Yellowstone Trail Cache Mystery Cache

****NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES****

The point of this cache is to share a little history of early automobile travel in the United States. I made the cache a puzzle, so seekers would be enticed to read the cache page and learn this history. The puzzle and the hide are very easy. You will appreciate the history when you go to find the cache.

History of Early Roads:

There was little, or no Federal or State funding of road development prior to the 1920’s. What roads & bridges that existed were funded, developed, and maintained at a local level. Most felt transcontinental travel had been addressed by the burgeoning railroad system, which by the turn of the century had several transcontinental routes connecting every major city. But in 1880 the so called “Good Roads Movement” was founded. Initially by bicycle enthusiast, but later joined by ever-increasing numbers of early automobile owners.

Without a national road system early transcontinental travel by automobile required using “Trail Roads” or “Motor Trails”. These were nothing more than a collection of existing local roads linked by maps published by an association. These trails had many dirt road segments made muddy and slippery whenever it rained. Trail associations had limited funding of their own, but increased traffic promoted by these associations, brought increase commerce to the towns along the route, promoting them to improve their local parts of the trail.

One interesting early federal law was that existing trail associations mark their routes with unique road signs. Here are examples of the trail signs used by the original three transcontinental trail roads (Yellowstone Trail, Lincoln Highway and National Old Trails Road):

Yellowstone Trail:

The Yellowstone Trail was conceived by Joseph William Parmley of Ipswich, South Dakota. The grassroots movement he started grew into a national effort. The route was established on May 23, 1912. It was the most Northern of the United States transcontinental routes. The trail ran from the Atlantic Ocean in Plymouth, Massachusetts, through Montana to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, then on to the Pacific Ocean in Seattle, Washington. The road slogan was "A Good Road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound". The route had segments in 13 states: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.

The Minnesota section of the of the Yellowstone highway started in Hudson WI and ran parallel with the current route of Interstate 94. Then along University Ave, Hennepin Ave and Excelsior Blvd. Continuing to parallel Highway 7 the road then turned down Minnewashta parkway, joining with Highway 5, which than became Highway 212 at Norwood Young America all the way to South Dakota.

A 1.2-mile piece of road marked as the Yellowstone Trail still exists in a residential neighborhood just north of Highway 7, near Excelsior, in Shorewood, MN. This is where the cache is hidden.😊

To obtain the coordinates to the final location you simply need to enter the two KEYWORDS (Plural) into the checker below, that names the “Movement” that lead to the formation of the Yellowstone Trail. No need to Google. The answer is in the narrative above.