Camp Sites.
—A gentleman, who with his wife and a Chevrolet coupé, the rear of which was modified into a large box about 5 feet square and 2 feet deep, who has “gypsied” across the United States several times from east to west and from north to south, says the problem of a camping ground for an average town is simple. Only a small tract is needed, and if it is properly looked after he thinks the tourists will not complain of a modest charge that will make it self sustaining. The average tourist would prefer the small charge and clean surroundings.[238] “A block is enough space, if the affair is in the hands of a competent caretaker, who will see that cars and tents are properly placed and guarded. People who tour in ordinary cars like to be close together. They are not aristocrats. They are folks. They like to visit around and talk roads, and examine outfits and discuss their plans. The best camps are divided into small plots by wooden palings on three sides. The caretaker shows you your place and it is your home for 25 cents a day. This money pays the caretaker and gives you the use of shower baths and lavatory. The best camps have city gas for cooking, bought through a slot meter. Some of them have ovens, but gas is better. The stoves are in a shed, which becomes the club house of the women. They meet there and cook and wash and complain about the reckless driving of their husbands, and tell where their married children live and have a glorious time.
CAMPING GROUND AND CARAVAN
A GIPSYING TOURING CARAVAN
“The men spend their spare hours buying supplies and talking and smoking, chewing, and pitching horseshoes. They also have the best time in the world. If the auto camp is next door to a good garage so much the better. Between here and the coast the common thing is the private auto park.”
Camps, in Mr. Harrison’s opinion, should not only be near a garage, for convenience and information, but also as near the business center as possible “because the tourists like to go up town to get a restaurant meal, buy soda water and postal cards, and take a squint at the movies.” As the car is usually a part of the tent and usually more or less cluttered up with baggage the camp site should preferably be in walking distance of the center of town. Too many towns have the camp sites away out where more land is obtainable, and possible natural shade. They should be near the main lines of travel and as stated the nearer a garage and grocery store the better.
The time will no doubt come when garage men with business acumen will establish camping facilities, though the space be small, in connection with their garages and charge a small fee the same as they do now for stabling the car overnight.
Possibly the Denver public camp ground is the most liberally patronized of any in the United States. El Paso, Texas, has a small park not more than 200 feet square that tourists claim to be the best cared for of any in the west. Olympia, Washington, is praised by tourists for her camping facilities. Only very recently has the camp idea reached the eastern coast, but the newspaper accounts indicate that it is taking hold.