Black and Yellow Trail - Campbell County, Wyoming
Posted by: 
Tom.dog
N 43° 57.854 W 105° 43.877
13T E 441334 N 4868160
This sign can be found at a pull-off along State Highway 50 and commemorates the Black and Yellow Trail, which was the first named highway to cross the Powder River Basin along with other portions of northern Wyoming.
Waymark Code: WM18MYM
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 08/26/2023
Views: 1
The text on the sign reads:
BLACK AND YELLOW TRAIL
The early 20th century explosion of the automobile into American life highlighted a deplorable lack of surfaced roads. Newly minted drivers discovered the unsuitability of wagon trails for the automobile, and local good roads associations formed to advocate road construction and routes to attract visitors and businesses. The Black and Yellow Trail became the first named "highway" across the Powder River Basin.
Conceived as a route between Chicago and Yellowstone Park via the Black Hills, state delegates met in Buffalo in 1912 to mark the route with distinctive black and yellow striped signs. The route entered Wyoming near Newcastle and continued to Upton, Moorcroft and Gillette. From there, intrepid travelers headed southwest to Sussex, north to Buffalo and over the Big Horn Mountains to Tensleep and Worland. A few cars successfully crossed the mountains in 1913; a graded road, constructed by the U.S. Forest Service, counties, and the fledgling Wyoming Highway Department, was completed by 1922. Motorists followed an earthen grade no more than 20 ft wide carved out using manual labor and horse-drawn plows. Gravel surfacing sometimes helped keep vehicles from foundering in the mud, and travel time was measured in days, not hours.
Though a pioneer, the Black and Yellow Trail enjoyed only a short life. By the 1920s, the Wyoming Highway Department began construction of alternate routes between Gillette, Buffalo and Sheridan. As the need for improved roads built to consistent standards, with uniform signing and posting across all states grew, the federal government slowly developed a national highway system. By 1926, the now familiar U.S. highway designations replaced the named highways, with U. S. 14 and U. S. 16 incorporating portions of the old Black and Yellow Trail.
Marker Name: Black and Yellow Trail
Marker Type: Rural Roadside
Group Responsible for Placement: State of Wyoming
Date Dedicated: Not Listed
Marker Number: Not Listed
Web link(s) for additional information: [Web Link]
Addtional Information: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Wyoming history please include that in your log.
Recent Visits/Logs:
| There are no logs for this waymark yet. |
|
|
|