Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1922-07-02 | Page 10 | Municipal Auto Camps

MUNICIPAL AUTO CAMPS I ' Fl6UgES fi By IMQN A. MC0BXN8ON, Manager Touring nml Transixrtation Biirran, American Automobile Association. One of the most remarkable out-grov. out-grov. ths of tho new fad of motor-camping motor-camping lies In the establishment of a vast number of municipal and semi-private semi-private camping grounds in all sections sec-tions of the country for the comfort and convenience of the rapidly increasing in-creasing army of motor campers. When it became eldent that this new form of outdoor recreation was I destined to attain a. degree of lm-j portanco not dreamed of a few years ago, some of ihe more progressive communities in the western states saw the commercial possibilities Involved and determined to try for their share of the tourist ' trade by establishing ready-made camping grounds as near as possible to the business center of the town in each case Mahy of these municipal camp sites were sponsored by the local chambers of commerce, though occasionally tho movement had Its Inception In automobile auto-mobile Jubs. and, ven in some cases, they were ianugurated by the town authorities themselves. j The first camps established natur-ally natur-ally wore somewhat crude and deficient defi-cient In everything but the fundamen-r.als fundamen-r.als of successful camping, such as water, firewood and some form of outdoor o en or grate. DEVEIXPME1NT OP RIVALRY. A the number of camping motorists motor-ists Increased, however, the competition compe-tition between various municipalities became much more keen, with ihe recall that man., additional conveniences conveni-ences were added. First one town and then another added rest houses and comfort tuitions tui-tions to their camp sites, while others went still further and installed such things as completely equipped kit' h-n-ettes, laundries with electric washing wash-ing machines and lorns, tent floor, electric lights, gas for cooking and HcYilng, lining stations, supply stores. and even free touring information bureaus. bu-reaus. Recently two independent investigations investi-gations were made to determine the number and distribution of these municipal camping grounds, on of the- by the. American Automobile as-sociation. as-sociation. The composite results of these Inquiries show that there are in the country today 1850 of these I prepared camp sKes, and new ones j are being established so rapidly that it I is safe to predict that the gTand total I will pass the 3000 mark before the 1922 touring season Is over. An analysis of the distribution of these camp grounds shows California; leading all the states, with a gran.ii ; total of iCv Next comes Illinois with 1129, followed closely by Iowa and! Kansas with 110 and 105 camp sites respectively. Broadly speaking, the Middle West excels in this new feature, because. practically every state in this groupj contains at least r0 of these camp grounds, und nine of them have 75 1 or rrrbre. As yet the movement has made very ! little headway In the east, most of the states in his latter group hav-imr hav-imr loss than 10 established camping1 places, while at least three of them, I Rhode Island, Maryland and Dela-' I'ware, have none at all. The Rocky mountain states are likewise deficient I as compared with the relatively large i number in the middle west and along the Pacific coast, but even here the I showing is appreciably better than in the Atlantic states from Maine to I Florida.