In 1874 the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wyoming asked Congress to appropriate money to build a military wagon road from Green River City on the Union Pacific Railroad through Yellowstone National Park and onto Fort Ellis in Montana Territory. This richly detailed map was included in Wyoming's Memorial to the House of Representatives.
The Wyoming Legislature argued that the proposed wagon road, shown by a red line on the map, would solve several problems. It would save the federal government money transporting troops and supplies into the Montana Territory compared to the existing cumbersome route. It would improve access to various parts of Wyoming and Montana for the settlers of those territories. And it would open up the newly established Yellowstone National Park, the nation's first national park, which the Memorial states "the very magnificent scenery and great wonders of which region are at present almost unknown and inaccessible."
Despite this plea from the Wyoming Territory, traveling through this area by saddle and pack trains remained the predominant form of transport until the late 1870s when road construction began in earnest, supported by appropriations from Congress.
Accompanying Papers File, 44th Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233
