The Vagabonds

The Vagabonds
My wife and I started camping about 3 years ago. Researching the camper we would use spurred me into writing another book, which will be a reference book for those wishing to enter this fun recreational activity. Of course, since I am a history nerd, I chose to start the book with a history of camping. Researching unfamiliar topics always leads to some fascinating stories. Camping as an activity has been with humans since antiquity. Most camping, however, took place as a part of military campaigns or travelers moving from place to place. The nomadic tribes of Central Asia and the Amerindian tribes of the Great Plains also camped as part of their migratory lifestyle.
Camping as Recreation
Recreational camping did not become popular until after the Civil War when the “Father of the Outdoor Movement,” William Henry Harrison Murray established a group camp where people could camp in a group setting in 1864. The next pioneers in camping occurred when a man named Joseph Cunningham and his wife operated a group camp for men and boys on the Isle of Man in the English Channel. The camp was a success and helped popularize camping as a recreational activity.
The Vagabonds
Four famous, wealthy men popularized the idea of the Great American Road Trip in the years preceding, during and after World War I. Three of these four men will be immediately recognizable, as they were Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. The fourth was a famous nature writer named John Boroughs. These men began what would become a summer tradition when Ford and Burroughs visited Edison at his Florida home in 1915, spending several days touring the Everglades. The next year the men would add Harvey Firestone, the tire manufacturer, to the group as they spent several days in Burroughs home country, the Adirondack Mountains. Burroughs kept a detailed account of their 1918 trip through West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. I was lucky enough to find this journal on line. I have included some of his observations in the book. Burroughs, in his 80’s at the time, would drop out of the group in 1919 and pass away in 1921. The next year they invited President Warren G. Harding to accompany them.
Not Roughing It
These men traveled in comfort. They did sleep in tents, however their entourage eventually reached as many as 50 vehicles, their attendants and the equipment. When they reached their destination, the attendants set up camp while Henry Ford chopped firewood, Edison retired to read or nap. Burroughs, whose knowledge of nature was extensive, would lead the other men on nature hikes into the mountains. Ford brought along a gourmet chef to cook and Edison invented a camp stove for their use. On one outing in later years they included E. G. Kingsford to accompany them. Kingsford is known for his part in the establishment of the Kingsford charcoal company. Ford actually developed the recipe for charcoal briquettes and appointed Kingsford to manage the plant where it was manufactured. Kingsford eventually established his own company, which still manufactures a high-quality charcoal for home barbecues.
Great Degree of Publicity
The men’s adventures attracted a great deal of attention from the press, which began covering their escapades in great detail. After a couple of years, the press coverage attracted dozens and later hundreds of “camping groupies,” that would follow the men as they camped. By 1924, tired of their loss of privacy as they camped and the attendant crowds, they discontinued their annual trips. But the publicity they generated, and the romance of camping served as the inspiration of the “Great American Road Trip.”
I will include the Vagabonds in much greater detail in the book, which I hope to publish sometime this year. The book will include a history of camping as well as extensive information on tents, campers, RVs and other camping equipment. I intend the book to be an entertaining reference for this popular activity.
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