Auto trail

Historic type of marked roadway

1922 map of auto trails

Old style highway markings

The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on utility poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in the early days of the automobile.

Auto trails were usually marked and sometimes maintained by organizations of private individuals. Some, such as the Lincoln Highway, maintained by the Lincoln Highway Association, were well-known and well-organized, while others were the work of fly-by-night promoters, to the point that anyone with enough paint and the will to do so could set up a trail. Trails were not usually linked to road improvements, although counties and states often prioritized road improvements because they were on trails.

In the mid-to-late 1920s, the auto trails were essentially replaced with the United States Numbered Highway System. The Canadian provinces had also begun implementing similar numbering schemes.

List of auto trails

See also

• List of historic auto trails in Iowa
• List of U.S. Routes
• U.S. Highway association

References

• American Automobile Association (1922). Highways Green Book (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Automobile Association. pp. 418–20.
• United States Touring Map (Map). Automobile Club of America and National Highways Association. 1924.
• Midget Map of the Transcontinental Trails of the United States (Map). Clason Map Company. 1923.
• Touring Atlas of the United States (Map). Clason Map Company. 1925.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Auto Road Atlas (Map). Rand McNally. 1926.

1. Jensen, Jeff (2013). Drive the Broadway of America!. Tucson: Bygone Byways. ISBN 9780978625900.
2. Broadway Of America (Map). 1:5,300,000. Washington, D.C.: American Automobile Association. 1932. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
3. Baranowski, Shelley; Furlough, Ellen (2001). Being Elsewhere: Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North America. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press. pp. 168–169.
4. Department of the Interior / National Park Service (1920). "Automobile Highway Information". Rules and Regulations Yellowstone National Park, 1920. Season June 20 to September 15. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. pp. 21–23.
5. Kitsko, Jeffrey. "US 11". Pennsylvania Highways. Self-published. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
6. Kitsko, Jeffrey. "US 611 (Decommissioned)". Pennsylvania Highways. Self-published. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
7. Johnston, R. J. (April 4, 1918). "The Liberty Highway: Touring and Driveaway Route Between Cleveland and New York". Motor Age. 33 (14): 72–75. Retrieved January 16, 2013.

External links

• North American Auto Trails
• Richard F. Weingroff, From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System