Before 1912, railroads dominated long-distance transportation, local roads were dusty and muddy, and with little government help, owners of newly arrived automobiles took up the challenge of improving travel. In 1912, small-town businessmen from South Dakota formed the Yellowstone Trail Association to “get out of the mud” and pressure counties to build usable automobile roads. They named the transcontinental auto road Yellowstone to attract tourists to the national park. Roads and automobiles were crude and travel was difficult, so with no maps, tourists relied on guidebooks and yellow rocks to find their way. By 1915, the route had been extended from Chicago to Seattle and by 1917 to Boston, with yellow and black signs posted across the country. The association also promoted opening Yellowstone National Park to automobile travel. Until 1930, hundreds of towns supported the Yellowstone Trail, and the association created free campgrounds, travel bureaus, and publications to assist travelers. Route numbering, created by the State of Wisconsin in 1918 and now an international system, reduced the need for named roads, and the Depression brought an end to the trail associations.