Heading Out

Terence Young

Description

Who are the real campers? Through-hiking backpackers traversing the Appalachian Trail? The family in an SUV making a tour of national parks and sleeping in tents at campgrounds? People committed to the RV lifestyle who move their homes from state to state as season and whim dictate? Terence Young would say: all of the above. Camping is one of the country's most popular pastimes-tens of millions of Americans go camping every year. Whether on foot, on horseback, or in RVs, campers have been enjoying themselves for well more than a century, during which time camping's appeal has shifted and evolved. In Heading Out, Young takes readers into nature and explores with them the history of camping in the United States.Young shows how camping progressed from an impulse among city-dwellers to seek temporary retreat from their exhausting everyday surroundings to a form of recreation so popular that an industry grew up around it to provide an endless supply of ever-lighter and more convenient gear. Young humanizes camping's history by spotlighting key figures in its development and a sampling of the campers and the variety of their excursions. Readers will meet William H. H. Murray, who launched a craze for camping in 1869; Mary Bedell, who car camped around America for 12,000 miles in 1922; William Trent Jr., who struggled to end racial segregation in national park campgrounds before World War II; and Carolyn Patterson, who worked with the U.S. Department of State in the 1960s and 1970s to introduce foreign service personnel to the "real" America through trailer camping. These and many additional characters give readers a reason to don a headlamp, pull up a chair beside the campfire, and discover the invigorating and refreshing history of sleeping under the stars.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Acampada
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Camping

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 06 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501712838
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

HEADING OUT

HEADING OUT

A History of American Camping

TERENCE YOUNG

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2017 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2017 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Young, Terence (Terence G.), author. Title: Heading out : a history of American camping / Terence Young. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016047309 (print) | LCCN 2016050292 (ebook) | ISBN 9780801454028 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501712821 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501712838 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Camping—United States—History. Classification: LCC GV191.4. Y68 2017 (print) | LCC GV191.4 (ebook) | DDC 796.540973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047309

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

& RYHU $ VFHQH IURP 7 ZR 0 HGLFLQH & DPSJURXQG * ODFLHU 1 DWLRQDO 3DUN LQ - XO\  FRORUL]HG%ODFNDQGZKLWH SKRWRJUDSK FRXUWHV\ RI 1 DWLRQDO 3DUN 6HUYLFH + LVWRULF 3KRWRJUDSK & ROOHFWLRQ + DUSHUV )HUU\ & HQWHU IRU 0 HGLD 6HUYLFHV 3KRWRJUDSK E\ * HRU JH $  * UDQW

For Pat and Jack—who introduced me to camping when

I was an infant. Thank you for a lifetime of roughing it.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction Roughing It Smoothly

1. Adventures in the Wilderness William H. H. Murray and the Beginning of Recreational Camping

2. The Art of Camping Roughing It during the Decades before Automobiles

3. Let’s Hit the Motor-Camping Trail The Automobile Transforms Camping

4. The Garage in the Forest E. P. Meinecke and the Development of the Modern Auto Campground

5. Liberalizing the Campground W. J. Trent Jr. and the Struggle against National Park Segregation

6. A Clearer Picture of This Country Trailer Camping to Discover America

7. A Renewal of Our Faith and Ideals The Development of Backpacking and Long-Distance Trails

Epilogue The Decline and Promise of American Camping

Notes

Index

ix

1

21

49

93

132

173

208

244

298

307

357

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To write a book an author needs much support and incurs many obli gations. Near the outset of this endeavor, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History provided a oneyear fellowship. I am indebted to this marvelous organization for its backing; to Cheney Moss, Jennifer Loux, and Richard Wicka, who acted as my interns at the time; to Roger White, who generously shared his thoughts with me; and to Jeffrey Stine especially for his support and leadership from the beginning. Before anyone, including me, Jeffrey saw that camping might have more to do with heading out of a city than into nature. His insight transformed my research. I am also grateful to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens for providing two fellowships, and especially to Rob ert C. Ritchie for his continuing support and encouragement. Moreover, I benefited from grants provided by the Adirondack Museum’s Warder and Julia Cadbury TraveltoCollections program, by the Benson Ford Research Center’s Clark TraveltoCollections program, and by Cal Poly Pomona’s Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities program, the Cen ter for Professional Development, and the John T. Lyle Center for Regen erative Studies. As critical as funding to any historical project is the knowledge and assistance of the librarians, archivists, curators, and institutional histori ans who collect, organize, and preserve the documents, maps, and other materials necessary to reveal our past. Over the course of two decades I have benefited from the hard work of many, including Joseph Schwartz, Ann Cummings, David A. Langbart, Paul Wormser, and John Hedger of