has collected Yellowstone Trail tales on their journeys. In central Minnesota, they recall an old-timer’s tale of a neighboring farmer who would haul water to the Yellowstone Trail to create mud cars would get stuck in – then charge drivers $1 to be towed out.

Although the farmer carried on his business venture over 90 years ago, the tale was told in secrecy, recall the Ridges.

Memories of the Yellowstone Trail refuse to fade.

1912: Yellowstone Trail Association was formed

1913: Yellowstone Trail route chosen through Minnesota1914: The Yellowstone Trial Association Yearbook reports that 24 miles of the Trail is in Carver County. Of the route, 18 miles are graded and graveled, and the entire trail is marked.1916: Businessmen from western Carver County lobby the county board to improve the Yellowstone Trial. The County spends $4,000 to improve the road.

1918: Wisconsin becomes first state to give highways numbers

1926: The American Association of State Highway Officials selects and numbers Interstate routes to create a system of federal highways

1930: The last year the Yellowstone Trail Association was active.

1959: Highway 212, from South Dakota to Wisconsin, is designated by Minnesota Statute as the “Yellowstone Trial.”

2003: John and Alice Ridge form the new Yellowstone Trail Association to increase public knowledge about the Trail; to acquire information about the Trail and its historical context;  to preserve artifacts along the Trail,; to provide a medium of communication and support among members; to promote heritage tourism; and to sponsor Trail-related events.”

Sources: John and Alice Ridge; Carver County Historical Society; newspaper archives 

Yellowstone Trail

* The Yellowstone Trial route roughly follows existing Highway 212 through most of Minnesota, connecting with Highway 5 in Norwood Young America, to Minnewashta Parkway in Chanhassen, then north to Highway 7.

* The highway traveled through 13 states, from Seattle, Wash., to Plymouth Rock, Mass., stopping at Yellowstone Park en route (earning its name).

More history

* “Introducing the Yellowstone Trail: A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound,” by Alice and John Ridge. (The Ridges are always looking for travel diaries or family stories related to the Yellowstone Trail. Send your story to jridge@yellowstonetrail.org.)

* “On the Road to Yellowstone,” by Harold Meeks

* www.yellowstonetrail.org (this Web site also sells two books listed above)