Autocamps
The automobile changed American vacations in a host of ways far beyond simply providing a means of transportation. For one thing, it made vacations available to more Americans, as it provided jobs which paid well, created new industries, and helped develop unions which negotiated more time off for workers. More leisure time, enhanced mobility not tied to railroad timetables, and extra spending money led to changes in how Americans spent their time off. Many used the automobile as not only the means for transportation, but in a nod to an earlier age, as the means of shelter on the way.
Autocamps were created as a response to the practice of using the automobile as a sleeping facility, beginning in the early 1900s. Often drivers simply pulled off the road to sleep in their vehicle before continuing on their way. The practice grew so widespread that auto manufacturers and other companies began selling modifications to be fitted on vehicles to make them more comfortable, including awnings which attached to the car, creating a tent, and inserts to turn seats into beds. Tables were designed to fit into trunks, and other special equipment, such as stoves running off of the car’s electrical system, were offered.
In towns and villages, the practice of motorists camping in public parks and on public streets led them to create designated areas allowing the practice. Innovative businesses invested in lots near public attractions and converted them into autocamps, which were soon being listed in the tour guides of the day, with ratings and lists of amenities. Often they included small stores, play facilities for children, fishing equipment, and the all-important automobile mechanic to assist motorists suffering mechanical distress. Some camps were so popular that they became destinations in and of themselves.
Autocamps saw their heyday just before the Great Depression. During the depression roads throughout the United States saw tremendous improvements with local, state, and the federal governments all funding programs to create jobs. During the era many landowners erected cabins on roadside property in the hope of generating income, renting them to passing motorists. These motor courts were the forerunner of motels. The number of motorists resorting to autocamps declined until it was just those dedicated to camping, rather than using them as a convenience.
After World War II the idea of using an autocamp as a vacation destination went into steep decline, although many still went camping using the car as the means of conveyance to the campsite. More attractive vacation opportunities emerged as Americans enjoyed the expanding highway systems, and autocamps became a thing of the past except in small enclaves, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. The growing popularity of trailers and pop-up campers following the war was the death knell for the practice of camping in one’s car, and few autocamps remained by the end of the twentieth century.