Old Yellowstone Railway Map of the United States, 1909: Northern Pacific routes, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland

2026-04-28T15:16:36+01:00

Preis: 0.00 - 1875.00 (21 variants)

Titled Yellowstone National Park Northern Pacific Railway 1909, this spirited promotional map captures the moment when modern rails first made America’s great wilderness feel within reach. Issued by the Northern Pacific Railroad and executed by Chicago’s Poole Brothers, it blends crisp cartographic order with the romance of westward travel. Bold red and black lines announce main routes and branches converging on Yellowstone, while a clean, functional style ensures every connection is unmissable. An inset of the United States broadens the vista, showing how travelers from the Midwest and beyond could effortlessly link to the northern transcontinental. The result is both an invitation and an itinerary: a graphic promise that the thermal marvels, high plateaus, and deep canyons of the world’s first national park lay just a ticket and a sleeping car away.

The map’s makers were masters of persuasion through precision. The Northern Pacific, long a self-styled “Gateway to Yellowstone,” understood that rail lines could be as evocative as guidebooks, and enlisted Poole Brothers—prolific specialists in railroad charts and timetables—to translate strategy into image. In 1909, the American travel imagination was shifting from conquest to contemplation: national parks became sanctuaries, and well-run trains the chariots of civic pride. This collaboration distilled a new ethic of mobility: engineered access to awe. Clear typography, logically tiered routes, and an emphasis on legible geography transform corporate promotion into a document of national aspiration.

Geographically, the composition sweeps across the northern tier of the United States, from Minnesota through the Dakotas, over Montana and Idaho, to Washington and Oregon. The main transcontinental spine and its feeders knit together prairie and peak, spanning riverlands and ranges before meeting the Pacific harbors. State borders frame the journey; major rivers—among them the Mississippi, Missouri, Yellowstone, and Columbia—act as wayfinding threads; the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades rise as linear barriers the rails so confidently defy. To the west, Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca signal maritime horizons, while inland plateaus and mountain passes remind the viewer that every timetable here was earned by grade, bridge, and tunnel.

Cities and towns stand as narrative beats along this itinerary. Minneapolis anchors the eastward approach, a metropolitan springboard into the Dakotas and Montana. Bozeman and Billings register as high-plains thresholds, where the line bends toward Yellowstone’s gates. To the park’s east, Cody signifies an alternate gateway and a growing culture of outfitted excursions. Farther on, Spokane mediates mountain and orchard country, while Seattle and Portland conclude the arc at saltwater termini, their deep harbors pairing rail’s punctuality with oceanic reach. Yellowstone National Park commands the center of attention, its boundary crisply defined and its celebrated landscape—geysers, canyons, and lakes—summoned in the very convergence of routes leading to its lodges and loops.

Historically, this map is a capsule of the era when railroads underwrote American sightseeing as much as commerce. By delineating dependable access to wilderness, it advanced the economic case for conservation: more visitors meant stronger arguments for preservation, better funding for infrastructure, and a growing public constituency for parks. The inset of national connections underscores how Yellowstone could be stitched into a broader grand tour, from Great Lakes cities to Pacific ports. Today, the sheet reads as both travel manifesto and cultural artifact—an emblem of early twentieth-century confidence, where steel corridors and careful design reframed the sublime not as distant myth but as a scheduled stop with a dining car view.

Cities and towns on this map

Minneapolis, MN — Population: ~429,606

Seattle, WA — Population: ~737,015

Portland, OR — Population: ~654,741

Bozeman, MT — Population: ~53,207

Billings, MT — Population: ~117,116

Cody, WY — Population: ~9,888

Notable Features & Landmarks

Railway Lines: Clearly indicated paths marked in bold red and black.

Insets: A general map of the United States showing connections.

Landmarks: Locations of Yellowstone National Park and major cities along the rail routes.

Geographic Features: Major rivers, mountains, and state borders.

Historical and design context

Date of Creation: 1909.

Mapmaker/Publisher: Created by the Northern Pacific Railroad and produced by the Poole Brothers (Chicago), prolific railroad mapmakers.

Additional Notes: Promotional map encouraging travel to Yellowstone from regions like Minnesota and Washington.

Themes Shown: Emphasizes railway routes, tourist destinations, and the national park; reflects early 20th-century American travel culture and growing accessibility to natural landscapes via rail.

Design/Style: Straightforward, functional style with bold-colored rail lines and detailed geographic features.

Historical Significance: Illustrates early rail travel’s role in tourism and the economic development of national parks, and the growing interest in parks as travel destinations in the early 1900s.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

This map is wider than most maps, which would make it a perfect statement piece above a mantelpiece, sofa or desk.