Motor Camping
9781465667632
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Most of us are possessed of the desire to be somewhere else. Since the dawn of history hordes of men have pressed into new countries. Sometimes the expeditions have been in search of food and plunder, but mixed in with these motives has been the human passion for something better, the hope for sunnier scenes lying over the horizon. Hemmed in by the restrictions of modern business life, people no longer, even in this Western World, move by tribes or companies into new homelands. But the restlessness remains. In the United States a new and increasing way of satisfying this desire for recreation and adventure has swept over the country. Motor camping has become a leading national pastime. Thousands play golf every year, tens of thousands play tennis, hundreds of thousands engage in baseball, but in the past few years millions have gone in for motor camping. There are over ten million cars in this country. Each year the number is increasing, and each year the number of families that join the national horde of motor campers mounts higher. The New York Times estimates that at least five million cars were used in camping trips during the past year. The number of visitors to the National Forests alone now mounts up into the millions. As far back as 1917 the U. S. Forest Service reported a total of three million tourists during the summer. In 1922 this had increased to 5,350,000, of which 3,692,000 were motorists. The motoring visitors to the National Parks during the past season totaled nearly 700,000. More than three-fifths of those visiting the National preserves to-day come by motor car and a large proportion of these are touring campers. In Colorado during 1922 there were 1,173,000 motorists visiting the parks and forests in that state, as compared with 277,000 who traveled by other means. The immense popularity of motor camping is easy to understand when one realizes that this pastime is romantic, healthful, educative, and at the same time economical. Father can take the whole family for a two weeks’ or a month’s trip in his car at virtually the same cost as staying at home. The room rent he will have to pay on his trip will range from nothing to fifty cents or a dollar a day for the family. There are many thousands of acres of free camping grounds in the national and state public playgrounds. In addition, nearly every town west of the Appalachians has its camp site, while on the Atlantic Seaboard there is a large increase in the number of municipal camp sites every season. The approximately 2,000 civic sites, which are listed elsewhere in this book, make no charge for accommodations or merely a nominal one. The towns in addition to the spirit of hospitality are anxious to have tourists for business reasons. The Executive Secretary of the Denver Civic Association has written: “An auto camp, in my judgment, is just as essential to any city, town or community that wants to thrive and prosper and keep ahead of the times, as a railway station.” With provisions costing no more than at home, with moderate investment for camping equipment which will last for several years, the family can get a vacation in the open, can see other parts of the country, can get an appreciation of the national life which could hardly be realized in any other way. To the boy living in Connecticut, Georgia can become an actual reality rather than an inch or two of space on the map. The eastern family which has a full summer vacation can readily visit California. But an extended period of time is not needed in order to enjoy the satisfactions of motor camping. There are wildernesses within a hundred mile range or less of any of our large cities, with the result that many motorists are becoming week-end campers. The New Yorker can find near-by camp sites in the Catskills, and in the State Forests of northern New Jersey. The Philadelphian may enjoy the wildernesses in southern New Jersey.
