The Garage in the Forest

Abstract

This chapter examines how the millions of campers who swarmed public facilities around the country led to their rapid deterioration. Lakes, woods, seashores, and deserts within a few hours' drive generally satisfied these campers' desire to escape their everyday world, but some found these sites' ability to renew and transform to be limited. Moreover, when a camper sought greater restoration, he had to travel to spaces more sacred, but to do so was geographically challenging, because most Americans lived in the East, and the most sacred and desirable destinations—Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the other national parks—were in the distant West. Into this breach stepped E. P. Meinecke, who developed the auto campground plan that was quickly adopted by public agencies around the country and dominates car campgrounds to this day.