About the Author:
Roger B. White is a land transportation historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
In 1901 naturalist John Muir observed, "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people [have found] that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity." Within a few years of Muir's insightful comment, thousands of urban motorists returned to nature for pleasure trips, and some kept nature within the sphere of their domestic activities by combining the virtues of automobiles and houses. Road vehicles long had served as homes for the itinerant, either by choice or necessity, but living in a vehicle was not common or widely accepted among homeowners until the beginning of recreational motoring. As middle and upper class Americans learned to use the automobile for a multitude of errands and social activities, it became virtually an extension of the home because of its shelterlike qualities, speed, and readiness. When couples and families began to explore rural and wilderness areas as a pleasure activity, they used the automobile as a buffer, transferring the sophisticated furnishings, technological systems, and daily routines of home to the healthful attractions, scenic splendors, and deprivations of the outdoors. More than consumers of the latest products from Detroit and other centers of motor vehicle manufacturing, some motorists proactively shaped the future of recreational travel by converting their automobiles to simplified houses on wheels.
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