A Short History of the Campground

There is a satisfying immediacy about the prospect of establishing a camp for the night—clearing the site, erecting the tent, chopping wood, building a fire, and cooking over the live flame—that in turn suggests a meaningful connection to landscape, place, and the rugged life of backwoods adventure. Camping is both an act of faith and of survival, a way to buttress a modest, isolated human settlement against the forces of nature, and the camp serves as a temporary substitute for the home—a place to dwell, to sleep, to interact socially, to prepare and eat food. Stripped of any but the most vital conveniences, it is literally and figuratively open to the stimuli of its natural surroundings.

Every year, millions of Americans take to the road in search of this powerful experience of nature. And that parcel of land upon which most will drive their car, set up their tent, or park their van is the campsite—which is thus not only an imagined