The Oldest Road In America, Yellowstone Trail, Passes Right Through Illinois
By Elizabeth Crozier|Published March 31, 2020
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Elizabeth Crozier
Author
An Illinois transplant who grew up and went to school in Indiana for 22 years, Elizabeth holds a BFA in creative writing and has enjoyed traveling across the country and parts of Europe. She has visited half of the states, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and regularly travels home to the Hoosier State to see friends and family. With more than five years of writing experience, Elizabeth’s articles have been featured on several websites, and her poetry and short stories have been published in multiple literary journals.
There’s an old road that runs through the Chicago area of Illinois, and few people know about it. Known as the Yellowstone Trail, this ancient and extensive road spans the entire country.
People were using yellow stones and landmarks as well as getting directions from whoever would give them before roads like this. Scroll on for more details.
Known as the Yellowstone Trail, this 3,719-mile highway stretches coast to coast from Seatle, Washington to Plymouth, Massachusetts, passing right through northern Illinois.
It was established in 1912 as the first transcontinental automobile highway and is named for Yellowstone National Park as it follows the trail that many used to take to get to the park before there was a road.
Automobiles were becoming more popular around the turn of the century, but roads were mostly made of dirt, making long-distance travel difficult and mostly accessible only by train.
Originally designed to be a 25-mile stretch of road in South Dakota, the Yellowstone Trail made it possible for tourists to travel this portion of the United States without depending on guidebooks, landmarks, and colored rocks.
The road passes through many small towns and big cities. In Illinois, it passes through Chicago and its suburbs such as Evanston, Glencoe, Waukegan, Lake Forest, and South Chicago.
The road essentially enters the state from Wisconsin and skims Lake Michigan before exiting into Indiana. In general, the road keeps to the north and touches many communities near the Great Lakes.
