The Yellowstone Trail was the first coast-to-coast auto route across the northern tier of states, promoted as “A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound.” Before 1912, railroads dominated long-distance transportation, local roads were dust and mud, and there was little help from government, so owners of newly arrived autos rose to the challenge. 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, naming the transcontinental road Yellowstone to draw tourists to the national park. Roads and autos were crude and travel was tough, and with no maps tourists relied on guide books and yellow rocks to find their way. By 1915 the route was extended across Wisconsin, and by 1917 it reached both coasts, with yellow and black signs posted across the country. In 1929, it became Wisconsin’s first cross-state highway to be concrete. Until 1930, hundreds of towns supported the Yellowstone Trail, and the Association created free campgrounds, travel bureaus, and publications to help 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.