GoCampingAmerica.com | Posted May 2nd,
    2016

    How Camping Has
    Changed!

    Happy Camper Blog

    Camping sure has come a long way over the decades, but it
    didn’t start out as the great form of recreation as we know it today. It was
    actually born out of necessity. Back in the days when explorers, prospectors
    and others in search of a better way of life crossed the American plains,
    they had no other option but to set up camp (as primitive as these camps may
    have been) along the way.

    It’s hardly surprising that kids were eventually drawn to camping
    as a form of recreation. Organized youth camping in the U.S. dates back to
    1861 when Frederick William Gunn and his wife Abigail started a boys’ camp at
    the Gunnery School for Boys in Washington, CT. Girls got in on the adventure,
    too, when the first YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) camp was
    founded in 1874 to provide a vacation for “tired young women wearing out
    their lives in an almost endless drudgery for wages that admit no thought of
    rest or recreation.”

    After the end of the Civil War, cities expanded, and by 1880, a
    quarter of the U.S. population lived in urban areas. The lure of returning to
    nature became very appealing to these city dwellers and people started
    camping for enjoyment by heading out to explore wildness areas on foot, on
    horseback or by canoe.

    Around the turn of the century, a huge revolution occurred in
    recreational camping when the automobile was invented and auto camping was
    born. Americans were now free to travel longer distances to see more of the
    country, and Henry Ford even encouraged his auto dealers to provide
    prospective buyers with free maps and guides. One enterprising man decided to
    invent a way to pack more supplies for these longer trips, and an early
    version of the tow-along travel trailer was born. It was a “spacious”
    three-foot square open box about 12 inches high mounted on an
    axle.

    The years after World War II brought about another major
    development in the world of camping. People found themselves with more
    leisure time and manufacturers started creating new, more advanced (and more comfortable)
    ways for campers to hit the road, including fifth wheels, travel trailers,
    truck campers and RVs. By the late 50s, America’s love of camping was on the
    rise.

    As more and more Americans set out on camping adventures in the
    60s, 70s and beyond, the manufacturers of camping equipment and recreational
    vehicles rose to the challenge by creating new ways to enhance the
    experience. The primitive bell tent which was designed by a Confederate army
    officer in 1855, gave way to lightweight models that are easy to transport
    and set up, and the first RV, Pierce-Arrow’s Touring Landau, complete with
    its fold-down bed and chamber pot, has been replaced by luxurious Class A RVs
    that allow their owners to enjoy the great outdoors without giving up the
    comforts of home.

    Along the way, campgrounds have also evolved to meet the changing
    needs of campers who now have a wider choice of accommodations, amenities and
    activities than ever before. But one thing hasn’t changed: America’s
    longstanding love affair with camping is alive and well and new generations
    are now discovering the joys of one of our country’s favorite
    pastimes.