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TRAILER AHOY!
TRAILER AHOY!
BY
CHARLES EDGAR NASH
Being as comprehensive a book on the automobile house trailer as is possible for one man to prepare at this time from his own experiences and the fragmentary data avail- able in an industry frantic with the demands of production.
AN INTELL PICTORIAL
PUBLISHED, 1937. BY THE
INTELLIGENCER PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
That all America may realize the position the automobile house trailer is making for itself in our changing scheme of national life and that the advantages, short-comings and opportunities it presents may be thoroughly appreciated, this book has been produced.
COPYRIGHT, 1937
By THE INTELLIGENCER PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or parts thereof in ang form without permission
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
THE
automobile trailer home has created the great- est sensation this country has seen in many a day. Within the past few years America has become not only trailer conscious, but trailer crazy.
You see and hear about trailers everywhere ~~ in cartoons and comic strips, in the newspapers and magazines, on the radio, in the movies and as a topic of general conversation. Even the toy builders are turning out half a dozen types of trailer toys.
The automobile industry developed quickly from an inventor's brain-child into a national institution, but in comparison the trailer industry has grown with the speed of lightning.
Good roads from Mexico to Canada and from the Atlantic to the Pacific have opened up a wonderland of adventure to the American motorist. And trailers are opening this wonderland wide to the tourist of limited means and to the traveller in any walk of life who insists upon certain comforts and conveniences en route.
Within a few short years the trailerite has pro- gressed from the category of the tin can tourist to the aristocracy of the road. At first he was the gypsy of the highways, roaming without welcome and seem-
ingly with little purpose. Today he is the gentleman- at-home wherever he may be, an asset to the region of his visit and an individual in search of the best that the country and the season has to offer.
The lure of the trailer has made itself felt among all classes of people. The home mechanic is just as proud of his $300 rolling bungalow as the millionaire is of his $15,000 mobile mansion. Each trailer spells home and the comforts of home. Each provides coziness and de luxe accommodations on the road. Each permits living at a minimum of expense and with a minimum of effort. Each stands for freedom and adventure, new sights, new scenes and a new out- look on life. Each means living, instead of existing. Each is the ideal outlet for an American's love of travel.
Generally speaking, trailer owners may be divided into three classes of people: those who have retired, or are living on a pension, or who have enough money to travel at will without thought of income, those who depend upon trailers for vacation trips, and those who use them for business purposes.
The trailer has already passed through three stages of development. First it was used for touring only, then it was for touring, camping and vacationing, now it is used for full-time living. In the words of a great New York daily newspaper, "The trailer has arrived/'
Commercially, trailers are being used as offices, showrooms, stores, broadcasting units, ambulances,
ticket booths, photographic studios, antique and gift shops, beauty parlors and libraries, with additional uses being found for them daily*
There is golden opportunity in every phase of the trailer situation as it stands today; opportunity for the parts and equipment designer and manufacturer, opportunity for the trailer builder, the distributor and the retailer, opportunity for thousands of needed trailer camps to succeed in a big way, and last, but not least, opportunity for millions of people to own trailers and enjoy the new life and freedom which these rolling homes typify.
It's a thrill to own a trailer and it's fun to live in one. In this book we will do our level best to answer all the normal questions about trailers and trailer life, make suggestions as to types of trailers, supplies and equipment, tell where to go, what to see and when to see it and perhaps even start the reader on the way to a lucrative business somewhere in the trailer field.
C.E.N.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 7
L CYCLES OF AMERICAN TRAVEL 15
II. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRAILER 57
III. THE FASTEST GROWING BUSINESS IN AMERICA ... 69
IV. WHY A TRAILER 79
V. STATE TRAILER REGULATIONS 137
VI. TRAILER CAMP GROUNDS 185
VII. TRAILER HINTS 197
VIII. THE NATIONAL PARKS 211
DIGEST OF PARKS; OPENING AND CLOSING DATES . . 214 TRAILER FACILITIES IN PARKS AND MONUMENTS . . 242
IX. THE TRAILER FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER 249
X. THE TRAILER FOR THE SCIENTIST 257
XI. THE TRAILER FOR THE ARTIST . . 259
ILLUSTRATIONS
VV ITH the exception of the views of truck living accommodations antedating the trailer, which were furnished through the courtesy of a friend— and those bearing a credit line— this book was photographically illustrated in its entirety by the author's camera.
No attempt has been made to give a complete photo- graphic sequence to any one of many trips. Rather is the illustration a casual meandering through a photo- graphic file that stirs up memories of pleasant days afield.
I
CYCLES OF AMERICAN TRAVEL
JL HREE and a quarter centuries ago, after the early discoverers had opened the sea-lanes from the Old World to the New, half a dozen tiny settlements of the white man dotted the east coast of North America* These settlements were the fruits of the first expeditions sent out from Europe by the great sea powers which sought to establish footholds in the new land across the sea.
The Spaniards founded St. Augustine in 1565. Forty years later the French settled Port Royal in Novia Scotia, thereby "throwing their hat into the ring/' Sir Walter Raleigh's money planted an Eng- lish colony at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, and the French made their second strategic move in founding Quebec at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River a year later. The Pilgrims landed their "Mayflower" at Plymouth
16 TRAILER AHOY!
Rock in 1620 and the colony they planted in Massa- chusetts gave the English greater power in the New World and more divergent holdings. Then the Dutch bestirred themselves and countered with a series of voyages of exploration, followed by the settling of the island of Manhattan in 1623 and subsequent coloniza- tion of parts of what is now New Jersey and the Delaware River region. Within a few years the Swedes made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the latter from the Dutch.
The early settlers in the hamlets and fortified towns which went by the glorified name of colonies had all they could do to provide themselves with food, cloth- ing and shelter, and protection from enemies, red, white and insect. Life was stern and the settlers clung like leeches to the seacoast and the adjacent river mouths, where aid from their mother countries was most readily available.
The vast wilderness with its mighty forests teeming with game and its incalculable natural resources, lay right at their back door, yet they left it practically un- touched, showing little inclination to explore it even in a small way.
With each passing year new arrivals came from across the Atlantic. The old settlements grew and new ones sprang up. The farms and plantations re- quired more and more acreage and to acquire this the
TRAILER AHOY! 17
settlers pushed slowly but surely back from the coast. Time rolled on and, as if the colonists did not have trouble enough of their own, there were the inevita- ble wars for possession. Nation after nation was ousted from its American holdings until England stood in undisputed possession of all of eastern tem- perate America.
Among the English colonists were many men and women who did their own thinking. The rawness of the new country tended to foster and promote this freedom of thought, action and religious opinion. Courage and self-reliance, foresight and elbow-grease, built many a home, village and town in the heart of the Indian country back from the seacoast.
England, largely because of the demands of a dunder-headed king, George the Third, came to reckon that this land of almost limitless opportunity and natural resources should yield a substantial for- tune in taxes. As a result the levies became more and more burdensome until they passed the bounds of reason. The free-thinking, free-living, liberty-loving pioneers who were carving a nation from a wilderness arose in indignation against the storm-clouds of op- pression. Edmund Burke did his eloquent best to make Parliament see its folly, but his pleas bore no fruit and the Revolutionary War was the inevitable result.
18 TRAILER AHOY!
When the colonists emerged victorious from a con- flict which had at first seemed so lop-sided that they were conceded scarcely a chance to come out on top, America came of age over-night. The Spaniards con- trolled the country to the south and southwest. The French held sway to the north, so the colonists, burst- ing with energy and a new-found confidence, pushed constantly towards the setting sun, displacing the red men as they went.
Years before this, and under entirely different cir- cumstances, Lord Berkeley wrote the famous line, "Westward the course of empire takes its way." This was exactly what was happening here in America. But by 1790, even though our frontiersmen had penetrated to the Mississippi, leaving growing settle- ments everywhere in their wake, some 95% of our population still clustered about the Atlantic seaboard.
Then came the Louisiana Purchase and the sensa- tional trip of exploration of Lewis and Clark, backed by the government. These intrepid adventurers brought back such glowing accounts of the great country west of the Mississippi that they fired the imaginations of all classes. With a vanguard of trap- pers and traders, the settlers began to work westward from the Mississippi towards the Pacific.
With a courage and fortitude unsurpassed in the history of civilization, these fore-runners of the
TRAILER AHOY! 19
America-to-come filtered across the plains, up the rivers and into the mountains, facing possible death and disaster at every turn from hostile Indians, dan- gerous animals and reptiles and the unpredictable cataclysms of nature.
Singly and in bands many of these empire builders were wiped out, leaving their bones to bleach in for- gotten places, but for every one who died, two took his place. Trapping, hunting, fishing, guiding the ex- plorer and the hardy homesteader and fighting the hostiles, these unsung heroes played their part and played it well.
The Spaniards who held sway in California and the southwest had emigrated into that region from Mexico and were a considerable distance from their sources of supply. So when the Americans reached Sante Fe they realized that they had fallen upon great trade opportunities for American goods. With character- istic disregard of almost insurmountable natural obstacles, they promptly opened up the Santa Fe trail to the Mississippi and heavy broad-tired freight wagons, driven in trains for protection against the Indians, began to beat their way westward with their precious loads of trade goods.
The rumble of wheels echoed across the continent and with its advent on the plains, civilization began to roll westward with a vengeance. Then gold was
20 TRAILER AHOY!
discovered in California in 1848 and when the news reached the east, together with actual shipments of the precious metal in the following year, the stampede was on. Gold was the excuse for haste.
The westward tide became a flood and the humanity on its crest used every available means of locomotion at its command. Companies were formed all over the east, especially in New England, and hard-headed Yankee bankers and financiers, along with other in- vestors great and small, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to send out men to mine on a share basis.
Though unintentional at first, the gold rush became a racket when worked as an investment proposition and very few dollars ever found their way back to the investors who had taken such a gamble. But we were at a crucial period in our national growth. New hori- zons beckoned, new sights, new sounds, new faces. That same spirit of adventure which brought most of the first colonists across the stormy Atlantic in cockle- shell ships broke forth anew in their descendants.
It was still worthwhile to challenge the wilderness, conquer it and move ahead into its deeper fastnesses. Gold was the superficial excuse, but underneath lay our national love of travel, the gypsy in our blood. In the background hung the shades of Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone.
Prosperous, successful individuals in every walk of
TRAILER AHOY! 21
life felt the urge and succumbed to it, selling their homes and their businesses, or simply "pulling up stakes" and leaving for the west. With money-belts filled or empty they felt that as long as they had health and strength they could make a go of life, come what might.
They wanted a change of scene. They wanted to feel once more the thrill of accomplishment that set their blood to singing. They wished to know more of this great country, its vast reaches and its varied natural resources which seemed to be almost without end.
The avid treasure-seekers set out in fast clipper ships for a voyage 'round the Horn to California, or they landed at the Isthmus of Panama, crossed it and took ship on the Pacific side, when a ship was to be had there, to save time en route to San Francisco. But thousands upon thousands set out across country afoot, on horseback, in lumbering covered wagons and in rough-riding stagecoaches. Thus they spread out over the new land, settling in every likely place.
America was in flux and the huge melting pot ex- perienced its first pouring. The slag was there along with the good metal and many of the molds were im- perfect, but the net results were astounding.
A western empire was born overnight and behind the accomplishment stood a bearded man in fringed
22 TRAILER AHOY!
buckskin, wearing a coonskin cap and armed with a hunting knife and a Hawkins rifle. He was the roving trader, the "coureur des bois," who with magnificent courage and incredible persistence, laid the founda- tions for the civilization to come.
As each succeeding form of transportation swept in a wave across the country, it catered, each in its fashion, to our native restlessness and love of travel. The horse, the stagecoach, the river steamboat, the railroad, the automobile and finally the airplane, all played their part.
But the automobile turned out to be the greatest and most widely influential form of transportation for the average American. In an amazingly short time it saved our hinterlands from dry rot and rank provin- cialism. It annihilated distance in a safe and inexpen- sive way. It relegated the horse, in large measure, to a period of well-earned rest, turned time into an asset worthy of any man's reckoning, and weaved every village and hamlet, every outlying ranch and farm, firmly and definitely into the fabric of the nation.
When the horse stepped out, modernity stepped in. Our whole tempo changed. With venturesome drivers at the wheel few inhabited spots in this broad land proved to be inaccessible for long to automobiles. Where one car went another followed. Constant use of the same route made minor grading a necessity, and
TRAILER AHOY! 23
after grading came surfacing, so the trails became roads and the roads became highways.
Good highways meant that all the products of civilization were made readily accessible to the people who lived in the great open spaces and the presence of these highways often proved a source of revenue for those who lived along them. Travellers needed the necessities of life and were willing and anxious to buy them, especially in the out-of-the-way places, and along with these necessities, many luxuries, too. The sale of these meant business and an income.
As science and experience produced increasingly better automobiles, mileage came to be considered in terms of pennies, so that very small family "nest-eggs'* were sufficient to back an automobile trip from coast to coast, or from Canada to Mexico. People in all walks of life were enabled to see America at reason- able expense. That native restlessness cropped out again and the whole country again took to wheels — rubber-tired wheels this time.
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Covered wagons were usually pulled by yokes of oxen similar to this team we ran across in rural Quebec.
True gypsies in their horse-drawn ver- sions of the covered wagon are still to be found at intervals on the plains. We passed this caravan in Kansas.
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Hollywood, quick to appreciate a good thing, has gone "trailer." And the trailer has gone "Hollywood." Here Ida Lupino. the film star, stands proudly in front of her new silver trailer, while her sister, Rita, left and Marion Ladd peep from the door behind her.
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Even a telephone, which is connected to the tow car, graces the buffet in the W. C Fields trailer.
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We launch our trailer on the seas of high adventure in the shadow of historic old Bamegat Light on the Island of Long Beach, New Jersey. Having summered here most of our life we are anxious to test trailer life at the seaside. We find it delightful.
Our camera catches a magnificent display of lightning in one of the storms which the trailer weathers like a duck. Even the tail of a West Indian hurricane fails to faze us in our home on wheels, though the corners require jacks to keep it from rocking.
In travelling we have found that it always pays to take heed of the markers placed by the states and various patriotic organizations at historic sites. Only in this way can any trip be appreciated to the full.
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Son Gessner looks for turtles and admires the water-lilies on a cedar-water stream in the New Jersey woods.
The restored stockade at Fort Necessity in western Pennsylvania is interesting to all of us. Here the Great Meadows Campaign marked the first concerted action on the part of the Colonies against the French and Indians.
The fronds of the palm trees along Florida's Gulf Coast wave eternally in the refreshing trade winds. The lure to climb a big "leaner" is sometimes irresistible.
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Another Santa Fe landmark is the church of San Miguel, oldest Mission in the United States. It was founded in 1621 by Father Alonzo Benavides, fired by the Indians in the rebellion of 1680 and rebuilt by orders of De Vargas in 1692 after the Reconquest. Priceless church ornaments and paintings are housed here.
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A Taos Pueblo Indian, Rafe Martinez, Carlisle graduate and Charley Tingley, a Haverford College graduate from Phil- adelphia's Main Line, strike a friendly pose.
Rafe lives in an ancient and beautiful Indian skyscraper, Taos, with a history dating authentically back 500 years and traditionally over 800. Intrigue and re- bellion seethed here when Spain ruled.
TRAILER AHOY!
57
II
DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRAILER
JL HE North American plains Indians used trailers, which were known as "travois," as far back as the sixteenth century. They hitched two long poles, or shafts, to the half-wild ponies which were descended from the horses that strayed northward from the camps of the Spanish Conquistadores in Mexico. Across these shafts several feet from the dragging ends they lashed with rawhide a framework of short poles, forming a crude stretcher upon which all their belongings were piled and the squaws and children could ride or sleep. These "travois" were often roofed with hides stretched over a dome-like
58 TRAILER AHOY!
frame of bent saplings, presenting an appearance not unlike that of a small community-house on skids. They were true trailers even though horse-drawn.
The idea of a home on wheels is no innovation, it is centuries old. It appeared in the gypsy caravan and in traveling road shows and circuses in Britain and on the Continent. Almost as soon as the wheel itself was developed some form of rolling house, a cart that could be lived in, was built. Such vehicles appeared in China and India long before they did in the western world.
These primitive trailers were pulled by yaks, oxen, elephants or even man-power. Later horses and don- keys were used. The Boers, and to some extent the English after them, trekked all over Africa when the country was being opened up in great heavy wagons similar to our prairie schooners, but larger wheeled, pulled by span after span of long-horned oxen. Many of the early settlers in Australia and New Zealand lived and traveled in wagons.
Engineers, scientists and mining men, especially the English, have long used homes on wheels in the out- of-the-way places of the earth, where good lodgings were scarce or not to be had and the roads or trails were passable to rolling stock. Where roads were lacking altogether these homes were adapted to use on the railroads.
TRAILER AHOY! 59
As soon as the automobile emerged from the "horseless buggy " stage, ceased breaking down every few miles and became an efficient long range trans- portation unit, it became the answer to the rover's prayer. It was excellent for the day's travel, but the problem arose when it came to the night's sleep.
For complete peace of mind, the motorist soon found it necessary to travel with sleeping equipment which made him independent of any local conditions which might be encountered. First he took a tent with him, which he carried on his trunk rack or running board and pitched on the ground. Canvas goods com- panies designed and constructed tents of every con- ceivable size and shape to meet this immediate demand.
There is a perennial lure to tent life and tents will always be popular with vacationists, but it soon be- came apparent that the tent was not the ideal solution to a comfortable, home-like tour, even when it was carried in a small two-wheeled trailer behind the car. Whatever its design, a tent was troublesome to erect, especially in the dark after a long run, and it was even more troublesome to pack early in the morning when wet with dew or soaked with rain. Then too, the eternal packing and unpacking of camp paraphernalia was a burden that robbed any trip of half its pleasure.
In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, trailers were designed so that the tent carried might be raised
60 TRAILER AHOY!
on the trailer itself and bunks, food and equipment lockers were built in. This was a decided step for- ward and the trend towards simplicity and comfort was met in direct proportion to the ingenuity of the builder.
Some motor campers turned away from the trailer idea and tried to simplify matters further by hinging the backs of the front seats in ther cars so that they might be turned down and converted, in conjunction with the back seats, into double beds. Others bought light station wagons and fitted them out with lockers and folding bunks, one over the other.
Back of all this was the idea of a real rolling home in miniature, a home that some day might be as com- pact and comfortable as the wheeled homes of star circus performers, but much lighter in weight. It was thus that the automobile trailer home, as we know it today, "just growed," like Topsy.
Individuals and a few small companies, scattered from coast to coast were wracking their brains for the real solution to the problem. They turned out everything from trailers built of plywood and shaped like dog-houses and coffins with windows in them, to small, but heavy, one- and two-room bungalows, de- signed for mounting on a truck chassis.
For de luxe accommodations for living on the road some American body-building plants, utilizing a self-
TRAILER AHOY! 61
contained power unit in the form of a standard truck chassis, put out a bus home on wheels which beat the auto trailer industry by more than a dozen years in point of both time and quality. These truck or bus homes, which were known as portable accommoda- tions, portable quarters and by various other designa- tions, were expressly designed for use in Mexico, Central and South America by oil and mining experts and executives. Each was built to accommodate from six to eight people and the best materials and work- manship went into the job. The finished product was comparable to a railway Pullman car. One model included even a large built-in vault for payrolls and bullion.
When the presidential campaign of 1924 came along, the Republican National Committee conceived the idea of a Coolidge Caravan as a great publicity stunt for an official invasion of California and other points in the far west. This caravan, with its accom- modations for the campaign speakers, proved a sen- sation wherever it went and was the object of much careful scrutiny as to detail of design and construction.
Within a very short time, home-made trailers began to appear all along the route chosen by the caravan. And though it is almost impossible to trace the matter with any degree of exactitude, it is believed by some observers that the true automobile trailer home was
62 TRAILER AHOY!
the offspring of this caravan and was born in southern California, Others hand the palm to Florida.
But this matter of birth is of little or no consequence to America in general or the trailerite in particular. Wherever the seed may have been planted or germi- nated it grew with such astounding rapidity that it changed the entire principle of motor travel and placed thousands of homes "on wheels/'
Nearly a year ago Roger W. Babson, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, the great economist, rocked the public to its foundations when he predicted that within 20 years, more than half the population of the United States would be living in trailers.
William Bushnell Stout, former president of the American Society of Automotive Engineers, and world-famous for his accomplishments in the field of airplane design, was recently engaged in a discussion of "mobile cities." He opened his broadside by stat- ing that not many were aware of it, but that a large part of the population of the United States is con- stantly moving. He backed up Babson's prediction with a ten years modification, by stating that within 30 years half of the population would be living in homes on wheels.
Stout favors the portable home which can be dis- mantled, hauled on wheels anywhere its owner de- sires, then rebuilt as a permanent residence until the
TRAILER AHOY! 63
owner again wishes to move* He has designed a "highway home" of his own which he calls the Stout Super Trailer, "a perfect machine for living/' This invention, when hauled to a desirable location for a residence, is detached from the towing automobile, levelled with adjustable corner jacks, and opened up like a cardboard doll house to form a three- or four- room home.
The unit was designed definitely for permanent living. Proper shelter was considered first and towing qualities afterwards. Folded and ready for the road it measures 16 feet in length, 6^/2 feet in width and 8 feet overall in height with headroom of 6 feet 3 inches. It can be towed easily by a small car like ours at 50 miles per hour without even packing the dishes in the cupboards. Sidesway is prevented by an under- slung axle and it rides on two wheels controlled by vacuum brakes.
When parked the roof sections are swung out on hinges and sides and floor unfold, resulting in about 20 minutes in a dividable, single-unit home of 20 by 14 feet, inside dimensions. The body is made of metal sheeting mounted on welded aircraft tubing and is scientifically insulated against sound, heat and cold. The floors are birch plywood covered with linoleum. They are insulated underneath and protected from the elements with a sheathing of sheet metal.
64 TRAILER AHOY!
All lockers, drawers and doors are metal and the house has both a front and a back door. Screened, sliding windows open at the ends and sides. The window on one side has removable shutters and opens to a maximum size of 2 by 12 feet'— a notable feature.
Two built-in water tanks supply hot and cold water, one holding 20 gallons and the other 30 gallons. A 60-pound gas container supplies gas for heating the hot water, for the four-burner cookstove with oven and for the 24-cube Electrolux refrigerator. Locker and drawer space is ample, including two clothes lockers and a total of over 62 cubic feet of storage space. The built-in buffet is an attractive feature, with its large plate-glass mirror, its modernistic shelves and its lockers.
A gas-electric generator, running several hours daily, keeps the battery charged on a 12-volt lighting system and a separate 110 volt line is also standard equipment. The lights on both systems are recessed.
The kitchen boasts a lavatory basin and a regular sink with a drain-board. Both are piped for hot and cold water. A medicine cabinet with a mirror door is built over the basin and a locker for storage under it.
Movable fittings include half a dozen light-weight upholstered chairs, a table for dining and cards, two double beds which are convertible into settees and a typical trailer §tove for heating purposes. When a
TRAILER AHOY! 65
move to a new location is contemplated all these are stowed away in the center section and the walls and roof are folded over them.
As may be judged, this highway home is equipped to accommodate four people, but it is so commodious that it will readily sleep two more without overcrowd- ing. It sells complete in all details as specified for $2,500, or the price of a small, cheaply-constructed row house.
The most perfect example of the trailer developed to date is the Pullman Car or the modern streamline sleeping car. And the way the industry is progressing no desirable feature of any railroad car, sleeper, lounge, diner or observation car need be omitted from an auto trailer, save from the standpoint of cost.
Such portable homes presage prefabricated houses, which are both movable and which may be traded in or scrapped like used automobiles, so that when the owner does not like the style, shape, size or capacity of his home he can change it almost at will.
Mobile homes are undoubtedly going to result, in a few years, in mobile cities, living communities which will pick their locations according to the best living advantages obtainable. Climate, the political situa- tion, taxes, natural endowments and the like will play a large part then in the selection of a mobile city site
66
TRAILER AHOY!
IN NOMAD'S LAND
WHEN HALF THE NATION LIVES IN TRAILERS
Reprinted by Permission of The Chicago Tribune
TRAILER AHOY! 67
and it would appear that political management would, in time, give way to business management*
There are a number of contributory causes to the mobile home situation. No insatiable restlessness is behind the movement. It is no gypsy inclination sim- ply to move and keep moving at minimum expense. Climate is doubtless the primary cause — escape from winter's cold and from summer's excessive heat — escape from a damp climate to a dry one — escape from the "pollen belt" to regions of clean, fresh air, free from impurities irritating to asthma, hay and rose fever addicts — escape from mortgages and the owner- ship of useless impedimenta — escape from conven- tionality with so many of its senseless requirements and prohibitions — escape from "keeping up with the Joneses/'
And then there is the vacationist, from the casual week-ender to the fortunate school-teacher type, who is often left to his or her own devices for the entire summer season. Last, but certainly not least, is the retired farmer, business man or professional man, and the pensioner in every walk of life. These folks are held by few, if any, ties. Their lives lie before them to enjoy in any way their pocket-books will permit.
Deep down in the heart of every one of us is a desire to travel and see strange new sights, new people and new places. "When I can afford it, I am going to
68 TRAILER AHOY!
California — Mexico — Canada — Florida <— Maine** . . . it matters not where* This is the standard state- ment of rich and poor alike* Money, or lack of it, is not the real deterrent to such dreams, many, or rather most of which, are never realized. No, more than one individual has amassed enough money, or has a sufficient income through a pension or an annuity to travel for the rest of his or her life, but until the trailer came along they didn't do it.
In the first place, all arguments and travel adver- tisements not-with-standing, the life of a traveller is not home life. From no angle, even the scenic one, is it a bed of roses. Foods, cooking, water and beds vary so, regardless of attendant expense, that the traveller is invariably "glad to get home/*
But the trailer has changed this picture completely. You take your home with you. You cook at home. You sleep every night in your own bed between your own sheets. You read your own books and maga- zines. You listen to your own radio. And your own loved ones are with you to enjoy every moment along the way.
TRAILER AHOY!
69
III
THE FASTEST GROWING BUSINESS IN AMERICA
As
we assemble our facts for this book new and interesting material is reaching us with every maiL During 1936 the automobile trailer home industry has been the fastest growing industry in America. Its growth in all its phases has been so phenomenal that it has elicited the attention of many of the largest automobile manufacturing companies.
In today's market anything that looks like a trailer is selling, whatever the size, shape, weight, construc- tion or cost. In addition to the demand for finished trailers, ready to use, there is a steady demand on the part of the home mechanic for trailer plans and fac- tory-made trailer parts and equipment.
The pioneer in the trailer coach field is the Covered
70 TRAILER AHOY!
Wagon Company, of Mount Clemens, Michigan, which has been in production for eight years. This organization boasts a particularly appropriate name and has been expanding from year to year at a tre- mendous rate. Their more recent figures show that they built six times as many trailers in 1935 as in 1934. In 1936 they increased their 1935 production four and one-half times. Their estimated production for 1937 is 20,000 Covered Wagons.
They claim to be the largest as well as the oldest trailer manufacturer and now have 76 distributors in this country, most of whom have outlets through from 20 to 57 retail dealers. Within the next half year they are counting upon having a dealer organization of 2,500 in this country alone, although they have, in addition, distributors in five foreign countries.
Fierce-Arrow has just launched its Travelodge, thereby entering the trailer field. This rolling home features an all-steel framework, airplane-type alumi- num panelling, independent wheel suspension, hy- draulic brakes and hydraulic shock absorbers.
Nash Motors and a prominent truck manufacturing company have just announced their intention to build trailers, and Federal Motor Truck and Hayes Body are already in the field.
The Edwards Home-mobile Company, of South Bend, Indiana, has startled the industry by an an-
TRAILER AHOY! 7l_
nouncement that it intends to build steel coach trailers, dismantle the fabricated sections, and ship them knocked down to branch assembly plants in different parts of the country. Starting production immediately its definite aim is an output of 10,000 trailers a month, or 120,000 a yean
Unsubstantiated rumors have it that Ford and General Motors are either working upon or consider- ing the advisability of trailer production.
A Trailer Coach Manufacturer's Association has just been formed and is working assiduously to com- plete a survey of the industry which will show the number of companies building trailers and enlist their support in the organization for mutual protection. To date the industry has been growing so quickly and so widely that no one can tell for sure whether 300 bona fide companies or 1,500 are making trailers. All fig- ures given verbally or in magazine articles have been the merest approximations.
It is known, however, that every trailer manufac- turer building a good product has been so swamped with orders this year, that it has been necessary to double or triple plant capacity. There is money in trailers and the public is perfectly willing to pay for these mobile homes which open the way to inexpen- sive travel, glorious vacations, and comfortable living.
Most of the larger companies build three or four
72 TRAILER AHOY!
types and sizes of trailers, covering a wide price range, and strange as it may seem in this post-depression period, the demand for the expensive trailers exceeds that for the cheap ones by at least two to one. Most people prefer a large, luxurious trailer to a cheap one. Whether they buy one or not seems to depend entirely upon the condition of their pocketbook. In our personal experience, small trailer owners invari- ably look with longing at the large trailers and aspire to owning one "as soon as they can afford it/'
The whole trailer situation has grown to such great proportions so quickly that it has caught the allied industries unawares. Insurance companies, lacking accurate and comprehensive figures upon which to compute their rates, have had to base their charges largely upon percentages and guesswork, although they are diligently at work amassing all available data.
Automobile finance companies are busy planning to finance the wholesaling and retailing of trailers in a way that will open up a tremendous market. Some trailer companies already have 6% finance plans in operation, similar to regular automobile financing. The rental of trailers has brought up problems of insurance, standardization of hitch, the trailer brake appliances for passenger cars, and the like, all of which have demanded immediate solution to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
TRAILER AHOY! 73
With the entrance of large automobile, truck and coach building companies into the business, substan- tial resources will make greatly increased production possible at once. It will also result in a competition which will benefit the trailer business as much as keen competition has benefited the automobile business and given us the superb motor cars we have today.
Trailers were shown in every automobile show of any size this year and in every case they literally "stole the show" by the admission of the automobile men themselves. Interested visitors and prospective purchasers swarmed around the trailers, examining every little detail of their design and construction. For some this was a first intimate contact with a trailer. Others were noting the many improvements a year's development had brought about. And people of means were as prominent there as the average citizen. It was a series of triumphs for the trailer industry with the metal-clad trailers in the lead.
Most of the factory-built trailers on the road today are constructed largely of wood, straight-grained oak and airplane spruce sheathed with plywood all the way from fir to mahogany, or with some form of com- position board having high tensile strength and in- sulating properties.
Tomorrow's construction is definitely pointing towards all-steel framework and an exterior sheath-
74 TRAILER AHOY!
ing of aluminum, duralumin, stainless steel or any one of our modern strong, light metals. Weight and a maximum square footage of living room must be constantly borne in mind, and the refinements are bound to work towards all the up-to-date safety and beauty factors.
Trailer homes are so small and compact in compari- son with ordinary homes that their owners demand all the refinements and conveniences that their pocket- books will allow.
All present-day factory-built trailers are wired for electricity, having connections for 110 volt alternating current and for the 6-8 volt direct current from the automobile battery. Some feature two distinct cir- cuits, one handling the high voltage and the other the low. Others use a single circuit and depend upon a change of bulbs and the use of a transformer, which is provided.
The standard house current, 1 10 volts, is available at nearly every trailer campground today. But the trailerite who does not wish to leave any detail affect- ing his comfort to chance may have his own gas- electric plant, which will make him entirely independ- ent of local sources of current supply.
These power plants come in various sizes, voltages and capacities, but perhaps the most satisfactory one of all actually generates 110 volts, standard city cur-
TRAILER AHOY! 75
rent, and this allows all standard electric appliances to be used with impunity. Its capacity is 300 watts at 60 cycles, alternating current. The plant weighs only 72 pounds. It has a special 50 direct current winding to permit the charging of 6 volt batteries. When connected with a storage battery it starts at the touch of a button and it runs 1 2 hours on a gallon of gasoline.
The presence of "city current" in a trailer opens the doors wide to the wizardry of electrical science. It permits the use of vacuum cleaners, the small hand models, of course, electric fans, toasters, irons, bottle warmers, waffle irons, good reading lights and above all, the all-wave radio.
No matter how far afield your camping spot may be, a really good radio will keep you right up to the minute on the events of the day — and the farther afield you are the more you will appreciate it.
Our little family of four took a September trip into Canada, about which we have a few things to say later, but we had only two clear days out of two weeks. The rest of the time it poured. The weather outside our trailer was miserable while we were in Quebec. It was cold and windy and the rain descended in sheets. Underfoot the ground was as soft and slippery as grease.
Yet in spite of the depressing scene outside, inside
76 TRAILER AHOY!
a cheery fire of chestnut wood was burning merrily in the iron stove. The trailer was as warm and com- fortable as a New England fireside. My beautiful young wife, Jane, was playing with five month old baby, Julia, and five year old son, Gessner, was look- ing at an animal book.
I turned on the radio and as there was some static on the broadcast band I tried short wave. For the rest of the afternoon and all evening we had the time of our lives listening to the whole wide world. We heard the trans-Atlantic telephone operator talking with the "Normandie" on the high seas and the con- versation was as clear as a bell. We switched to a program of classical music and it came in full and strong from Daventry, England.
Next we stumbled upon a superb program of Span- ish dance music and much to our surprise we found it came direct from Holland. A little farther along the dial we ran into Herr Hitler making an address in his explosive German. We passed this by and picked up a rhumba in Mexico City. We happened to have a Radio Guide with us and as we like Spanish music we picked it up from Havana, from Caracas, Venezuela, from Madrid, in spite of the war, from Guayaquil, Ecuador and from Peru.
Our radio had cost less than $50. and when I bought it I had been assured that I could hope to get no real
TRAILER AHOY! 77
distance on it in a trailer, because I would have no proper aerial. So just to set this argument at naught we tried every foreign short wave station of promi- nence listed in the guide. We received every station listed but Suva, in the Fiji Islands and China. France, Japan, Australia, Portugal, Colombia, Russia, Italy, Brazil and the countries listed above all came in with a will.
An aerial was built into the roof of our trailer as standard equipment. We were using this together with a hundred foot portable aerial which I rigged outside to the nearest tree. The auxiliary aerial did help, but I found that I could switch it off and still get most of the above listed stations very clearly.
We received these world-wide programs with a strength and clarity that were amazing. The volume was all that one could stand within the small compass of a trailer and static interference and fading were negligible. Never in our experience had we heard a rebroadcast of foreign reception that could compare with the reception we were getting direct.
Here we were strangers, in a country not our own, it was raining, yet we were in direct touch with every worthwhile broadcasting station in the United States and with every short-wave station of prominence in the world.
Features of the Centennial Exposition came in from
78 TRAILER AHOY!
Texas. Police calls came in from Indianapolis, New York, Topeka and a hodge-podge of other American cities. Amateurs were conversing thousands of miles apart. Airway radios were broadcasting weather and flying conditions to pilots in the air and receiving reports from them.
Yes, it was rainy and cold outside, but it was cozy and comfortable and homelike within and the radio with its thrilling entertainment killed any tendency towards nostalgia.
When buying a radio for your trailer, take the advice of one who has "been there" and do not buy the smallest and cutest radio you can find. Spend a few dollars more and get a good radio, even if you have to wait awhile before you can afford to buy it. Ten or fifteen dollars difference in price will mean a difference in range of from 100 to 10,000 miles. It will mean that you do not have to listen only to the near- est big broadcasting station, but that you can literally circle the globe in search of your entertainment.
And for this reason, by all means pick out an all- wave radio, which includes the short wave as well as the broadcast band reception. In the long run this choice will save you money as any radio repair man will tell you, for the larger the set the less often it has to be repaired, and a few pounds extra weight means nothing in a trailer.
TRAILER AHOY!
79
IV
WHY A TRAILER
JL HE trailer industry is so concerned with the con- struction and delivery of trailers to a public clamor- ing for their immediate delivery that little time or effort has been given so far to sales promotion.
Thousands of prospective buyers are almost on the verge of placing their orders, but before doing so they wish to know definitely all they can learn about trailer travel And it is only natural that they would prefer to have these questions answered by a trailerite rather than a trailer salesman. Then again, the particular trailer they are most interested in may be built in a distant state and have no local representative or salesroom where its different models may be seen at
80 TRAILER AHOY!
first hand, and where all manner of questions may be asked and will be answered.
It is our purpose, therefore, to answer all the ques- tions that came to mind when we bought our trailer, and all that we have heard since from other buyers and prospects. In this way we hope to be of real service to both the reader and the industry.
Is it hard to pull a trailer? This seems to be the first question that enters everyone's mind. The answer is, NO! The smallest standard automobile built in America can pull the largest standard factory-built trailer with the greatest of ease. When we say "pull it/' we mean pull it anywhere an intelligent driver would take a car, through the Rockies, over the Con- tinental Divide, or even up Pikes Peak if there was any reason to do so.
We use the word "trailer" as a comprehensive term, covering the two-wheeled rolling home known as a semi-trailer which balances on the hitch behind the towing car, and the true trailer, which has four wheels and is completely self-sustaining.
In proof of this assertion our present trailer is four- wheeled, weighs 2,450 pounds unloaded, has two large rooms and a bathroom and is 22 feet long. We pull it with the most inexpensive V-8 coupe on the market and we have never encountered the hill or mountain which we could not take quickly, easily and
TRAILER AHOY! 81_
without a moment's trepidation on the part of the driver.
Only yesterday we stopped a trailerite driving ex~ actly the same make and model car as ours. He was towing an $8,000 trailer that weighed half a ton more than ours and he had towed it handily from coast to coast and from Maine to Florida,
Modern automobile engines are so powerful that they are widely used in trucks which carry loads weighing as much as three or four large trailers, so it is easy to see why a trailer exerts no appreciable drag, once it is under way, except on a long steep grade. Even then a trailer combination will take the grade much faster and much more easily than a truck with even a partial load. We have proved this hundreds of times.
In a recent trailer trip through the New England States and eastern Canada we navigated almost the entire distance in the pouring rain, taking all the grades that confronted us in the Catskills, the Adiron^ dacks, the Green, and the White Mountains and other lesser chains, and we dropped into first gear on steep or unforeseen climbs only four times in over 1,700 miles.
In northern Maine especially, the grades were much steeper than anything we had encountered in the Rockies on the transcontinental routes, for in the west, even though the climbs are many thousands of feet
82 TRAILER AHOY!
higher, the roads are scientifically graded and the rise is much more gradual.
Is it expensive to tow a trailer? Quite the opposite. So little additional gasoline is required that the cost is negligible. From our own experience and that of scores of trailerites with whom we have compared notes a trailer cuts down car mileage only about one- half mile per gallon. Some figures run higher than this, but on the other hand, some run lower, almost to the vanishing point on a long tour.
A common failing of motorists, in our experience, is to claim that their cars get, let us say, 20 to 22 miles to the gallon. This may be true, the mileage may be even better than this and often is, but our point is that the average person will compute mileage once and for all on five gallons of gasoline or a tank full, on a run of from 100 to 300 miles, and this none too accurately.
Then regardless of city stop and go driving, re- gardless of season, altitude or road conditions, their original figure which is usually flattering to the car they drive, remains firmly fixed in their consciousness.
With our big trailer behind we average 16.5 miles per gallon or better, according to the topography of the country or the condition of the roads. We ar- rived at this figure after thousands of miles of driving through hill and mountain country. In flat country,
TRAILER AHOY! 83
such as one finds in New Jersey, Nebraska and Kansas, this figure will better itself by as much as two addi- tional miles per gallon.
We never run on a thin mixture or tinker with the carburetor in the hope of conserving a little gasoline. We get straightforward, honest-to-goodness mileage, with the engine responding instantly to the touch of the accelerator and delivering its full power when called upon.
In order to insure the best possible motor perform- ance, most trailerites use premium gasoline exclu- sively. This fuel has more power than standard grade gasoline, it is better suited to the modern high-com- pression motors and it prevents the formation of carbon. It costs a few cents more, but it gives better mileage and is just as economical in the long run.
How do trailers handle on the road? Well, it is really the most important question of all, for no one wants to buy or make a juggernaut that will give its owner nervous prostration in hauling it from place to place. The answer is that today's trailers are so designed and constructed that they trail smoothly, easily and safely. It has been our boast that a blindfolded pas- senger riding in our tow-car would be unable to tell when we were drawing the trailer and when we were riding without it.
In starting it takes a slow pull to get the trailer
84 TRAILER AHOY!
under way, but we have never felt handicapped by this even in a traffic line. It all depends upon how you drive.
The perfect cruising speed for a trailer lies between 45 and 50 miles per hour. We roll along at this rate from morning till night, day after day. A smaller, lighter trailer would cruise with ease at higher speeds, yet we fail to understand the need for such haste when you have your own home with you.
At the aforementioned cruising speed or less there is no tendency for the trailer to weave or snake behind the tow-car, though at higher speeds, especially when a strong cross wind is blowing, this does not hold true. And when a heavy trailer does snake, no person of intelligence will disregard the warning to cut down a bit on speed.
According to the figures of the American Automo- bile Club over a million people took to the road in automobile trailers last year. Over 300,000 trailers took to the highways and byways. Yet from the mass of data on production schedules for next year which is at hand as we write this, it is apparent that trailer production will soon attain the million mark.
Three and a half people, on an average, live and travel in each trailer home. And it stands to reason that no such host of migrants would succumb to a mere travel fad. The American whim would never
TRAILER AHOY! 85
go so far as to have a population large enough to make up a substantial city, pay from $350 to $15,000 each for their mobile homes, just out of pure fun.
No matter what its first cost, a trailer is economical to operate and to live in. Housekeeping in a trailer is simplicity itself and the hours of home drudgery it saves means hours added to personal enjoyment. Accommodations comparable to those of a trailer would cost the traveller many times more than he or she pays for them as a trailerite, in most cases, more than the average traveler could afford to pay and take the same trips.
The trailer offers America, in comfort, to Main Streeter and millionaire alike. It changes hope into realization and makes doers out of dreamers. Any- one in any walk of life, given the desire and the cour- age to follow through can look to a trailer for the ful- fillment of many a secret ambition along the lines of travel, or just plain living.
At a time when many young people desirous of get- ting married look to their finances and decide that such a move is literally impossible, along comes the trailer distributor and tells them that he will provide them with a mobile home of their own, finished in mahogany and chrome nickel, for $50 down and $6.35 a week, including insurance, interest and all charges. They can live in this tiny, but beautifully-appointed
86 TRAILER AHOY!
home, in their parents' back yard. They can tow it to the seashore or the mountains on a honeymoon trip. They can spend vacations or week-ends wher- ever their inclinations lead them. And as the months roll around they soon find that they own their own home outright, and living in it costs them next to nothing. It is interesting to note that no trailer sold in this way, so far, has ever been repossessed by the company financing the deal. The lure of the trailer is too great for this, and the financial burden on the eventual owner is too small.
As a further proof of the economy of the trailer, many travelers have admitted that their trailers have paid for themselves through expenses saved in four to six months on the road.
Modern trailers are insulated against excessive heat and cold. They may be lived in comfortably al- most anywhere the year round. During cold weather they can be heated for an average of 50# a week or $2.00 a month. The fuel for cooking will average about I8t a week. The total expense will average about one-eighth that of maintaining a small modern apartment having similar conveniences.
Ground rental for semi-permanent parking is purely nominal anywhere and parking space may often be secured absolutely free. City electric current for a radio and lights, etc., is obtainable at from $1.00 to
TRAILER AHOY! 87
$L50 per month. City water and telephone connec- tions are also available at minimum expense. And more desirable people are turning to this simple and economical mode of existence daily.
Let the reader make no mistake. We have no con- nection whatever with any trailer manufacturer, we own no trailer stock and we are giving no biased opinion of the trailer case. Our opinions are based en- tirely upon a quarter of a million miles of travel with- out a trailer, against thousands of miles of travel with one. Whatever enthusiasm we show has been engen- dered entirely by the good points of trailer travel. Some trailers still have weak points, but even these are entirely overshadowed by their good ones.
We wish to state positively that the trailer is no fad, it is the perfect answer to comfortable, compact living and travel on land. It will never replace the American home, with all that a home stands for. Half of America will not take to the road permanently in mobile homes within 20 years as Roger Babson has predicted. But hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people with few responsibilities and assured incomes will take permanently to trailers, and millions more will use trailers for vacation trips, commercial purposes, outings and pleasure jaunts. They stand for a new freedom that we have long needed, new horizons and a new outlook on life.
88 TRAILER AHOY!
NEW COVERED WAGON
By Gene Lindberg
Across the far horizons of the west
The covered wagon rides the trail again. No oxen pull it now. This wagon keeps
The swifter, smoother pace of modern men. From coast to coast it rolls; not months, but days
Now clock the westward course from sea to sea. The methods change, their purpose is the same,
And turning wheels can still make history. To go — to see the mountains and the plains;
To leave the noise of cities far behind; To seek a fairer fate; at least, to flee
The dull monotony of daily grind— Time has not dulled that urge. The wanderlust
Lives on forever in the hearts of men. Trails have grown smooth and comfort goes along
As covered wagons travel west again.
—"The Denver Post"
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Abraham Lincoln looks steadfastly over the placid lake in front of his magnificent memorial towards the Washington Monument.
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The restoration of Washington's grist mill on the estate not far from the mansion at Mount Vernon.
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A view through the bell-arch showing the delightful colonial entrance to historic old Pohick Church, a Virginia landmark near Mt. Vernon. Washington designed this edifice and his money helped to build it.
This superb shrine at Aquia, Virginia, commemorates the landing in this state of the first Catholic emigrants from Europe. Few motorists can pass the spot where it stands without stopping to admire the masterpiece in bronze on its tall white cross.
Brigadier General Lloyd Sherman, immortalized in bronze, stands forth beside his rearing horse in gesture of command at Vicksburg. No bloody hillsides surround him now, littered with the carnage of war, just rolling green grass, whispering trees and a blue sky flecked with clouds.
On the site of the siege of Vicksburg. Mississippi, we come upon other bronzes that enlist our admiration. This camera study of man's bravery and woman's devotion, is typical of the esteem in which both North and South hold their heroic dead following a war which should never have taken place in a nation as collectively great as ours.
When Pancho Villa, the Mexican bandit, captured Juarez, Mexico, he shot up the town so thoroughly that he gave El Paso, across the border, the jitters. Here stands Benito Juarez, the Liberator, with the scales of justice shot from his hand.
Near Douglas, Arizona, in a peaceful valley ringed with distant mountains, stands the monument commemorating the ending of Indian warfare in this country Geronimo and Nachite with their Apache bands surrendered, on September 5th, 1886. to General Nelson A. Miles, in Skeleton Canyon near here.
A great plague of locusts once descended upon the fertile fields of Utah. The people prayed for divine deliverance and thousands of gulls appeared, wiping out the scourge. This monument in the Temple grounds at Salt Lake City commemorates the event.
Marker showing the location of one of the Utah stations of the Pony Express route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, a distance of 1,950 miles which the riders covered in 8 days, changing horses every 25 miles or less.
Alaskan Indian totem pole which graces the extensive grounds of the Fieishacker Zoo m San Francisco. It is hand-hewn and decorated with the brightest colors.
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Part of the annual convention of the Tin Can Tourists of the World at Sara- sota, with a Ringling tent erected ior the occasion. Trailer manufacturers hold a nation-wide exhibit of their trailers here at this time.
— Courtesy of Sarasota Chamber of Commerce
One of the most popular men's sports at Sarasota is horse -shoe pitching.
Gessner in his Mexican sombrero looks over a field of Texas cotton.
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We first crossed the border into Mexico on a Sunday. There -was no sign of life about this church in Juarez, but the Plaza del Toro, the bull-ring, was jammed to capacity.
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A living cactus fence in the Province of Sonora. The ocotillo excludes intru- ders more effectively than barbed wire and in the spring it is ablaze with crim- son flowers.
Every so often the trailerite runs across a gold mine tucked away in the Arizona mountains. What isolated lives the men at these places must lead in spite of the fortunes they wrest from Mother Earth.
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Anyone familiar with the history of Tombstone in its palmy days will have a thrill run up his spine as he drives down the main street and finds it practically the same as it was before the town went to sleep. Like the cactus plants in the surrounding desert it is too tough to die. The ghosts of its notorious gunmen still stalk about the Can Can Cafe and the Bird Cage Theatre where Jenny land once sang.
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We cross the Continental Divide by way of Tennessee Pass at an altitude ex- ceeding 10,000 feet, yet the highway ascends so gradually that we are scarcely aware if the height to which we have climbed. As we stop for a breathing spell, Gessner, wearing his new cowboy chaps, looks over the Colorado landscape.
We take a short side trip to see the Royal Gorge, that Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River between Salida and Canyon City. This mighty chasm is 2,627 feet deep and if you look closely you will see the boiling river far below and the railroad tracks beside it.
An engineering wonder in the form of an inclined railway permits the visitor to descend into the canyon on a track at an angle of 45 degrees. This thriller was built by the Otis Elevator Company and will make any passenger's hair stand on end.
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Along the Arkansas River in western Colorado the railroad, which parallels the highway, sometimes finds it necessary to tunnel through an outcropping of solid rock.
We think some of the grades in the Rockies are pretty tough for trailer travel until we begin to notice some of the ungraded side roads that run helter-skelter down the1 mountainsides.
Brigham Young, in bronze, with the lofty spires of the Mormon Temple towering behind him, gazes down upon the humming industry of his beloved Salt Lake City.
The Mormon Temple, a triumph of faith and industry. It took 40 years to build, cost $4,000,000, and the granite blocks composing it were hauled one at a time by four-yoke ox-teams requiring four days to cover the 20 miles from the quarry.
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In Red Canyon, on the road to Bryce, the trailerite wends his way past eroded cliffs and battlements as bizarre and fantastic as a tale from the Arabian Nights. Here and there the road is tunneled right through the rock in order to steer clear of the river in the bottom of the canyon. Years ago this was. a favorite haunt of horse thieves and cattle rustlers.
Gessner and his Mother look out upon the sun-drenched splendor of Bryce Canyon from a tunnel on the trail down from the rim. Once the trailerite gets settled in the camp ground in this National Park he will find himself, as we did. in no hurry to leave.
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Remarkable examples of erosion are to be found everywhere at Bryce Canyon in Utah. This precipitous gash which we encounter just below the rim is known as Wall Street. Here color runs riot, even in the depths.
Gessner makes friends with a tame coyote raised from cubhood by a Mor- mon family. Now he understands just what these prairie wolves look like at close range. Several wild ones had crossed the road in front of the car on the way into Utah.
A mother burro and her colt wonder what this youngster is up to.
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When the Mormons spread over their Promised Land some 90 -years ago, Brigham Young had the foresight to issue orders that trees be planted wholesale by the settlers. Today magnificent stands of trees all over Utah attest the wisdom of the move. This classic scene was snapped near Kanab.
Buttes and mesas glowing white in the westering sun. fleecy clouds with blue sky above and a desert iloor carpeted with purple sage, this is part of the Utah which industrious Mormons have made "blossom as the rose."
The historic pioneer settler's cabin in the Municipal Park back in Topeka. Kansas, does not differ materially from some of the cabins that are being lived in down southern Utah way. The sun-scorched fields in the semi-arid country yield scarcely enough to sustain life, though the valleys are exceedingly fertile.
Storm clouds float over the far reaches of the Painted Desert, presenting an un- forgettable picture. No visitor in these latitudes will think for a minute that America is too thickly populated for comfort.
TRAILER AHOY!
137
STATE TRAILER REGULATIONS
JL RAILERS are not like automobiles. The state regulations governing them vary widely and the prospective trailerite will do well to give this matter careful consideration.
As we go to press registration is required in forty- one states and fees must be paid for same in forty states. Within a very short time every state will re- quire registration and the payment of a fee just as it does for an automobile. Most of the states which feature a taxation of personal property in all its phases have already taken the trailer into account. Twenty- eight of them tax it in this way.
Trailers must be an asset to the nation and not a liability if they are to assume the position they merit in our scheme of living. If they are to do this every
138 TRAILER AHOY!
safety measure must be observed with good grace. Remember you are towing your home around with you and it is foolish not to protect it and others on the road in every way possible.
Sooner or later some form of standard hitch will be devised, so that any tow car can tow any trailer. A hitch usually involves some form of ball and socket coupling, to allow the necessary flexibility in rough going. All commercial hitches are made as strong and break-proof as human ingenuity and strength of the metal used will allow. Thousands even hundreds of thousands of hitches have been used and abused for months, or years, without a break, but every hitch, no matter what its construction, should be supplemented by an auxiliary chain hitch of some sort. Fifteen states already require safety chains or some similar emer- gency hitch.
If by any freak of fate your main hitch comes un- coupled while traveling your trailer still remains firmly fastened to your car through the medium of this auxiliary chain. Good sense should insure the use of chains everywhere, even before state law re- quires them.
A French-Canadian motorist, taking the Gaspe tour with a rented (and we imagine, home made) trailer illustrates our argument perfectly. This Gaspe trip is like a roller coaster, having nearly a thousand miles
TRAILER AHOY! 139
of vicious ups and downs. Monsieur either did not hitch the trailer correctly or the hitch was defective. Imagine his surprise when the home behind him broke away, rolled some distance backward down the mountainside, turned over twice and came to a stop, bottom up against some trees. . His wife and his sister- in-law, with two little girls were inside the trailer on its wild ride.
Amid wild gesticulations and a torrent of prayers and curses in the patois the trailer door was opened and, lo and behold, its occupants were unhurt, though jarred and badly shaken by their experience. Out- side of being covered from head to foot in miscellane- ous jellies and gooey foodstuffs they were none the worse for the experience. Safety chains would have prevented this catastrophe entirely.
In somewhat the same vein sixteen states require brakes on the trailer if it exceeds a certain minimum gross weight. If you can afford to own a trailer you can afford and should insist upon good brakes for it. Vacuum brakes are so effective that a car and trailer may be stopped as quickly with them as ordinary brakes stop an ordinary car without a trailer behind it. The very lightest trailers on the road can be suc- cessfully handled at practically all times by the brakes on the car alone, yet here again one cannot play too safe, especially in hilly or mountainous country.
HO TRAILER AHOY!
Although the requirements vary, depending on the width of the coach, clearance and red rear lights are already required in most states. They are extremely important and should be not only required in all states but included as standard equipment on all trailers. Some states favor reflectors in red or amber which are effective even when lights become defective. For protection, both legal and otherwise, it is well to in- elude one or more reflectors in your trailer equipment. Their cost is a matter of cents and their usefulness makes them well worth while.
The purchaser of a trailer should pay particular heed to dimensions if he would feel free to use the trailer anywhere in the country. The law allows a difference in trailer length in combination with the tow car from a 35-foot minimum to an 85-foot maxi- mum. In all of our recommendations we should heed only the minimum, therefore the total length of car and trailer should not exceed 35 feet. Maximum height should not exceed 11 feet. Maximum width should not exceed eight feet. South Carolina alone has a seven foot six inch maximum.
By taking these regulations into consideration the trailerite should find himself free from embarrassing red tape anywhere in this country. If he must dis- regard the minimum requirements for any reason he may have to obtain a special permit to tow his trailer
TRAILER AHOY! HI
in certain states, other states may bar him uncondi- tionally.
Every state except one, "Georgia/* allows the trailerite the same period of reciprocity as the motor- ist. The single exception requires the payment of a $3.00 fee on each visiting trailer. A wave of popular feeling is bound to result in a modification of this requirement in the near future. The measure was undoubtedly passed as a tax on the heavy traffic to and from Florida.
It is well to remember that in order to enjoy the reciprocity period of a visit, Oregon and Montana require a permit upon entering the state. California, Nevada and Utah require that a permit be obtained within 5 days and Arizona and Minnesota require the issuance of such a permit within 10 days. A permit must be obtained within 30 days in Arkansas.
If a prolonged stay is contemplated in any state the trailerite should make inquiries as to local regula- tions. Permits are sometimes issued for stays in excess of the reciprocity period, as in Texas, where the 25 day limit is extended an additional 120 days upon payment of a permit fee of 50^. Some states, on the other hand, are not as amenable to the traveler and require the taking out of a state license for a pro- longed stay. In any event be sure to remain on the right side of the law.
142 TRAILER AHOY!
State trailer regulations are being revised almost daily as the legislators endeavor to bring their laws up to date and it is hoped that some degree of uni- formity will prevail at an early date. Following a recent trailer tour of the New England states we found that we had come through Connecticut unscathed with our four-wheeled trailer even though this state is one of four, the others being Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina, which do not allow any but semi- trailers to use their highways. This breach of the law on our part was unintentional and we were fortunate to weather it, but it should serve as a warn- ing to others to watch the state regulations lest they incur the displeasure of the officials and the levying of unwelcome fines.
Many trailer regulations are still based upon those governing heavy-duty commercial vehicles designed to carry loads weighing many thousands of pounds and it is nothing short of ridiculous to ban a four- wheel house trailer on such grounds. Many semi- trailers weigh from half a ton to a ton more than ours and have most of this weight bearing down upon the rear of the tow car, yet they come within these narrow laws and are welcome in all states. Here again is room for legal improvement, which is bound to come soon.
As for license requirements and the basis for the
TRAILER AHOY! H3
computation of the tax fees in the states and terri- tories, we have received the following facts and fig- ures direct from the various motor vehicle authorities within the past few weeks,
ALABAMA — Trailers being drawn by private passenger vehicles are not required to carry trailer tags, and when used for the transporting of less than 1 ,500 pounds are exempt from payment of any license fee.
ALASKA — Oscar G. Olson, The Territorial Treasurer, informs us that as yet there are no trailers used in the Territory of Alaska, therefore there are no license fees or other rules and regulations governing them.
ARIZONA — Registration fees on a house trailer are the same as for a pleasure vehicle — Title $LOO, Plates $3.50. A full year's fees must be paid irrespective of the month in which the trailer is registered.
ARKANSAS — All kinds of trailers of % ton capacity or less, $3.00 per year. From % ton to 1 ton capacity, $12.00. All but giant de luxe trailers will, of course, come under the $3.00 fee. At mid-year the fee is halved and in the final quarter it is quartered.
CALIFORNIA — Trailers not previously registered in a foreign state and registered in California for the first time re- quire a flat registration fee of $3.00. In addition a vehicle license fee must be paid according to the value of the trailer and assessed at the rate of $1.75 per $100.00 value. If trailers have previously been registered in another state, the flat fee is doubled, or $6.00, with the assessment fee the same as above. The assessment fees are modified from year to year on a basis of depreciation.
COLORADO — Under the present laws no trailer weigh- ing less than 2,700 pounds gross requires a license or the pay-
144 TRAILER AHQY!
ment of any fees. Next year, however, legislation is contem- plated along this line.
CONNECTICUT — Camp trailers are charged a flat fee of $2.00.
DELAWARE -— House trailers are registered like auto- mobiles, the fee being based upon gross road weight. The fee is $1.50 per 500 pounds or fraction thereof of the gross-load weight of the vehicle up to and including 5,000 pounds. This weight is the weight of the chassis, body, equipment and maxi- mum allowable load as specified by the applicant.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — All trailers must have titles and tags. The cost of title is $1.00 and the cost of tags also $1.00. Trailers must be delivered to the official test station for mechanical inspection before tags will be issued.
FLORIDA ~~ Trailer tags are of two series, one for trailers under 4,000 pounds and one for trailers over 4,000 pounds. Of course, virtually all trailer homes come under the first series.
B Series — Net weight less than 4,000 pounds, $.75 per Cwt. L Series — Net weight over 4,000 pounds, $1.50 per Cwt. No tag is issued for less than $5.25.
GEORGIA — Trailer registration fee is $3.00 for the year or any part of the year.
HAWAII — License plate fee is 50^. Upon each trailer the tax is $5.00 when the weight of such trailer plus the maximum load thereof is 2,000 pounds or less. When the weight of the trailer plus its maximum load is in excess of 2,000 pounds, the tax is $5.00 plus an additional 50^ for each ton or portion thereof of such weight.
IDAHO '— Fee for trailer weighing 1,500 pounds or less is $1.00. Any weight over 1,500 pounds is taxed at the rate of $1.00 per hundred pounds. All trailers over 1,500 pounds must be equipped with adequate brakes.
TRAILER AHOY! 145
ILLINOIS — Fee for license plates is $5.00. Flat tax per year for a trailer of 2,000 pounds or less, gross weight, is $1.00. For a trailer of gross weight from 2,000 to 5,000 pounds, the flat tax is $7.00 per year. If the licensee does not wish to pay the flat tax, a mileage tax, payable monthly, and necessitating the posting of a $200.00 surety bond, is optional. The tax per mile for a trailer under 3,000 pounds is $.001. From 3,000 to 5,000 pounds this tax is $.002 per mile.
INDIANA — Trailers weighing half a ton or less, $3.00. From half a ton to a ton, $8.00. From one to two tons, $10. Semi-Trailers, one ton or less, $10.00, from one to two tons, $20.00. After August first all fees are halved.
IOWA — Trailers weighing 1,000 pounds or less, net, are not subject to license fees, but must carry plates, which are furn- ished free of charge by the State Automobile Department. Trailers weighing from one-half to one ton net, $10.00. From one to two tons net, $15.00. These rates are based upon com- mercial trailers and have not as yet been modified for trailer homes, which carry minimum loads.
KANSAS ^- Any trailer or semi-trailer having a carrying capacity of more than one ton and less than one and one-half tons requires payment of a $5.00 annual license fee. This law was passed to control large commercial trailers and might be applied to large trailer homes carrying a heavy load. But there is no provision in the law as we go to press which covers trailers of any kind designed and built to carry loads of a ton or less. This apparently places Kansas among the States which require no licenses for trailer homes.
KENTUCKY — The Motor Vehicle Laws of this State do not impose a tax on trailers. The power-unit pulling the trailer must be properly licensed, which is all that is necessary.
LOUISIANA — The fee for any size trailer up to 4,000 pounds net weight is $10.00 per year. As each month of the
146 TRAILER AHQY!
year passes this fee is reduced approximately 8%. The trailers must be used exclusively for and by their owners.
MAINE — Minimum trailer fee is always $2.00. The rates are based upon gross weight of vehicle and load and are 15^ per hundredweight.
MARYLAND — Title fee $1.00, plus a title tax of 1 % of the delivery price on a new trailer or the assessed value of an old trailer. Trailer license fees are computed on the chassis weight and number of axles and are prorated quarterly. Present tax laws are based upon commercial trailers used for hauling. They are exorbitant and action must soon be taken to modify them for house trailers. Semi-trailers of 500 to 1 ,000 pounds chassis weight, $10.00, from 1,000 to 2,500 pounds, $70.00, from 2,500 to 3,500 pounds, $100.00. Four-wheeled trailers weighing from 1,500 to 3,000 pounds, $30.00, from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, $45.00.
MASSACHUSETTS — On January 1st, 1936, an amend- ment to the Motor Vehicle Law went into effect, requiring the registering and insuring of all trailers. The registration fee on a house trailer is $1.00, upon payment of which a plate of the "T," or trailer series, is assigned. A house trailer in this state may not exceed 28 feet in length or 96 inches in width.
MICHIGAN — The license fee for house trailers of all descriptions is 35^ per hundredweight.
MINNESOTA — The tax rate in this State is 2.2% of the factory price if factory-made and the same percentage on the cost price if home-made. These fees are modified by yearly depreciation deductions, the second year being 10%, the third 25%, the fourth 40%, etc. This is limited by a minimum tax of $2.00 per year.
MISSISSIPPI — Trailers in this state are still listed by carry- ing capacity and not weight. The tax for a trailer of one-half ton, or less, carrying capacity, operated only when attached
TRAILER AHOY! 147
to a passenger automobile, is $6.00 per year. For half a ton to a ton carrying capacity, $8.00. As the year rolls around this fee is reduced by 25% quarterly.
MISSOURI ^- Owners of trailers or semi-trailers must se- cure certificate of title of ownership, fee, $1.00. Safety glass is required throughout in all motor vehicles in this State, a pro- vision which has probably been extended to include trailer homes. Two-wheel or semi-trailers gross weight up to 4,000 pounds, $2.63 per year. Four wheel trailers up to 4,000 pounds, $5.25 per year. From July 1, fees are one-half annual fees, and from October 1, one-fourth annual fees.
MONTANA — Any type of trailer weighing less than 2,000 pounds is licensed for a fee of $2.00. A trailer weighing over 2,000 pounds is licensed for $5.00.
NEBRASKA — Trailers or semi-trailers of less than 1,000 pounds carrying capacity may be registered for a fee of $1.00. The fee for 1 ,000 to 3,000 pounds capacity is $2.00. The trailer plate bears the letter "X."
NEVADA — Fees for trailer licenses in this State are based upon the unladen weight of the trailer, as shown by a public weighmaster's certificate, at the rate of 45^ per hundred pounds. There is a flat registration fee of $5.00 for trailers weighing 3,000 pounds or less. Licenses are obtained by making applica- tion for same to any County Assessor.
NEW HAMPSHIRE ~ Trailer fees in this State are based upon weight and carrying capacity, being exactly the same as for automobiles. The minimum fee is $10.00, which includes trailers up to a gross weight of 2,800 pounds. The gross pound- age is computed by adding to the actual weight of the trailer the adult sleeping capacity of the trailer multiplied by 150, which is regarded as the average weight of an adult. A four person trailer would be reckoned as carrying a load of 4 x 150 or 600 pounds. If the trailer itself weighs 2,100 pounds, 2,100 plus 600 equals 2,700 pounds which is the basis of taxation.
H8 TRAILER AHOY!
Above 2,800 pounds, the first 100 pounds increases the fee 15#, 200 pounds runs 50^, 300 pounds runs 85^, 400 pounds runs $1.20, 500 pounds runs $1,55. In this ratio a gross weight of 4,000 pounds runs $14.00.
NEW JERSEY — Trailers in this State are taxed according to gross weight. The fee for a trailer of 1,000 pounds or less is $10.00, from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, $12.00, from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, $15.00, and from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, $20.00.
NEW MEXICO — For each trailer and semi-trailer, $5.00 plus $1.00 for each 100 pounds weight or fraction thereof in excess of 500 pounds. For instance, from 901 to 1,000 pounds, $10.00, and from 1,901 to 2,000 pounds, $20.00. These rates are excessive in the higher brackets simply because they are taxed the same as commercial truck or tractor trailers. They will doubtless be modified in the near future.
NEW YORK — Combined weight and carrying capacity determine the fee in this State. With the gross weight deter- mined in the same manner as in New Hampshire, the license for a trailer of 1,000 pounds or less is $4.00. From 1,000 to 2,000 pounds the fee is $8.00. Above this weight the tax is $8.00 per ton or fraction thereof.
Two-wheeled trailers, rated as semi-trailers, are rated according to unladen or net weight at the rate of 80^ per hundred pounds or major fraction thereof, but the minimum fee is $4.00. On and after July 1 , the fee is one-half the annual rate and on and after October 1, the fee is one-quarter the annual rate.
NORTH CAROLINA — Two-wheeled trailers, or semi- trailers of a gross weight (vehicle and load) not exceeding 1 ,500 pounds are licensed at $2.00 per year or fraction thereof. Semi-trailers of greater weight up to 2,500 pounds are licensed for $10.00 for the entire year.
TRAILER AHOY! 149
In the absence of an identifying manufacturer's serial number, such a number will be issued by the Commissioner of Revenue and must be affixed permanently to the vehicle.
There is no specific law covering the licensing of a four- wheel trailer home, though such will probably be rated as "private haulers" the minimum tax rate on which is $15.00, even though this rate is based upon 40^ per hundred pounds gross weight.
NORTH DAKOTA ~ Trailers (of all kinds and weights) used with pleasure vehicles for private purposes need not be licensed.
OHIO — License fees are determined upon the weight of the vehicle fully equipped, but without load. The fees reduce 25% each quarter. The weight must be determined by a stand- ard scale and the licensing rates have a wide latitude running by 100 pound jumps all the way from 100 pounds to 25,000 pounds.
There is no differentiation between trailer and semi-trailer. A vehicle, for instance, of 1 ,000 pounds net is licensed for $7.00. Each additional hundred pounds of weight is taxed 70^, so that a 2,000 pound trailer is taxed $14.00. Above 2,000 pounds each additional 100 pounds is taxed $1.10, so that a 3,000 pound trailer is taxed $25.00. From 3,000 to 4,000 each addi- tional 100 pounds is taxed $1.50.
OKLAHOMA ~~ House trailers or trailer homes are not required to be registered in this State unless used for com- mercial purposes. If the trailerite is using his or her home commercially, a trailer or semi-trailer, registered as a separate unit, is taxed on a sliding scale which diminishes each year. Starting at $7.50 per year for vehicles of 1,500 pounds or less, the fee covers those from 1,500 to 2,500 pounds for $12.50, and 2,500 to 3,500 pounds, for $20.00. The second year the rates are reduced 20%, and the third year about 18% additional.
OREGON ~- For the registration of trailers and semi-trailers
150 TRAILER AHOY!
the following license fees must be paid, based upon the net weight of the vehicle:
Weighing not over 2,000 pounds, 300 per 100 pounds or fraction thereof.
Weighing over 2,000 pounds and not over 3,000 pounds, 50^ per 100 pounds or fraction thereof.
Weighing over 3,000 pounds and not over 4,500 pounds, 900 per hundred pounds or fraction thereof.
PENNSYLVANIA — Two and four-wheeled trailers come under the same tax rate in this State. This tax is determined by the weight of the vehicle exclusive of load.
Class Weight Fee
A Less than 1,000 pounds $5.00
B 1,000 and over but less than 2,000 $8.00
C 2,000 and over but less than 3,000 $15.00
D 3,000 and over but less than 4,000 $25.00
RHODE ISLAND — The registration fee for trailers or semi-trailers is 150 per 100 pounds gross weight of vehicle and load, or fraction thereof.
SOUTH CAROLINA — A trailer drawn by a passenger vehicle is not required to display a license in this State.
SOUTH DAKOTA — Law still based upon commercial vehicles designed for heavy transportation. Will probably be modified shortly. All trailers and semi-trailers are taxed upon the basis of their actual weight. Those weighing up to 1,200 pounds, $1.00. From 1,201 to 1,500 pounds, $10.00, from 1,501 to 2,000 pounds, $15.00, from 2,001 to 2,500 pounds, $20.00, and from 2,501 to 3,000 pounds, $25.00.
Standard equipment must include three portable flares ap- proved by the Secretary of State.
TENNESSEE — No license plates issued for trailers. The weight of the trailer is added to that of the pulling unit and the
TRAILER AHOY! 151
combined weight is used as a basis upon which to compute fee for registration. It is probable that changes will be made in provisions concerning the registration of trailers at the next meeting of the General Assembly,
Class C — Passenger motor vehicles weighing not over 3,500 pounds. Registration fee $7.50. (This weight will include a light car and trailer.)
Class D — Passenger motor vehicles weighing over 3,500 pounds. Registration fee, $10.00. (This will include any weight car and trailer.)
TEXAS — License fees for trailers or semi-trailers are based upon the gross weight and tire equipage. Gross weight means the actual weight of the vehicle as officially certified by any public weigher or any license and weight inspector of the State Highway Department, plus its net carrying capacity (the weight of the heaviest load to be carried).
The fee for a gross weight of from one to 6,000 pounds is 30^ per hundred pounds or fraction thereof.
UTAH — Trailer registration in this State is based upon the gross weight of the vehicle plus the carrying capacity of such vehicle. The trailer or semi-trailer must be weighed by an official weighmaster. The license fee for 5,000 pounds or less is $5.00. Rates are reduced at mid-year and the third quarter.
VERMONT — For two-wheel (dual tires are classed as a single wheel) semi-trailer having maximum carrying capacity not in excess of 2,000 pounds, the annual license fee is $5.00. This requirement will naturally take care of all two-wheel trailers and will probably be revamped at an early date.
Four-wheel trailers are taxed the same as trucks, the weight of the trailer plus the maximum load being the basis of computa- tion. The fee is 50^ per hundred pounds when such weight does not excess 7,000 pounds.
VIRGINIA — All trailers must be registered, the cost of which is a fee of $1.00. Trailers and semi-trailers are licensed
152 TRAILER AHOY!
according to their carrying capacity, the fee being % that of trucks of same capacity. The minimum fee for one ton or less is $7.50, which should cover all types of home trailers. Home-made trailers must have serial numbers assigned for reg- istration purposes.
WASHINGTON — The fee for license for house trailers is $3.25, which includes a 25^ county filing fee.
WEST VIRGINIA — One-half ton capacity trailers, $9.00, one-half ton capacity semi-trailers, $5.00. This category in- cludes virtually all rolling homes.
WISCONSIN — Trailers or semi-trailers with gross weight of 3,000 pounds or less and not used for hire do not require a license in this State. For a vehicle in excess of above weight, the poundage being determined from the weight of the vehicle when ready for use, the fee is $7.50 per year for a weight of from 3,001 to 4,500 pounds. Lighter trailers or semi- trailers, used for hire, are licensed for $3.00 per year.
WYOMING — House trailers of all kinds are taxed a flat $4.00 per year regardless of weight.
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Quaking aspen in the Kaibab National Forest. For 35 miles the road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon passes through some of the finest stands of trees in North America. In the fall, as is here pictured, the aspens flame in great yellow patches against the rich green background of hemlocks and white firs.
How different the Kaibab Forest on the North Rim is from the stands of Douglas fir along the famed Columbia River Highway in the State of Washington, yet each is incomparable — beyond description.
By way of comparison, the same contrast applies to the Painted Desert seen across the Grand Canyon, torn between storm and sunlight, and the infant Desert of Maine, also storm-ridden, as it encroaches upon the fertility of the surrounding country.
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More commanding than the Canyon of the Yellowstone, more beautiful than Niagara, more mysterious in its depth than the Himalayas in their height, the Grand Canyon remains not the eighth but the first wonder of the world.
There is nothing like it.
- Pro/. John C. Van Dyke
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The Grand Canyon of Arizona fills me with awe. It is bryond comparison — beyond description; absolutely unparalleled throughout the wide world. . . . Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.
— Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt
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Looking down into this 15 by 218-mile paint pot, I continually ask: Is any fifty miles oi Mother Earth that I have known as fearful, or any part as fearful, as full of glory, as full of God?
Color is king here. Take the grandest, sublimest thing the world has even seen, fashion it as if the master minds from the beginning had wrought here, paint it as only the masters of old could paint, and*you have El Canon Grande del Colorado.
— Joaquin Miller, in Overland Monthly
Just a cliff-face in Zion National Park worn by the action of ice and weathered like the wrinkled face of Rip Van Winkle, with a lone pine at its base. The traveller cannot help wishing he knew more about the great forces behind the creation of these things.
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It is a far cry from the beetling cliffs of Zion. reaching half a mile into the sky from the floor of Zion Canyon in southern Utah, to Nature's etchings made by a swiftly-ebbing tide on the sandy coastal beach of northern Maine. But such finds are the breath of life to a trailerite.
The Narrows of the Virgin River near its headwaters in the somber depths of Zion Canyon, a photograph taken as night was falling, with the frowning cliffs opening upwards into a purple evening sky.
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Cactus Pete of Los Angeles can make a garden bloom in the desert. This is exactly what he has accomplished at Barstow's beautiful new Spanish-type hotel, the Beacon Tavern.
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Gessner finds that even the trees of the desert are spiny. This Joshua tree is a member of the yucca family and yucca is a Spanish word meaning "bayonet " A soap is made from its roots and its banana-like fruit is edible when cooked
Clouds over the Coast Range in California, a grand view showing the switch-back of the road far below. Trailers climb grades like this easily.
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Wheel of Destiny. The covered wagon, like the sailing ship from round the Horn, played an heroic part in making California the land it is today.
In New Jersey an adult black skim- mer with a four ioot wing spread swoops angrily at us in an attempt to drive us away from its young.
We attempt to photograph a mule deer doe in Zion Canyon from a moving car at 8 o'clock at night.
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We find that a bath in Utah's Great Salt Lake is a memorable experience. Pro- longed drought has lowered the water considerably, increasing its salinity to 23% and its density to the point where we can float in five inches of water. It stings the eyes unmercifully, deposits on the skin and the razor-sharp crystals on the lake bottom make walking hazardous.
Shadows on a mission wall. An unusual study of San Miguel where white walls blaze in the sunshine and the heat is so intense, according to the padres, that at midday the very flies pant for breath.
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The downstream side of the stupendous Boulder Dam. our successful attempt to tame th-e same mighty Colorado River that carved the Grand Canyon to a depth of 7,000 feet.
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A pronghorn antelope in Yellowstone Park, one of our most prized photographs. Normally this fastest of North American animals is too shy to approach closely even in the Park.
Whereas in the National Parks all timber, as well as wild life, is being preserved, the forests in the Northwest are fast being denuded of their timber.
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Oh no, we must not leave out the quaint old Indian Mission back there at Taos, New Mexico. Its walls were so thick and strong that their adobe bricks withstood cannon fire in the insurrection.
And the Caledonian Games at Van- couver should not be overlooked. This burly giant is "tossing the caber," a 16 foot pole which is thrown in a forward semi-circle for distance. Tis the sport of mighty men.
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Poetre. the small African elephant at the Philadelphia Zoo, gives free taxi rides to the youngsters. Naturally she is one of the most popular features of the Park.
The monument at Old Bennington, Vermont is a noble shaft of granite and the foqal point of a boulevard lined with wonderful trees.
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VI
TRAILER CAMP GROUNDS
JL HE whole trailer idea is so new that most parts of the country have been caught napping. They are not prepared to handle our rapidly increasing rolling popu- lation. Something must be done about this at once and the few individuals, communities and states with foresight enough to act quickly, are reaping, and will continue to reap, a golden harvest.
At present this is the only real hardship which a trailerite experiences, the difficulty of finding a good camp site when and where he wants it. For years the western states and some of the southern states have been alive to the increasing flow of auto tourist trade and many fine camp grounds cater to it. Hundreds of municipally-owned "tourist parks/* charging little or
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nothing for camping privileges, have made and are making certain parts of the country extremely popu- lar with our roving population.
But in other sections, notably the east, travelers who fail to stop at hotels or at overnight cabins are often frowned upon, even though they are perfectly willing to pay and pay well for the privilege of camp- ing or parking their trailers overnight or for a few days stay. In the old "tin can tourist" days there might have been some justification for this, but today, with the finest people in the country traveling every- where in trailers, it is a bad breach of hospitality, and what is more, it is bad business.
In one great Canadian city there were virtually no accommodations for campers or trailerites up until this year. Theoretically such travellers had to stay at hotels (which many of them could not or would not afford) or get out. The result was that they either passed by this city quickly, together with all of its outlying points of historic interest, or they camped in farmyards outside the city limits. Thousands of dollars which would have been spent in this region for gasoline, supplies, food and local handicrafts were retained and spent elsewhere, due to a callous lack of hospitality.
But this year an enterprising individual decided to open a private camp ground and trailer park. He had
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eight acres of land lying idle and he decided that the three acres in front of his home might as well earn their taxes, at least. Some months after this plot was opened to the tourist we camped here. It cost 75^ per trailer to stay overnight. Electric light connections were 15^ a day extra. We stayed for three days.
As we were leaving we ascertained a few facts from the proprietor, astounding facts for a period fol- lowing so closely upon the heels of the depression. In five months 4,200 trailers and camping parties had stopped there for periods ranging from overnight to a month at the flat charge of 75^ per night. The man had a handsome living literally dropped into his lap. He was making more money and making it quicker than ever before in his life.
And this venture required only the installation of a few electric light outlets and the building of a small laundry and toilet rooms for the tourists. If his equip- ment had been a little more pretentious his visitors would have stayed longer in many cases and his in- come would have been enhanced accordingly.
Anyone living on a main or highly-traveled road, either in the country or in a town or city, and having reasonable ground-space at his disposal can set up a good business overnight. Take our word for it, we trailerites are desirable people in almost every in- stance, and we are desperately in need of good camp
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grounds. In addition to camping space and electricity we buy gasoline and oil, auto supplies, milk, bread, ice, meat, vegetables, all kinds of groceries, wood or charcoal for trailer stoves in cool weather, ice cream, soda fountain products and a thousand other items, any or all of which we prefer to buy right on the premises where we camp.
The quality of a camp ground depends entirely upon its management and its equipment. It can be a nota- ble asset to any community if well-managed, and due to the tremendous popular interest in trailers it can be made a show place giving just cause for civic as well as individual pride, as witness the magnificent camp grounds managed by the Forest Service in our big National Parks.
Trailers are here to stay and no amount of preju- dice or ill-advised opposition on the part of individuals or communities with other interests at heart, can really stay their progress. They and their owners represent far too important a phase of our national growth to be ignored or overlooked.
New England is tourist conscious to the "nth" de- gree, yet she still caters to the tourist largely with hotels, tourist lodgings, and overnight cabins. And if the truth must be told, the cabins and private lodgings, but especially the cabins, are fast pushing the hotels into the background.
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Trailers are selling widely here and thousands are in use, but with bull-headed perversity many pro- prietors of permanent tourist accommodations are fighting the trailerite or ignoring him, instead of cater- ing to him along with their regular trade. The rail- roads adopted exactly this attitude towards the bus and truck lines, until the latter nearly put the railroads out of business, then they realized their folly when it was almost too late to cope with the situation.
Trailers today, from the point of view of those catering to vacationists, represent more opportunities to make money than they do lost business. It takes money to own a trailer and it costs money to live in one. Wise men should wake up and see that the trailerite finds it worthwhile to leave some of his money with them.
One of the finest apartment hotels in Philadelphia, an establishment especially popular with the theatrical profession, boasts that it lists among its regular patrons a number of motion picture stars who travel by trailer and park their trailers in the hotel parking space while in Philadelphia, living at the hotel.
Trailerites who own nice rolling homes are a touchy lot. They are proud of their trailers and are quick to resent prejudice. All they ask is good old-fashioned American hospitality, for which, in the trend of the times, they are glad to pay. They are not gasoline
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gypsies or drifters, living off the land, but substantial citizens, and the sooner their rights are observed, the better.
Time and again we have been turned away from bungalow camps in Connecticut and elsewhere in New England because we were evidently classed as drifters and undesirables, even though we were tow- ing a trailer costing nearly $1,400. And when we visited the parents' summer home in a New Jersey coast resort a policeman drove up within twenty min- utes of our arrival to chase us away, thinking the same thing and following orders to oust such undesirables. When he identified us we were given "carte blanche" to stay as long as we wished, but it would have gone hard with strangers and it gave us a fine perspective on the situation.
It is perfectly proper for communities to segregate trailers, but it is short-sighted, foolish, inhospitable and un-American to drive trailerites away. A well- managed community would lay out a trailer park, lay down rigid rules and keep the place patrolled. Within a very short time its trailer visitors would be numbered by hundreds or thousands and the whole community would benefit physically and financially through keeping abreast of the times.
Only a few years ago the automobile itself was regarded everywhere as an engine of destruction,
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which killed people and horses and made the roads unsafe to travel. The former terror is now recognized as one of the greatest boons ever given to mankind. And the trailer faces such unreasoning prejudice now in various parts of the country, a prejudice engen- dered perhaps by early tin-canners, but one which will soon be wiped out with a nation-wide wave of popular approval.
Our country is a whale for size. Only the traveler by air or automobile can fully appreciate the extent of its great open spaces. A trailer requires very few square yards of ground for parking and there are thousands of square miles of land where the trailerite may camp without let or hindrance. But let no one labor under the delusion that free camping sites may be found almost anywhere along the main highways or the good roads even in the western states, for exactly the opposite is the case.
It is safe to say that a motorist could not camp free at his own discretion for twelve consecutive times on a trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast without trespassing in some way no matter how carefully the camp sites are chosen, that is, unless he used the free municipal camp grounds.
The old days are gone forever. We are a free peo- ple, but freedom does not mean license, and the last thing a trailerite wishes to do is trespass. He wants
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and needs fixed accommodations everywhere. When the whole country becomes alive to this fact thou- sands of communities and more thousands of people will be glad that they foresaw this need. The trailer- ite's need is the other fellow's opportunity.
It has been stated repeatedly that there are at least 30,000 camp grounds for the trailerite. It is true that there are 30,000 or more camp grounds in America, but from our own findings only about half of these are equipped for, or offer a welcome to, the trailerite.
The American Automobile Association is now actively engaged in compiling a directory of trailer camps and camp grounds, which will shortly be placed at the disposal of its members. The Automo- bile Club of Southern California has had western camp trailer parks listed by states for some time now, as doubtless, have some similar but smaller organiza- tions. So far the most important Automobile Clubs in the east are far behind the afore-mentioned in the assistance they render to the trailerite.
Despite the pressing need for more trailer camp grounds the trailerite can find excellent accommoda- tions in every State in the Union, though in some States, as we have said, he may have to scratch to find them.
The overnight rates are uniformly reasonable, run- ning from 25$ to $1.00, with the average of four out
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of five being 50^. In the long-established camps elec- tricity is provided and the charge for same is included in the parking rate. Sometimes electric connections are extra and cost from 1(W to 15^ additional. In the newer camps near the great metropolitan centers this occasionally runs 25^.
In virtually all cases the weekly rates are much lower, the average being anywhere from $1.00 to $3.50 per week, or from $3.00 to $10.00 per month, In most cases the electricity is furnished without addi- tional cost on these longer stays. Where it is regarded as an extra it runs about 50^ a week.
In all our experience we have never paid over 75^ a night for parking. It is not necessary. And if camp grounds seem to be few and far between a farmer will take you in free or for a small fee. Gasoline station proprietors are generous souls, too, and will invaria- bly invite you to stay in the yard behind the station. They are usually glad of your company and they know you will purchase whatever gasoline and oil you need from them.
If you already own a trailer and have had it out on the road you know exactly what we are driving at in this chapter. If you are a prospective trailerite please do not get the impression that you will be unable to find proper places to camp with your trailer. There are thousands of fine trailer camps scattered from
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coast to coast. Our chief aim is to convince the public that hundreds of thousands are needed, will be a boon to the trailerite and will make good money for their proprietors. It sometimes takes a bomb-shell to wake up America. This is our explosion.
No two camp grounds have like facilities. Most have running water. A few have well water. All have one or more toilet rooms for each sex. Standard facilities include shower baths, laundry tubs (some- times electric washers), individual stoves or a com- munity kitchen, tables and benches.
Beyond this there is almost no limit to the facilities one may find, including all the modern comforts that running water, gas and electricity can provide along with a host of recreational facilities running all the way from tiled swimming pools to tennis courts, cro- quet, horse-shoe pitching, boating and dancing.
Several of the largest trailer camps are really large enough to be called trailer cities. One of these sprang up at Sarasota, Florida, in 1930. It is municipally owned and operated and was picked as the conven- tion rendezvous of a newly-formed rovers' organiza- tion known as the Tin Can Tourists of the World and 450 trailers were present at the first annual February meeting there.
In 1934 the gathering had grown to 915 trailers and 2,275 people. The next year saw 1,827 trailers and
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4,559 people. And last year the figures reached 2,422 trailers and 5,261 people.
This camp is approximately 30 acres in extent and adjoins Payne Park, right off the Tamiami Trail. It boasts an athletic field, a huge auditorium, a large recreational building, a dance floor of 10,000 square feet, a ladies card room, a children's playground, a picnic grove, 24 hour police and fire protection (with fire truck right on the premises), an orchestra, supple- mented by phonographs and radio entertainment, shuffleboard and horse-shoe courts, hot and cold showers, complete laundry with free electric ironing and conveniently located buildings with sanitary facilities in the full-time care of porters and maids.
All lots are 25 by 30 feet, are sodded, and have connections for 24 hour electric current. Water taps are spaced at handy intervals. The camp has its own stores and concessions, its own Post Office from which the mail is delivered to each trailer door, telephone and telegraph service and daily newspaper delivery. In other words, it is an example of the complete rolling city of the future.
Year after year, for weeks or months at a time, old cronies get together here and have the time of their lives in the warm Florida sunshine while the less for- tunate weather the snow and ice of northern winters, wishing they could do the same thing. Yet the camp
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rates are only 35^ per day or $1.00 per week for two people, with extra persons 10# per day or 25# per week each. The electric rates for lights and radio are 10^ per day or 35# per week (5 ampere capacity). Electricity of a sufficient amperage for heating, costs 50^ per day or $2.00 per week.
Just as we prefer the suburbs, rather than the city for a permanent home, so do we prefer a small trailer camp rather than a large trailer city. The small camps tend to be neater in appearance, unsightly wash is not flying every day in the week, and the whole at- mosphere is more in accord with our particular ideas of life.
Then again, when a trailerite goes into camp today his whole equipage is so complete that he does not need 1,001 forms of outside accommodation or amuse- ment to make life interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. We prefer a river bank, a sand dune by the sea, a lake shore or a mountain view, from a clump or a forest of shade trees. Then trailer life is at its best.
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VII
TRAILER HINTS
JL RAILERS differ so widely in design and construc- tion that each presents its own problems when it comes to suiting the owner's personal convenience, but a few generalities apply to all trailers.
In going in and out of a trailer as often as one does in a day a great deal of dirt gets tracked in on the shoes. This may be overcome satisfactorily by the use of a sizable ground cloth spread before the trailer door, A good and inexpensive cloth can be made from an old oiled canvas truck cover. Such a truck cover may be purchased for a nominal sum from a dealer in used canvas goods in almost any one of our larger cities.
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The use of the old truck cover was suggested to us by a canvas goods expert from Boston who was also a trailer enthusiast. It seems that the old oiled can- vas is more desirable than a new one as any tendency towards stickiness has long since worn off.
While you are about it there is no reason to be skimpy in the size of the cloth you make, A three by five foot one should be minimum. Double and stitch the edges all around, punch holes in the corners or have metal eyelets inserted and pin in place on the ground with large nails or small iron tent pegs which may be sunk flush with the ground surface. You will find that this will solve the dirty floor prob- lem almost completely.
In most well-designed trailers the tendency is to make the interior look like a living room rather than a kitchen. To carry out this idea the sink, refrigerator and cooking stove are generally sheathed in the wood with which the whole trailer interior is finished. After the meals have been eaten and the pans washed and stowed away this foresight on the part of the designers makes itself evident.
The sink in our trailer may be hidden completely beneath a mahogany panel which fits into it on a bevel. What would be the drainboard on a regular kitchen sink is mahogany and is really the top of a combination sideboard. In washing dishes, pots and
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pans, water is bound to splash from the faucet and drip from the wet pans all over this mahogany top. Even though the trailer owner may have the foresight to give this surface several generous coats of spar varnish, the constant dampness is sure to cause the plywood to warp sooner or later. The best way in the world to prevent this and still retain the original appearance of this particular bit of equipment is to buy one or more ribbed rubber drain mats at a local flve-and-ten-cent store. A rubber mat may be used on one or both sides of the sink around mealtime and the ruinous moisture kept from the wood itself.
Some trailers are finished throughout in metal, but most lean towards the beauty of wood for the interior. If your trailer is among the latter and you desire to spruce it up a bit as time goes along remember not to varnish it. The plywood used in trailer construction is the lightest obtainable having the necessary strength and will not stand the stiffness of additional coats of varnish without cracking in every direction. Buy a can of one of the standard commercial waxes used to polish and preserve the finish on automobiles. Wax your trailer interior thoroughly, rubbing the wax in well and carefully removing any surplus. It is not a bad idea, either, to wax the linoleum on the floor periodically.
If it is to look well at all times a trailer, like a home,
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must be kept in constant outside repair. It is an ex- cellent idea if your trailer has a canvas roof to give this roof a generous coat of the best paint available before you even take it out on your first trip* To date, the manufacturers have been so rushed with orders that the factory paint jobs are minimum. Most of the canvas-roofed trailers are painted aluminum to reflect the heat of the sun. The metallic body of aluminum paint makes it very durable, still only the best quality should be used.
Rain storms and the evening dews and damps will rust the iron parts such as the window frames the hitch and the frame, especially in the salt air, unless they are kept well painted. \Ve find it advisable to keep a small can of paint and a brush always at hand to touch up rust spots.
Some of the standard trailer hub-caps in use rust easily when exposed to the elements for several weeks. A coat of three-in-one oil or any similar light lubri- cant applied with a rag about once a week will pre- vent this.
If you can find room for it, and you can in all but the smallest rolling homes, we would suggest that you take your own twenty-five foot length of garden hose with you. This will enable you to fill the water tank many places which could not otherwise accommodate you in this way. And incidentally, the lead cord for
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your 1 1 0-volt circuit should be at least 50 feet in length and should have a 25-foot auxiliary attach- ment. Then when you find a fine camp site at some distance from your source of electricity you can still take advantage of it.
A flashlight is another vital piece of equipment that should not be overlooked. The lady of the house reminds us that a large flat pan should not be forgotten, a pan of sufficient size to hold enough ice for the ice- box when it must be obtained, as is often the case, in broken pieces. A clothes-line is important too.
In our estimation the most useful single item of extra equipment that we own is a small gasoline lan- tern which we bought at Sears, Roebuck & Co. This lantern is designed for hanging and carrying, as well as resting, and is of very sturdy construction. It costs in the neighborhood of $4.69. And for a large amount of light at very little cost it is hard to beat. In the burning it throws out so much heat that on many a chilly evening we have found it unnecessary to light a fire in the stove. It is especially good for heating the back room. If or when you buy a lantern have more foresight than we did at first and be sure to take at least two extra mantles along.
We were deep in the main woods near Jackman, Maine, when the original mantle on our lantern dis- integrated. Our camp site here was without benefit
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of city electric current so we were literally "in the dark" right at meal time. After buying and wrecking four different mantles designed for other types of lan- tern we had the providential good fortune to locate a generous soul who had two mantles in his barn, man- tles designed to fit our lamps exactly. With that oblig- ing spirit of helpfulness which we encountered so often in Maine this old timer presented us with the mantles at cost and my neck was saved*
The average trailer ice-box is poorly insulated and tends to sweat both front and back. It is to be hoped that the makers will turn out a better product in the near future, but if the ice-box in your trailer sweats and is constructed of wood on the outside be sure to use plenty of spar varnish on it and replace any iron screws in the affected parts with brass ones. A sheet of composition board may also be used as additional inside insulation in the back of the refrigerator.
A few pounds of extra weight here and there makes no difference whatsoever in the way a trailer tows. We carry a full set of carpenter tools with us at all times in addition to several jacks and the usual tools for the car. We stow these masculine appurtenances in one of the deep shallow compartments in the front of the trailer and hang all hangable tools on screw- eyes in order to keep them in place and within easy reach. Time and again we would have been at sea
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without these tools, whether for a minor repair job or for ambitious construction work at a semi-perma- nent camp site off the beaten path.
Watch the pipelines carrying your trailer's water supply for possible slow leaks. If a sign of dampness appears tighten or lead the joints at once lest some portion of the woodwork be warped or rotted.
If the manufacturer has used any iron screws any- where on the exterior of your trailer it is best to re- move them at once and replace them with brass screws. Otherwise you will have to keep painting them constantly and in a comparatively short time the wood will rot around them as the threads rust.
You will find that the tires on your trailer will give you marvelous mileage, just about twice that of the tires on your car. Many trailerites will find that they will trade their trailer in on a new model even before its tires are worn smooth. A theatrical family of our acquaintance had 40,000 miles on their trailer's rubber when we last saw them several months ago. They had never had a puncture or a blow-out and the tires were still going strong even though much of the mile- age had been made on rough roads.
It is advisable to grease the hitch daily with heavy automobile grease. This prevents unnecessary fric- tion, wear and squeaking. A small can of grease for this purpose should be listed as standard equipment.
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In order to forestall such accidents as that which be- fell Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde when her car and trailer slipped brakes while parked, started rolling and broke the owners leg before it could be stopped, the careful trailerite will carry wedge-shaped wooden parking blocks to be used beneath the wheels.
Trailers finished outside with artificial leather or fabricoid should be given generous periodic coats of wax, one of the popular brands of automobile body wax. When well rubbed in this will preserve both the finish and the material itself. It makes dusting and washing easy and gives the trailer a neat, well-kept appearance.
No trailer is completely equipped for use in hot weather until it boasts a set of awnings for the win- dows. These awnings are available in a wide range of plain colors or stripe variations for about $1.25 per window. We had ours custom-made and they cost no more than this. There is no reason that your local awning man will not do the same for you.
We also have special shades in our trailer. These are made of a neutral colored material resembling homespun and are washable. It is much easier to pull down a shade than to close the curtains supplied at the factory and it is much more homelike.
In comparison with a home a trailer is so small and compact that it may be refurnished or remodeled to
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suit the individual taste at very little expense. If the trailerite is at all handy with tools he will like noth- ing better than doing the remodeling himself.
Our trailer happens to be so complete and well-fitted that few changes are either necessary or desirable. The only thing we lack at present is a magazine rack (we happen to be omnivorous readers). Then be- cause the youngsters, due to their tender ages, monop- olize the back room, where the dinette, convertible into a double bed, is located, we need some sort of a table for eating and social diversions, such as cards, in the front room.
So far we have used an ordinary folding card table, for which there is plenty of room. But by spring we are planning to take to the road with all the little refinements which experience has made appealing to us. The family jig-saw will be busy during the hiber- nation months, at least until that Florida book lures us to the sunny south where summer spends the winter.
The heavier trailers navigate so smoothly that glasses and china will ride perfectly in the cupboards even when heaped up — that is, unless the driver likes to ' 'cowboy " over rough roads, which makes the trailer develop the same action as a ship wallowing in a heavy sea. Your own good sense will tell you that it is unwise to take to the road without stowing away all vases, pitchers and glasses, smoking sets, plug-in
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electric lamps, gasoline lanterns and other loose gad- gets that tip or break easily. If you fail to do this, sooner or later you will have cause for regret. \Ve struck one thank-you-mam that taught us our lesson. It threw the gasoline lantern to the floor, smashing the globe and mantle, and piled some of our prized wedding silver vases and pewter pitchers in the debris, denting them unmercifully.
The feminine side of our family had a great time stocking the trailer kitchen with a complete set of aluminum ware, each piece of which was about half the size we use at home. The light weight and bright finish of this metal makes it particularly desirable for trailer use.
We call our trailer "Black Duck Lodge" after our regular home, though it should really be a Junior, the implication being "life on the wing/' or "north in summer, south in winter." The glassware in the trailer bears out this name, featuring black ducks on the wing and we have planned for some time, but have not yet accomplished, the painting of a flying duck insignia on either side of the trailer itself.
One of the best features of a trailer is that you can take all the clothes you need with you for any occasion from hiking to full dress. They do not have to be packed away either, but may be hung on hangers in
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the ample closet and stowed away in drawers as you do in your bedroom at home*
Half the enjoyment of a trailer depends upon the quality of the housekeeping in it, A trailer is so small, compared to a home, that there is no excuse for sloven- liness anywhere about it. Keep it neat and you'll enjoy it. Be sloppy and you will tire of it within a week.
In spite of the organized camps to be found every- where do not get the idea that you can camp wherever and whenever you see fit. This seems to be the first lesson that all trailerites must learn by experience and we cannot repeat the warning too often.
When the country really wakes up this will become more nearly possible. Decent accommodations will be available everywhere and more people will be making easy money and wondering why they did not do it long ago. Trailer camping, as it is today, does not always give one the privilege of choice. Ex- pediency may require putting up with unfavorable conditions at times and if this is done with an open mind, regarding the affair as a lark rather than a matter of life or death, it will be easy for all concerned to keep happy on the road.
The currently popular type of folding highway homes may be fine to live in, but they are nowhere near as handy as a regular trailer for stops en route.
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Stop anywhere at any time and you can cook meals, take a nap or do as you wish with a trailer, the high- way home must remain folded and useless until you go into camp for it requires too much effort to open it up for casual use.
Like a home, a trailer lends itself readily to the whim of the owner. As we have said before, it may be altered, refitted, refurnishd or refi'nished almost at will. So if the reader happens to own a trailer, he or she may see fit to seize upon some of the ideas incor- porated in other trailers.
We stepped into a $13,000 trailer the other day. It was a custom cruising job especially constructed for Mr. William L. Doherty, President of Cities Serv- ice Corporation. A raised semi-circular cockpit in front seated three people easily and permitted an un- broken view down the highway overtop of the tow car. On a pretentious instrument panel in front of the seat were practically all of the devices and gauges we had even seen in an airplane, together with many more. Among those that we happen to remember were a tachometer, showing engine speed, a speed- ometer, showing road speed, a floating compass, a barometer, an altimeter to show the height above sea level, and inclinometer which showed the angle of climb or descent and other meters and gauges which we did not happen to assimilate.
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There was a telephone connected with the tow car, a Dictaphone (built in), a typewriter and other ac- cessories for the active business man. This particular trailer was not used for sleeping, but it had cruised with as many as 14 people aboard. The seats were exceptionally comfortable and were covered with genuine leather. A shower with hot and cold running water permitted a refreshing change en route. Al- together this trailer served the same purpose as a private railroad car, without having its range confined to the rails.
The real secret of a trailer's popularity, in our esti- mation, is its coziness and its compactness. These features appeal to all ages and all classes. It is really more fun to live in a trailer in your own back yard than it is to live in your own house.
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VIII THE NATIONAL PARKS
have a priceless heritage in our National Parks and if trailers were designed and built solely to allow the public to go the rounds visiting them they would fill a long felt need and would still be sold by the thousands.
What is one tourist's meat is another's poison, so the wise man will do very little recommending of scenic destinations. But every good American should try to visit the Grand Canyon at least once. The more we see it the more we want to see it. We have been there three times now, visited both North and South Rims, and we never seem able to stay long enough.
World travelers of all nationalities agree that this great chasm eaten into solid rock by the mighty
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Colorado River over a span of countless centuries is not only one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but is the most awe-inspiring single spectacle on earth. It changes every hour day and night, winter and sum- mer, and no one can say for sure just when it presents its grandest aspect.
Sometimes it is filled from brim to brim as far as the eye can see with fleecy white clouds, sometimes it shimmers in the desert heat of an August sun like a living coat of many colors. Its sheer vastness is breath-taking in any weather and the power of the forces that created it make even our Manhattan sky- scrapers seem puny by comparison.
The camp ground at the Grand Canyon is pic- turesque, well-equipped and well cared-for, being typical of those in our National Parks all over the country. As is characteristic, no charge is made for the camping privilege. All conveniences are to be had with the exception of outlet connections for city elec- tric current. According to the latest reports from the National Park Service, only Mammoth Cave National Park and East Potomac Park in Washing- ton, D. C., have this service. So if you plan upon staying any length of time in the other parks, you must rely upon gasoline lanterns or a generator for your own current.
Another of our outstanding spectacles is the
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Yellowstone, Don't miss it! More natural phenom- ena, more varieties of native birds and animals and more spots of scenic beauty are assembled in a given area here than at any other place in the United States,
The Yellowstone has been world famous for so long that the tourist traffic here is heavy at the height of the season. Yet this offers no real drawback be- cause of the huge size of the Park. Plenty of camp grounds are available and the trailerite, having the conveniences of home living, will find himself able to enjoy to the full even the most remote sections.
After this in rapid-fire order Park enthusiasts like ourselves will recommend the Yosemite, Glacier Park and the others in the scenic caravan. We present the following list to aid the trailerite in his knowledge of park seasons and facilities. The information is basically the latest obtainable from the Department of the Interior. Fine descriptive booklets on all the Parks, filled with illustrations, may be obtained free by writing Director Arno B. Cammerer of the National Park Service, Washington, D. C.
2H TRAILER AHOY!
DIGEST OF PARKS WITH OPENING AND CLOSING DATES
AC ADI A, MAINE — Combination of mountain and sea- coast scenery. Established 1919; 21.81 square miles. Summer season June 15 to October 15. Open all year.
BRYCE CANYON, UTAH — Canyons filled with exqui- sitely colored pinnacles. Established 1928; 55,06 square miles. Lodges open June 1 to September 30. Free Park trailer camp ground at Canyon, lacking only electrical connections. Ruby's Inn, 3 miles from the Canyon, accommodates 15 trailers and provides electric connections, toilets, shower baths, laundry tubs, well water, tables, benches and stoves at 50^ a day or $2.50 a week per trailer. Early spring, late fall.
CARLSBAD CAVERNS, NEW MEXICO - Beautifully decorated limestone caverns believed largest in the world. Estab- lished 1930; 15.56 square miles. No overnight accommodations at Park. Same may be had at Carlsbad or neighboring points on the road. Open all year.
CRATER LAKE, OREGON — Astonishingly beautiful lake in crater of extinct volcano. Established 1902; 250.52 square miles. Accommodations available June 15 to September 20. Open to trailers as long as roads are open. Annie Spring Camp, Cold Spring Camp and Rim Camp grounds. Open all year except during severe storms in winter.
GENERAL GRANT, CALIFORNIA — Celebrated Gen- eral Grant Tree and grove of big trees. Established 1890; 3.96 square miles. Accommodations available all year. Open all year.
GLACIER, MONTANA — Unsurpassed alpine scenery; 250 lakes; 60 glaciers. Established 1910; 1,533.88 square miles. High mountain chalets, camps and extended saddle horse trips available July 1 to September 1. June 15 to September 15.
TRAILER AHOY! 215
GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA - World's greatest ex- ample of erosion. Established 1919; 1,009.08 square miles. South Rim, open all year. North Rim, May 30 to September 30.
GRAND TETON, WYOMING - Most spectacular por- tion of Teton Mountains. Established 1929; 150 square miles. Main season June 20 to September 13. June 1 to October 15.
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, NORTH CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE — Massive mountain uplift covered with magnificent forests. Established for protection 1930; 615.76 square miles. Open all year.
HAWAII: ISLANDS OF HAWAII AND MAUI -
Volcanic areas of great interest, including Kilauea, famous for frequent spectacular outbursts. Established 1916; 245 square miles. Open all year.
HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS - World famous spa. Forty-seven hot springs reserved by Federal Government in 1832 to prevent exploitation of waters. Made national park in 1921; 1.58 square miles. Open all year.
LASSEN VOLCANIC, CALIFORNIA - Only recently active volcano in continental United States. Established 1916; 163.32 square miles. June 1 to September 15.
MESA VERDE, COLORADO - Most notable cliff dwell- ings in United States. Established 1906; 80.21 square miles. Lodges open June 15 to September 15. Informal and trailer accommodations available entire season. May 1 5 to October 1 5.
MOUNT McKINLEY, ALASKA — Highest mountain in North America. Established 1917; 3,030.46 square miles. Not a trailer trip as yet. June 10 to September 15.
MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON — Largest accessi- ble single-peak glacier system. Established 1899; 377.78 square miles. Hotel season June 27 to September 8. Lodge accommo- dations available balance of year. Trailer life depends upon hardihood of trailerite in winter. Open all year.
216 TRAILER AHOY!
PLATT, OKLAHOMA — Sulphur and other springs. Es- tablished 1902; 1.33 square miles. Fine trailer accommodations, but tourists seeking hotels must repair to City of Sulphur, Oklahoma. Open all year.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN, COLORADO-Peaks from 11,000 to 14,255 feet in heart of Rockies. Established 1915; 405.33 square miles. Summer season June 15 to September 20. Open all year.
SEQUOIA, CALIFORNIA — General Sherman, largest and possibly oldest tree in the world; outstanding groves of Sequoia gigantea. Established 1890; 604 square miles. Accom- modations available all year. Open all year.
SHENANDOAH, VIRGINIA - Outstanding scenic area in Virginia section of Blue Ridge. Established 1935; 275.67 square miles. Open all year.
WIND CAVE, S. DAKOTA — Beautiful cavern of peculiar formations. No stalactites or stalagmites. Established 1903; 1 8.47 square miles. Excellent trailer camp ground. Hotel tour- ists accommodated at Hot Springs. Summer season June 1 to September 20. Open all year.
YELLOWSTONE: WYOMING, MONTANA AND IDAHO *— World's greatest geyser area, and an outstanding game preserve. Established 1872; 3,471.51 square miles. Hotels and lodges open June 20. Lodges close September 8, hotels September 12. Informal and trailer accommodations May 15 to close of Park by weather conditions. June 1 to September 30.
YOSEMITE, CALIFORNIA - Valley of world-famous beauty; spectacular waterfalls; magnificent high Sierra country. Established 1890; 1,176.16 square miles. Open all year.
ZION, UTAH — Beautiful Zion Canyon 1,500 to 2,500 feet deep. Spectacular coloring. Established 1919; 148.26 square miles. Trailer and cabin accommodations available all year. Lodge open June 1 to September 30. Open all year.
Baby Julia Jane began to travel by trailer when she was less than five months old. She is the best traveller in the family under all weather conditions and has her own crib on the bed in the back room.
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The colonial burial ground on the town square at Old Bennington is characterized by markers as plain, staid and upright as the Puritans who sleep beneath them. On a vacant lot in a small town in Kansas an abandoned hearse, sign of affluence in the days before the automobile, stands blistering in the sun.
This prosperous Pennsylvania Dutch farm is typical of many such in one of the richest agricultural states in the Union.
Senator Colgate's model dairy in Vermont boasts a herd of over 750 pure- bred Ayrshire cattle — one of the prides of New England.
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The Kennebec River is even more pic- turesque than you expect it to be. Maine's rivers are never disappointing.
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A French-Canadian pastoral worthy oi the artist's brush is this traditional cold- cellar with one of the family cows standing on the sodded roof waiting to be taken into the barn for the night.
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These two gateways are a world apart. The top one is the entrance to a Spanish- pueblo home in Taos. New Mexico, while the lower is one of the gateways to the Citadel of Quebec.
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The setting sun leaves the clouds above the waters of the lake at Jackman in Northern Maine. Gessner paddled for miles with us up the lake, then up Moose River into Attean Lake, fishing sporadically between hauls.
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In the camp ground at Ogunquit, Maine, our little family takes a sunbath outside the trailer after two solid weeks of rain. All are happy and the little one happiest of all.
The coast here in Maine is stern and rugged, yet not far distant from these forbidding rocks are several fine sandy bathing beaches.
Gessner, sitting on a rock, is intrigued by a streamer of giant kelp.
Every time we see New England's irregular stone fences a picture of colonial militiamen arises in our mind's eye. We see these patriots stubbornly resisting the British advance from behind these ready-made ramparts. Thorns they were in the sides of their adversaries, like those in this Arizona cactus.
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Down New Jersey way a pound boat crewed by the vikings of our off-shore fisheries comes shooting landward through the surf.
We like to recall the classic beauty of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.
Gessner retains the balance of nature by his affinity for bridges of all kinds, shapes and sizes. He was especially taken by the Mid-Hudson Bridge ot Poughkeepsie.
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The 1936 convention of the Tin Can Tourists of the World at Sandusky, Ohio, com- prised over 3.000 delegates attending in 750 trailers. These three snapshots show a lew of the trailer types represented.
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Angling enthusiasts are delighted to find that they may fish in season without a state license or special permit of any kind in the teeming waters of the Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Crater Lake, Rocky Mountain and Glacier National Parks. As the catch limits and local regulations vary, it is good policy to contact a Park ranger or warden before trying your luck with rod and reel.
All other Parks with fishing waters are open to the fisherman, but state licenses are required. All Park waters that will sustain fish life are generously stocked with finny fighters by the Government, so the finest kind of sport is assured.
In none of the Parks may animal, bird, reptile or insect life be disturbed in any way. Hunting and the use of firearms is strictly prohibited and all firearms are sealed upon entering the Park territory. Only thus can the wild-life sanctuaries be preserved for posterity. These wise regulations enable the visitor to see panoramas of game in a natural environment more fascinating than any zoo. Even the snakes are protected, as they help maintain the balance of nature by keeping the small rodents under control.
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IX
THE TRAILER FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER
lN OTHING ever designed in the way of a trans- portation unit for a photographer could compare with the automobile trailer for all-around utility. Many professional photographers and thousands of ama- teurs, especially the candid cameramen, have taken to trailers like a duck to water.
Some use the standard trailers just as they are. In this case they reserve one or more of the many storage lockers for harboring the numerous cameras, lenses, filters and other gadgets that all real photographers insist upon carrying everywhere. They find that a huge mass of equipment can be tucked away safely and will remain readily available at a moment's notice.
250 TRAILER AH'OY!
With this primary arrangement they take their photographs whenever and wherever they wish and wait until their return home for developing and print- ing. On the other hand, if the camera fiend is so deeply immersed in his subject that he wants his dark- room with him, he can arrange this easily.
If he travels alone, or with a single companion, he can equip any size, make or model trailer with re- movable light-proof window covers and the proper facilities for all his printing and developing apparatus. If he favors enlargements, as we do, he can take his enlarging camera along, too. And in the event that he has unlimited means, he can even have his trailer built to order to suit his own whim.
In the event that the traveling party consists of three or more people, a two room trailer will be found to be a necessity if the photographer is to remain on speaking terms with his associates. The back room will then be the better for camera work, but stowage space for the equipment must be allowed for so that the room may be converted into sleeping quarters after working hours.
A number of trailers already on the road are used as professional photographic studios. Their owners follow the crowds and the seasons — literally follow business. In so doing, when the quality of their work is right, they are able to make a comfortable living
TRAILER AHOY! 251
and they often perform invaluable services for casual camera-users in out-of-the-way scenic spots where no permanent photographic establishments are located.
Many of the camera shots made on any trip are practically irreplaceable. In a trailer studio you can check your results before leaving the regions which should yield you your best shots. Then if any of the results are not "up to snuff," you can make retakes. This is certainly more satisfactory than spotting your failures when you return home, perhaps thousands of miles distant from any chance at a retake.
Memories of delightful trips and pleasant sojourns are fine things to retain as the years roll around, but finer still and much more definite are good photo- graphs recalling happy days in memorable places. We take a camera everywhere we go whether we think we will need it or not. Then when we come face to face with the photographic possibility of a life- time, even though it occurs on a dark day in the pour- ing rain, we are ready for it.
A trip to the Pacific Coast and back last year yielded us over 500 choice photographs. We thought we were covering our especial fields of interest thor- oughly as we went along. Yet ever since our return I have bemoaned the hundreds of excellent shots we passed up for one excuse or another. The tendency, for instance, is to take several shots of the Mormon
252 TRAILER AHOY!
Temple and Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and then pass up scores of other temples and churches in Utah, thinking you have covered the subject well enough, or to do the same thing with the string of Missions along the coast of California, or the churches of the Province of Quebec,
Film is cheap compared to the cost of any trip. And no one can ever take too many photographs, espe- cially if a reasonable percentage of them are good ones. In addition to the personal satisfaction of having them there are hundreds of commercial outlets for good amateur as well as professional photographs.
National magazines, newspaper pictorial sections, trade journals, house organs and similar illustrated publications snap up hundreds of thousands of good photographs a year and usually pay well for them. "Life," the new picture magazine published by "Time," utilizes over 200 photographs weekly and welcomes amateur as well as professional work, pay- ing the same for both.
Within the past decade such tremendous advances have been made in sensitizing film and reducing the grain that all sorts of cameras, good, bad and indiffer- ent, can be made to yield astonishingly good results. And sharp pictures on film from 35 millimeters (stand- ard movie size) up to 2*4 inches square and larger
TRAILER AHOY! 253
can be enlarged tremendously with almost no loss of detail or sign of grain.
The cameras of whatever make using the small size film are known as "minecams" and because they can get results anywhere under any conditions and are excellent for unposed natural shots, they are generally known as ' 'candid cameras/*
For the trailerite we favor the Rollieflex in the 2^ inch square size. Used properly this camera will never let you down. The film is cheap because of its small size, yet the exposures are large enough so that slight scratches will not ruin shots for enlargement as they do on the 35 mm. film. The camera itself is small, compact, light and handy to carry anywhere, also easy to get into action when a quick shot is imperative.
It allows speedy focusing through a brilliant reflex finder lens and will cover all distances from 40 inches to infinity. When closer shots are necessary they can be taken as close as 8 inches by using two sets of inexpensive Proxar auxiliary lenses. Even insects can be photographed in this way and enormously enlarged.
We use supersensitive panchromatic film almost entirely. It is much faster than orthochromatic film and it gives better color differentiation. When used in conjunction with a No. 1 yellow filter on many
254 TRAILER AHOY!
shots it gives marvelous results, damping down bright greens, which would otherwise be too heavy, bring- ing out the clouds with the contrast they deserve and even giving blonde hair its true color value.
An 8-exposure roll of 2^ by 3^ inch film will yield a full dozen 2^4 inch square exposures. In the above film these will cost you less than 3^ a picture. Unless you do it yourself, fine grain development costs 10^ a roll, sometimes 15^*
Large clear prints are the only ones that do justice to good negatives, so we enlarge to 5 by 7 or 8 by 10 inch size. Photographs this size are acceptable to all editors. By doing the enlarging ourselves we get exactly the results we are after and do so at minimum expense. An 8 by 10 enlargement on double-weight paper costs from 50^ to 60^ commercially, yet it costs us only about T^/<$.
If you are on your toes you will be surprised at the number of people who will want you to take photo- graphs of their children, their home, their pets and the like for either Christmas cards, framing or the family archives. Get good results and they will be perfectly willing to give you a fair price for your work. Five minutes ago a phone call from a neighbor gave us a commission to photograph this neighbor's daughter on horseback. Two different orders for baby pictures are pending. And if our information is correct, it
TRAILER AHOY! 255
was in just such a manner that some of our most prominent professionals, like Margaret Bourke- White, got their start,
No trailerite should be without a good camera, and correspondingly, no photographer who leaves his or her home stamping grounds for any length of time should be without a trailer. Perhaps that photo- graphic scoop which will net a year's income in several minutes is just around the corner. Be prepared for it by taking plenty of films with you at all times. Keep a visual record of your travels.
TRAILER AHOY!
257
X
THE TRAILER FOR THE SCIENTIST
TRAILER is as useful to the scientist as it is to the photographer. The naturalist, geologist, min- eralogist, entomologist, herpetologist, anthropologist or learned devotee of any other branch of science who depends upon travel for first-hand knowledge of his subject will logically gravitate towards the ultimate ownership of a trailer.
In it he will find room for all his collecting para- phernalia as well as his scientific equipment for study- ing collected material. He can take his workshop, his laboratory and his study with him. He will find plenty of room for his reference books and papers. He can bring back a wealth of specimens without shipping them and taking the chance of loss, mortality
258 TRAILER AHOY!
or breakage* And he can remain for almost indefinite periods in the most fruitful hunting grounds for his particular field of research.
Through the great saving effected in living expenses he can devote more time and less money to any given project, or he can carry his researches farther afield than would otherwise be possible* By roughing it smoothly be can devote more time to his work and less to the routine of everyday living.
Wherever his automobile can be taken his trailer will follow, road or no road. He can do his modern pioneering in a modern way even hundreds of miles off the beaten path. Like a motion picture company on location he can be almost completely independent of the outside world as long as his supplies hold out.
TRAILER AHOY!
259
XI
THE TRAILER FOR THE ARTIST
JTIND a real beauty spot anywhere in the United States and there you will also find artists. In clear and stormy weather, catching nature in all her moods, the artist remains as long as the money holds out or the vacation lasts.
The cost of board and lodging, practically every- where, seems to be based directly upon the quality of the scenery. And one of the failings of the art world is that since time immemorial artists have had to watch their bankrolls rather closely, all but a chosen few of them. Yet one could live in a trailer at the Grand Canyon, or in the Yosemite, for a whole month at no greater outlay than the cost of a de luxe cabin for a single night. Here again we speak from experi-
260 TRAILER AHOY!
ence, having occupied at different times both the cabin and the trailer.
Human nature demands that every casual passerby must look over an artist's shoulder at a picture in the making. If this is half as irritating to the artist as we are led to believe, it explains why artists seek seclusion whenever possible. A trailer, because of the ease with which it can be taken to out-of-the-way places, insures the privacy and seclusion which make greater production possible.
Many of our scenic gems are miles distant from any adequate living accommodations. With an automobile alone you must make the best of a short stay and then run. With a trailer you can camp on the spot and remain there to your heart's content. It would seem that this is the answer to most of the artist's problems outside his home studio. He takes the conveniences of home and studio with him.
George Catlin, Frederick Remington, James Audubon and others of the clan would surely have rejoiced at such an opportunity. Their counter-parts can ill afford to ignore it.
TRAILER AHOY! 26£
IN CONCLUSION
JIN a book of this kind we are too pressed for space to enumerate half the uses to which trailers are being put. They are very popular with hunters. College students are living in them. In fact the scope of their use is limited only by the ingenuity of their owners.
Trailers have already been featured in newspaper headlines covering the whole span of human life. Babies have been born in them. Couples have been married in them. And so it goes.
If we have accomplished our purpose in presenting this book to you, you too will be inclined to taste of trailer life. Or then again perhaps you may see fit to cater to the growing host of trailerites from a busi- ness standpoint.
In either event you can make no mistake if you go about the matter in the right way.
There is a certain camaraderie among trailerites which manifests itself everywhere. Passing trailer caravans invariably salute each other with a blast of the horn. In closing let us salute you in the same way.
TRAILER AHOY!