“This Road Has a Name…”
South Milwaukee and the Yellowstone Trail
By: Nels J. Monson
From 1915 to 1930 South
Milwaukee was a well-known stopping point on one of America’s first
transcontinental auto routes, a 3,754-mile long amalgamation of roads
known as the Yellowstone Trail. In the early 1900’s, with automobile
travel still in its infancy, there was no numbering system of roadways.
Long distance routes were known by names instead. Standardized maps
were non-existent at the time and these roads were identified by using
colored markers to show the way. Hailed as being “A Good Road
from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound,” the Yellowstone Trail began as a
25-mile stretch of road near Ipswitch, South Dakota. In October
1912, Mr. J. W. Parmley formed the Yellowstone Trail Association, later
headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By 1917 the Yellowstone
Trail had grown to become the main auto route for those travelling from
the East Coast to Yellowstone National Park and the Pacific Northwest.
While the Association did not build roads, it did lobby local governments
in towns along the Trail to help promote the fledgling automobile tourism
industry by building and maintaining “good roads.” Trail towns paid
the Association a small fee or “assessment” to help cover advertising
expenses and upkeep of the Trail.
Many towns along the
Yellowstone Trail had a representative known as a “Trailman”, whose duties
included providing information to travelers and supervising the marking of
the Trail with its distinctive yellow circle and arrow signs, yellow
painted rocks or painted bands on utility poles. In the 1919
Yellowstone Trail route folder, Trailmen were described as being
“…businessmen of standing in their communities, and will always be glad to
welcome tourists and serve them in any reasonable manner.”
There were still dirt roads in South Milwaukee when the Yellowstone Trail
first came through town in 1915. Ultimately, the Trail would follow
South Chicago Avenue to Marquette, then northward along 12th
Avenue to Milwaukee Avenue, where the Trail turned east past the Railroad
Depot and through the business district before turning north again at 10th
Avenue and exiting the city via North Chicago Avenue. City leaders
were quick to realize the importance of improving street conditions to
meet the increased traffic demands. Drainage was improved and in
1917 the city purchased a new steamroller to help with road maintenance.
The intersections of Milwaukee Avenue at 10th and 12th
Avenues were widened, and new, gas-filled ornamental streetlights replaced
the old magnetite arc lights along Milwaukee Avenue. Local
“Trailmen” R.H. Knoll, Leo Joerg, or Charles Franke routinely appeared
before the South Milwaukee Common Council. On May 21, 1921 the city
paid its $50 “assessment” to the Yellowstone Trail Association.
On September 4, 1920 South Milwaukee’s newspaper, The Journal,
reported the opening of a new, modern design Deep Rock filling station at
10th and Rawson, noting that “Few cities have more through
traffic of automobile tourists than ours. An artistic filling
station, situated as this is on the main thoroughfare, advertises our city
as one which takes a civic pride in its appearance.” Later, The
Journal would print
“South Milwaukee is especially favored above many cities with an unusual
number of tourists.”
In effort to help deal with
this influx of travelers, in March 1921 the Wisconsin Highway Commission
asked the city to establish a campground for “automobile tourists.”
That summer, the Grant Park Tourist Camp was opened, located where the Wil-O-Way
Recreation Center sits today. Due to its superb location near the
wooded, path-lined bluffs of Lake Michigan, the free Tourist Camp soon
became very popular with travelers. Park superintendent Frederick C.
Wulff reported that 247 cars carrying 850 people stayed at the campground
that first year. Attendance peaked in 1929 with 2,502 registered
guests. Then came the Depression, and attendance began to dwindle.
However, the Tourist Camp managed to remain open until sometime around
1948.
Located across the street
from the Railroad Depot, the Hotel Rogers was South Milwaukee’s premier
hotel during the Yellowstone Trail’s heyday. Listed as South
Milwaukee’s “Tourists’ Headquarters” in the 1927 city directory, the hotel
cited “Special Attention Given to Auto Parties” in its advertisements.
It is interesting to note that in those early days of automobile travel
South Milwaukee was considered a tourist destination. When one
considers, however, that South Milwaukee could boast of, among other
things, four hotels, a fine campground, a beautiful 300 acre lakeside park
with a beach and an 18-hole golf course, as well as its own hospital and
dairy, numerous factories and restaurants, and a racetrack, the reasons
become more obvious. South Milwaukee could indeed offer something
for everyone.
In 1918, Wisconsin became
the first state in the nation to begin numbering its highways. By
1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) had
established the now familiar US Route numbering system (like the famous US
Route 66). Standardized state maps had also replaced the need for
the associations of “named” roads and their colored markers. When
the Depression came, many towns could no longer afford to pay their
“assessments.” In 1930 the Yellowstone Trail Association closed its
doors.
Today, visitors to South
Milwaukee can find many of the old buildings along the Yellowstone Trail
still in use. There are five businesses that still carry out the
very same services they provided to their customers all those years ago.
These merchants are the South Milwaukee Arcade Bowling Alley, the former
U-R Next Barber Shop on 10th and Milwaukee, Bobbie’s Saloon
(one of South Milwaukee’s most historic buildings, it was listed as a
“soft drink parlor” during the Prohibition years), Grant Park Garage, and
of course, Bucyrus–Erie. Sadly, others such as the Hotel Rogers no
longer exist. Still, if one would stand at the corner of 10th
and Milwaukee Avenues to gaze down the road once traveled by so many, so
long ago, you can almost hear the sounds of the “Flivvers” and
“Tin-Lizzies” as they sputter past, in those heady, early days of
automotive travel in America. |
