Camping

CAMPING is as old as the human race; for the term may be used not altogether ineptly to refer to the only form of living followed by the original representatives of the human race. For thousands of years they slept, ate, worked and carried on prac tically all functions of life under the free heavens.

The United States.

The American Indian was most success ful in making this adaptation. He cherished a fraternal under standing with the elements and mingled in a fanciful, brotherly fellowship with the birds and animals, with the trees and flowers, with the waters and winds. He acquired a practical physical skill hunting, fishing, riding, paddling and fighting ; a practical mental acuteness in knowing how to live in the woods or find his way through the forests where others might perish. Camping in its early sense was begun in America by these Indians hundreds of years before the landing of Columbus. It was adopted and altered by the white man during the colonial days and was con tinued down to the close of the first century after the founding of the republic. During that important century of upbuilding, the people of the United States consisted primarily of open-air men, of farmers in the East and of pioneers in the West. As late as 1880, almost three-fourths of the population was rural.

From this hasty summary of the history of camping, two out standing facts immediately appear—(i) man's period of outdoor living extended over immeasurable aeons, his period of indoor living over a few brief centuries; hence the modern urge to get out into the unconfined spaces is an ancient racial heritage; indeed, a primeval, perhaps a biological, instinct; (2) man's physical vigour, mental acumen and moral power, were developed largely as a result of his constant, direct and personal contact with nature in her various moods—moods sometimes friendly, often hostile.

When the modern apartment tenant therefore seeks to re establish contacts with the outdoors, he may be responding knowingly and intentionally to a health-assuring, recreational and educational urge, but responding at the same time, perhaps un knowingly and unintentionally, to an even stronger and more irresistible racial, moral and religious instinct. Certain it is that the farmers and pioneers who constituted approximately 75% of the population of the United States prior to 188o received the most effective part both of their general all-round training for the work of building up the country and also of their genuine education from the duties involved and from the lessons learned in blazing the trail and driving the covered wagon.

The sons and daughters of these open-air men secured their knowledge of and skill in the handicrafts, in nature lore, in manual training by using the loom in the home, by gathering the herbs and the plants for food or for medicinal purposes, by select ing and fashioning the red oak for their ox-bows or the ash for their basket splints. By living in the woods and mountains where distances are great, they were forced by sheer necessity to de velop habits of resourcefulness and self-dependence, habits of economy and appreciation, habits of initiation and co-operation.

After the Civil War the United States changed from an open air to a housed-in nation. The population was being converted from rural to urban, from agricultural to manufacturing and com mercial. By the close of the first quarter of the loth century, more than half the people lived in cities of 8,000 or over. A generation was growing up that knew not the birds, the trees, the flowers, nor the stars; that knew not how to carry a pack, how to blaze a trail, how to live off the country, how to keep the campfire burning; a generation that was allowing to atrophy the pioneer virtues that the human race had been evolving within itself so slowly and so painfully during its almost unceasing struggle against nature. Hardly, however, had the drift from the country to the city got under way when men associated primarily with the schools and colleges founded agricultural col leges with the purpose of making farm life more attractive. In the '7os, Louis Agassiz was urging his pupils to "study nature, not books"; in the '8os courses in nature lore were being offered in various educational institutions. Soon the back-to-nature move ment was making an effective appeal to those interested in health, recreation and education. At the same time opportunities for them to get out into the woods and mountains were being created and multiplied. The increased and wider distribution of wealth afforded them leisure and financial means to travel away from the crowded streets. The growth of rapid and inexpensive trans portation facilities, particularly of the through electric lines and the automobile, brought the theretofore distant country nearer. Then the improvement of the highways, the development of the county, State and national parks, the perfection of outdoor sleeping and cooking appliances made it comparatively safe and comfortable for the city dweller to transform himself at least temporarily into an amateur camper.

Private camps for adults began to come into existence during the first decade of the loth century. They were established by directors of children's camps to provide nearby accommodations for the parents of their boys and girls, and by country boarding housekeepers who gradually expanded their commercial ventures so as to include some of the health and recreational features of the regularly organized camps. Although a considerable number of these private open-air institutions survive for only a season or two, the growth of the movement has on the whole been rapid. According to conservative estimates there are (1928) in existence almost 400 camps for boys, over 30o camps for girls and about I oo camps for adults, with a total annual membership of ap proximately 5o,000. While a very considerable number of them are in the New England States, particularly in Maine, New Hamp shire and Vermont, the movement has spread both toward the West and toward the South until it now extends from coast to coast.

A typical day's programme starts with the bugle call at about 6.45 A.M., followed by a dip in the lake, flag raising, breakfast (during which the campers take turns is waiting on the table), bungalow or tent duties, inspection and assembly. The regular morning and afternoon activities include baseball, basketball, field events, tennis, riflery, archery, riding, dancing, swimming, canoeing, nature lore and craft work. In the evening there may be a camp fire, an entertainment by the glee or dramatic club, a council ring, or a "sing" on the lake. Taps usually sound about 8.3o or 9.00. There are the short, long and over-night hikes and canoe trips varying in extent from a few hours to a week or longer, the intercamp contests and jollifications, and the usually impressive Sunday services in the open. Nearly all camps publish a paper and conduct a store or "trading post." The fees range from about $30o to $450 for a period of nine weeks. The directors are frequently assisted by a staff of college trained men and women whose salaries vary from mere expenses to $600 or more. There is nearly always a physician or trained nurse on the staff. The Camp Directors Association has drawn up a code of ethics to which its members are supposed to adhere ; and the health departments of the various States exercise a fairly strict super vision over the sanitary appointments of the camps.

The social welfare and semi-public organizations were not slow in following the examples set by the private camp directors. Plainly if the sons and daughters of the well-to-do were profiting by their summers in the open air, it was even more important that these advantages be made available for the children of the moderately circumstanced. On favourable sites not too far re moved from the more densely populated centres, there sprang up numerous inexpensive short-term camps that accept boys or girls usually in four or more shifts, each shift remaining for about two weeks. These camps are conducted by such organizations as the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts, Inc., the Campfire Girls, the Federation of Girls' Clubs, the Woodcraft League of America, Inc., the churches, Rotary and other service clubs, industrial and commercial enter prises, newspapers, magazines and many others. While no definite statistics are available, there are probably about 6,000 such camps in America with an annual population of approximately i,000,000.

Finally, the municipal, county, State and national authorities began to take cognizance of this mass migration out into the open. Many cities have provided more or less permanent camps for their own residents and automobile camps for tourists. The county Governments are creating extensive park systems partly for camping purposes; the State Governments are blazing trails, setting aside areas for motor camping, constructing fire-places, erecting shelters, providing police and sanitary supervision; the Federal Government is developing millions of acres comprising the forest reserves and the national parks, building roads, estab lishing camp sites and leasing them out at a nominal rent to properly qualified individuals and organizations and issuing printed matter that deals with the various aspects of outdoor living. It is impossible to estimate the number of millions of people who every year avail themselves of these opportunities.

BInuoGRAPHY.—Horace Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft; E. H. Lehman (ed.) Camps and Camping, official annual publication of the Camp Directors' Association (1921-28) ; Camping Out, edited by L. H. Weir (1924) ; Summer Camps, edited and published by Porter Sargent (5924-28) ; The Monthly Library on Camping, edited by H. W. Gibson (1927-28). (E. H. L.)