“Camping Grounds” tells the history of camping in the United States, from the Civil War to the present. The book is divided into three sections: 1. The 1850’s to the 1890’s, reviewing the origin of camping as a leisure activity in the US; 2. The increasing popularity of camping in the 1880s through the 1940’s as it became easier to travel and also as white-collar workers had more vacation time; 3. The 1950’s through the present which reviews the dramatic increase in the popularity of recreating in the outdoors, new debates over the “correct” way to recreate in the outdoors, and the debates over camping protests on public lands.
This book should be required reading for anyone who loves camping, and in particular people who want to understand how the culture of the activity we love developed in America. As someone who grew up seeing camping as just another part of regular family life, it was one of those things that I never questioned: it just was part of life. However like many of us I am realizing that societal norms need to be questioned and understood. That means we need to question the norms around our leisure activities, which this book helps to do for camping. The book reviews how right from the beginning there were judgements about what qualified as “acceptable” camping, so we need to think about that when we are tempted to make judgements about other campers. Unsurprisingly the acceptable definition included having nicer camping equipment and more money – excluding people who needing to camp for financial reasons. It also didn’t include any respect or understanding of Native American culture. Native Americans are dismissed as interlopers on the wilderness experience, as evidenced in John Muir’s writing.
In addition to exploring culture, one other fascinating chapter explained the history of the layout of the “standard” American national or state park campground was created. The “loop campground” was designed to force campsites to be spread out, reducing damage to trees and the forest floor, make it easy to build more campgrounds, but it also supported the enforcement of a cultural norm of camping. This meant that there were defined places that you were allowed to camp in with a reservation, and thus places you weren’t allowed to camp, adding another class divide forcing people to make reservations and pay to camp instead of camping for free on the land. Additionally, from the beginning, implicitly and explicitly, Black people were not allowed to camp in most campgrounds. It was even part of the National Park Service unofficial policy to discourage Black visitors. These societal structures created around campgrounds are important to understand as there are opportunities for public comment on the development or expansion of campgrounds on public lands with the increase in popularity in camping during the pandemic.
“Camping Grounds” is a dense book packed with tons of details and hundreds of citations, so it’s not an easy read, however I believe any avid outdoors-person and especially parents should read this book. It provides important historical context for an activity we love and gives us information and stories we can share with our kids to help them understand camping as it relates to the rest of US society.
