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Encyclopedia Dubuque

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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.




ATLANTIC, YELLOWSTONE, PACIFIC HIGHWAY

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Highway Marker
Photo courtesy:Cathy's Treasurers,156 Main, Dubuque

ATLANTIC, YELLOWSTONE, PACIFIC HIGHWAY. The Atlantic-Yellowstone-Pacific (AYP) Highway started with the citizens of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Membership included many business owners and other well-respected citizens who desired to increase tourist revenues and showcase the nation’s natural beauty.

Although hopes for a "coast-to-coast" route were in the minds of early promoters, their primary goal was to complete a route from Chicago to Yellowstone National Park. Their efforts were aided by $38,000 in initial membership contributions.

In September 1923, following six months of correspondence between the route’s sponsors and the Iowa State Highway Commission (ISHC), the ISHC authorized the AYP Highway Association’s board of directors to establish a route from just south of the Iowa/Minnesota state line near Larchwood southeastwardly to Waterloo.

In December 1923, twenty-two men, members of the committee formed to aid development of the A.Y.P. through Dubuque met and endorsed the highway project as had the chamber of commerce three weeks before. Charles Falkenhainer, the chairman of the group, promised to aid in distributing membership cards on the basis of five-year memberships for $5 per year in order to make a canvass of the city in the near future over various districts. It was noted that Dubuque was in a strategic position on the trail which was marked from Sioux Falls to Waterloo. It was a day's travel from Chicago and a day's travel to Mason City so it was expected that Dubuque would be the likely place for tourists to spend the night.

In the summer of 1924, the AYP Highway was extended from Waterloo to Dubuque, where it crossed the Mississippi and proceeded to Chicago.

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Source:

"A.Y.P. Highway Committee Meets," Telegraph Herald, December 3, 1923