TIN CAN TOURISTS TIDBITS

The Tin Can Tourists were organized at Desoto Park, Tampa, Florida, in 1919. They received the official state charter a year later. The groups stated objective was “to unite fraternally all autocampers”. Their guiding principles were clean camps, friendliness among campers, decent behavior and to secure plenty of clean, wholesome entertainment for those in camp. The group known for the soldered tin can on their radiator caps grew rapidly during the twenties and thirties. Members could be inducted fellow campers through an initiation process that taught the prospective member the secret handshake, sign, and password. After singing the official song “The More We Get Together” the trailerite was an official member of the Tin Can Tourists of the World.

Summer reunions were held at various Midwest locations, with Traverse City, Michigan serving as a primary host city. The club spent winters at Desoto Park until 1924.

Tin can tourists - 1921 or 1922. Car camping and watermelon in or around Washington, D.C.

Because locals grew tired of their park being over run with northerners, the park was closed a month early in March. The canners took the hint and moved the Winter Convention to Arcadia, where the community had built a municipal park especially for the Tin Can Tourists. By 1932, with membership estimates ranging from 30,000 to 100,000, city Chambers of Commerce were actively pursuing TCT to choose their community for either Homecoming, Winter Convention or Going Home meets. The Winter Convention was the best attended and was an economic boon to the host community. Sarasota had its eye on the prize and lured the Convention away from Arcadia in 1932. The vote on the Winter Convention site was hotly contested. Many Canners were loyal to Arcadia, the town that wanted them after their ejection from Tampa. A 250 strong car caravan let by Sarasota’s mayor and other public officials, helped swing the vote selecting Sarasota as the Winter Convention site for 1932. As a concession to those that favored Arcadia, it was designated as the official site for Homecoming festivities. In 1938, the mayor of Sarasota indicated that the national perception that Sarasota was a tin can tourist’s town was hurting the community and that he would not renew the Winter Convention contract. Tampa offered the canners a five-year deal to return to Tampa. It was accepted and the Winter Convention returned to specially built Municipal Park. The group faced membership declines due to combination of factors, (1) a schism with in the ranks and the formation of ATA, the Automobile Tourists Association, (2) an economic recession in 1939 that greatly diminished the number of trailer manufactures, and (3) the onset of World War II. Winter Convention photograph depict a much smaller group in 1948 at Tampa. The original groups “Swan Song” convention was held in Eustis, Florida in 1968. By the mid-70’s the club was no longer in existence in any form.

In 1998, Forrest and Jeri Bone renewed the club as an all make and model vintage trailer and motor coach club. The renewal gathering was held at Camp Dearborn, Milford, Michigan. Twenty-one rigs attended the May Renewal Gathering. By the end of the year, fifty members were accepted as charter members of the renewed version of the Tin Can Tourists. The group has grown steadily, currently holding Annual Gatherings in Michigan, Florida, and regional rallies at various locations in the US. Recently Regional Representatives have been added to represent England, Japan and France. The new version of Tin Can Tourists is open to all. Its goal is to abide by the original group’s objectives and guiding principles as well as the promotion and preservation of vintage trailers and motor coaches through Gatherings and information exchange.

During the late 1920's the Tin Can Tourists spent Thanksgiving in Arcadia, Florida and enjoyed a sumptuous community dinner.

The 1920s were a very exciting time in Florida. Automobiles were moving rapidly off the assembly lines, regular folks were able to afford them, and Florida was beckoning with sunshine and the promise of an easy life and good times. Gainesville's businessmen welcomed those regular folks by providing facilities for camping in their cars-not as comfortable as today's campers, but certainly the same idea. People would rig their cars up with folding side tents or convert trucks with sleeping arrangements in the truckbed. There was a national club, called “Tin Can Tourists,” which was organized in 1919 at DeSoto Park in Tampa; members were recognized by a tin can soldered to the radiator cap of a member's car.

This is a 1922 membership card for the Tin Can Tourists

There is a modern Tin Can Tourist's Vintage Trailer & Motor Coach Gathering which hopes to renew the group's goals of providing “save and clean camping areas, wholesome entertainment, and high moral values.” One camp was located in Gainesville and another in Archer. The location of this camp is believed to be the present-day site of Alachua General Hospital (or Shands at AGH).

Today's travelers move on superhighways and stay in modern motels; they also have the choice of traveling in campers or recreational vehicles that offer many of the comforts of home. But in the 1920s after World War I, when many folks began moving to Florida, moving meant braving uncertain lodging. Tin Can tourism (using the car and a tent for lodging) was a common solution. One camp, aptly named “Tin Can Tourist Camp,” was located in Gainesville and another with the same name was in Archer southeast of the Maddox Foundry. The location of this camp is believed to be the present-day site of Alachua General Hospital (or Shands at AGH). Very close inspection of this photograph shows a traveling truck-home that had “Adams Autohome” painted on it while one of the canvas-top automobiles had pennants that said “Chicago” and “Sister Lakes.” William Reuben Thomas, Gainesville's very progressive and business-minded mayor, promoted tin can tourism, hoping to lure new citizens to the area.

Sarasota Mayor Verman Kimbrough (1937-1939) indicated on the day the Winter Convention opened that the city would not extend the offer to host the Convention in the city beyond 1937 – reasons stated, the desire to turn Sarasota Tourists Park in to a destination park for visitors that would stay for six months rather then the shorter time covered by the TCT Convention – By Thursday, he back off the position due to merchant protest – after the merchants expressed their desire to retain the Convention the city once again restated their denial of extending an invitation to TCT. Mayor Kimbrough indicated that there was a general perception that Sarasota was a “Tin Can Tourists Town”

1937 Winter Convention Highlights: All members were to display the TCT emblem on their vehicles; The camp had a Royal Chief’s Row for parking and the leadership positions became hotly contested; The TCT leadership responded to what they throught was an implied slur by Mayor Kimbrough – Royal Chief McKnight said members will match brains, money or marbles with the mayor and that the campers had spent over $650,000 in Sarasota since December 1; Tourist Camp $.35 per night - $1.00 per week for 2 people - $.10 extra per person – Electric $.10 per day, $.35 per week – Electric suitable for heating $.50 per day, $2.00 per week

TCT is proud to be returning to the Sarasota area for the 2008 convention. We tried to secure a site in Sarasota County, but once again the club had to look to the tourist friendly town of Bradenton and Manatee County to find a site.

Thirty bucks was a lot of cabbage for a can of sauerkraut.

It was gladly paid in January 1921, for a special can of 'kraut.

The premium was on the sum of its parts. It had great sentimental value, so to speak.

Tin Can Tourists assembled north of Jacksonville the winter of 1921. The opening of the Jacksonville bridge across the St. Johns would open a lush vista of Florida that lay beyond the river.

Like a big magnet, Jacksonville pulled the Tin Cans, the auto tourists of the day.

The Tin Can crowd put a new face on vagabonding after the Great War.

Automobile trailer tourism was somewhat a luxury. Not unlike RV life of today, perhaps, but a lot more primitive. It was a novelty, an adventure. One never knew what was around the bend.

Automobiles themselves had not been around that long. Roads were routes of chance. There were no motels. Hardly any billboards. Not even Waffle Houses, if you can imagine such a thing.

Ever on the cutting edge, Jacksonville had set up a Tin Can Tourist Park.

The park was yonder out Main Street, west of the fair grounds.

W.D. Flynn was superintendent. He ran a tight ship, by contemporary accounts.

Campers gave the Jacksonville park high marks, The Florida Times-Union said.

Jacksonville has a warm place in their hearts. Many declared they had sent dozens of letters and post cards to friends in other camps or back home, urging them to come here and accept the hospitality of Jacksonville.

The can of sauerkraut entered legend when newcomers were initiated into the camp's ad hoc grand fraternal order.

Following a festive and ritual weiner roast, the newcomers were entitled to the Grand Emblem of the Jacksonville Camp of Tin Can Tourists.

Sadly there was no emblem.

The can of sauerkraut would suffice.

It was the last of several from the weiner roast.

The group conscience decided to raffle off this last can.

A kid bought it for 50 cents.

Not enough, he exclaimed. Who's got sporting blood?

The kid got $1.50 for the can, from a lady from Los Angeles. She put it up again.

Another initiate bid $5; he wanted to put the can on his radiator cap.

Flynn suggested half a can would make just as good an emblem on the radiator cap.

An auction commenced for the second half.

A guy from Peoria bought it for $11.

Then they sold the 'kraut and the label. The kid's mother bought them, for $10.

I'll put this under glass and keep it as a souvenir of the most enjoyable winter I ever spent, she said.

After the can, contents and label were disposed of, it was discovered the one container of 'kraut had brought the organization $30, believed to be a record price for such a commodity, the Times-Union said.

Flynn told the initiates the Tin Can Tourist must possess three requisites:

To be able to ride and stick with anything that wiggles, slides or rolls, to be able to always find one's way about and to make a home wherever one may be and, last, to prove a good fellow, able to entertain and be entertained.

From August 3 to 17, 1936, the Tin Can Tourists of America had their summer convention at the Erie County Fairgrounds in Sandusky, Ohio. Over 1,500 members traveled with their trailers for the outing. The Sandusky Chamber of Commerce cooperated with the Tin Can Tourists in planning the event, and the city of Sandusky provided fire protection.

The August 13 Sandusky Register reported that the cost for parking a trailer was one dollar per week, with fifty cents extra for those using electricity. A local committee, headed by Theodore J. Butts, organized outings to area attractions, such as Cedar Point, Crystal Rock Caves, the Blue Hole, and Edison’s Birthplace. Harry Bolus, a former member of the Al G. Fields Minstrels, was in charge of entertainment. Each night the tourists enjoyed dances and other special entertainment. The summer event featured the largest exhibit of trailer manufacturers “ever presented to trailerdom.”

The New York Times featured an article about the Tin Can Tourists on August 2, 1926, and Modern Mechanix carried an article entitled “Trailer Life Lures More Thousands” in its November 1936 issue. Peggy Riccelli is pictured in a toy automobile and trailer owned by the son of Dr. Lester Mylander. The Erie County Fairgrounds is still a popular gathering place. It served as the official campground for participants of the popular Ohio Bike Week.

Modern Mechanix (Nov, 1936)

Tin Can Tourists’ Reunion in Sandusky reflects growing boom in business of escaping rent by house car dwelling.

NEW impetus has been given the boom in trailer travel by the exhibits and meetings of the Automobile Tourists Association at Manistee, Mich., and the reunion of the Tin Can Tourists of the World at Sandusky, Ohio.

Thousands more are turning to life on wheels and a dozen additional automobile makers are planning to add house cars to their lines as a result of the interest displayed. The Sandusky gathering gave birth to a new organization of builders, the Coach Trailer Manufacturers’ Association.

Registration at the Manistee gathering, the third for the A. T. A., reached 5,726 and at Sandusky over 2,000 persons in 500 trailers enjoyed themselves for several weeks at the Erie County Fair Grounds. Thirty manufacturers displayed new models of every type at both gatherings.

Scores of noted trailer travelers gathered at Sandusky to hear that the organization had grown to 97,000 members since its formation at Tampa, Fla., in 1919 and to enjoy a recreation program arranged by the entertainment committee of Harry Bolus, Mansfield, Ohio.

Mr. Bolus knows something about entertaining. For many years he was a member of the Fields Minstrels and was long a vaudeville star. Though they have a home in Mansfield, Mr. and Mrs. Bolus spend much of their time in their famous trailer.

Oldest of the tourists present was R. W Vaughn of Rome City, Ind. A charter member of the organization and a former officer, he is still active in its affairs at the age of 85. He credits his health to life in the open.

Mrs. Guy E. Russell of Ripley, N. Y., who has spent most of the recent years living in a trailer with her husband and their four children, was enthusiastic in her praise of house car life.

“We have less worries and after a while one takes on a more cheerful outlook on life,” she said. “We live far cheaper than we could in most any city.

“The time required for cleaning our home daily is negligible. In the food problem, we have the advantage of picking up fresh vegetables and fruits from roadside stands. Hucksters make daily rounds.

“We don’t eat any more canned food than city folk though we are called ‘Tin Canners!’ Meats, ice and other necessities are bought from nearby stores and delivery service is given if we are staying a while. Prices are less than average. We nearly always buy in quantities, and farmers and truck gardeners give us a rate.

“My children get every advantage of education. When we stay in a place for several months, they are sent to the public schools. In some subjects, geography and history, they excel. They have traveled through most of the 48 states and learn more by seeing than they could from books.”

The M. McCune family of Detroit attracted considerable attention in a luxurious self-built trailer housing eight persons. It contains four double beds and is handsomely arranged with walnut woodwork, mohair lounges and imitation snake-skin wall covering. Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Collier of Miami, Fla., brought six canary birds to the gathering.

Ira W. Green of Vassar, Mich., royal chief, said attendance exceeded that of the previous reunion and predicted a record attendance at the Sarasota, Fla. Officers are elected and business transacted at this meeting. Capt. Edward H. Jungclas, president and secretary of the A. T. A., announced a get-together meeting at Lake City, Fla., Nov. 22 to 28, and a winter convention at Clearwater, Fla., Jan. 29 to Feb. 8.

Ease and enjoyment of the trailer dwellers at the meetings converted many to the idea. Groups sat about under awnings. Women clicked needles at knitting or crocheting. Dogs frolicked on the grounds. There was a checker tournament, dances and movies. Monday is wash day.

The “Tin Canners” are an organization without dues, fees or assessments. The name comes from their food and not their vehicles. Their original emblem was a can tied to a radiator cap. A neat metal emblem is now placed on car fronts. The sale of emblems and membership badges provides entertainment and operating expenses for the organization.

Carl Schelm, president of Schelm Brothers, Peoria, Ill., was elected president of the new trailer manufacturers’ association. B. R. Scheff, sales manager Palace Travel Coach Co., was chosen vice president; R. E. Merrill, sales manager, Kabin Koach, Detroit, treasurer.

Directors in addition to officers are W. J. Schult, president Schult Trailer Co., Elkhart, Ind.; Norman C. Wolfe, president Silver Dome Co., Detroit; A. G. Sherman, president Covered Wagon Co., Mt. Clemens, Mich.; Earl Raymond, treasurer Raymond Products Co., Saginaw, Mich.; Roy Gilkinson, general manager Gilkie Trailer Co., Terre Haute, Ind.; Clarence M. Lutes, owner Kozy Coach Co., Kalamazoo, Mich.

The organization plans a series of winter trailer exhibitions in various parts of the country. A trailer show will be a feature of the annual New York Auto Show opening this year on Nov. 11.

Many automobile and truck manufacturers have entered the trailer field either directly or through subsidiaries. Among the latest are the Pierce-Arrow Motor Corp. of Buffalo with the Travelodge, the Federal Motor Truck Co. of Detroit with the Motohome and Motomart. The Hayes Body Co. is making a new Motor-Home trailer at Grand Rapids, Mich. The Aladdin Co. of Bay City, Mich., has just produced a new Mayflower trailer.

Life Magazine Jan 30, 1939

The white oblongs in the airview above are the roofs of 645 trailers assembled in Tampa, Fla., for the 19th annual convention of the Tin Can Tourists of the World. Beside them are the darker rectangles of their concomitant cares. You are looking down on the Tampa Municipal Trailer Park on Jan. 16, opening day of the tourists’ two-week convention. Before it adjourned, Tampa’s trailer population had been swelled by 1,200 rolling homes.

Oldest of the four national trailer clubs, the Tin Can tourists was first organized as an itinerant campers’ association in 1919. Today it boasts 97,000 members of who it demands no dues, requires nothing save the sanitary preservation of the camp sites, assistance of fellow trailerites on the road, extinction of fires. Most of them are between 35 and 50 years old, spend three to six months annually in their trailers (for which they paid $50 to $3,000) and own stationary homes. Their motto: The Golden Rule. Their greeting: “How’s your hitch?” Their convention aim: fun.

Billy Graham in “Called to Preach” indicated that he began his ministry preaching at a Tin Can Trailer Park. “On Sundays I often preached on streets of Tampa, sometimes as many as five or six times a day. But in those days, the greatest ministry that God opened up to me was the trailer parks. One of them, the largest (or close to it) in the country was known as the Tin Can Trailer Park. Two ladies there had gotten the concession to hold religious services on Sunday nights, but they had no preacher; they asked me if I would come. The crowds ran anywhere from 200 to 1,000. They would take up a collection, which I think the ladies kept and used for some worthy project, and they would give me $5.00 – a tremendous help to my meager budget. …From that night in 1938 on, my purpose and objectives in life were set. I knew that I would be a preacher of the Gospel.

• 1905 -Oscar Peter came to Tampa in a covered wagon
• 1916 - One source pinpoints the organization in Arcadia, another stating they had held gatherings in Dade City, also
• 1916 - Tampa source mentioned friendly trailorites visiting Tampa area
• 1919 - Tin Can Tourists formally organized at Desoto Park in Tampa. Charles T. Fales was elected the first Royal Sargent. Charles was known as the “Mayor of Easy Street”, the main street formed by campers in Desoto Park. The original recognition emblem of the T.C.T was a tin can soldered to the radiator cap of a member's car. The goals of the group were to provide its members with safe and clean camping areas, wholesome entertainment, and high moral values.

• 1920 - “during prohibition something poured into Tampa (1919-20) almost faster than illegal whiskey. They were TCT riding a wave of what was to become Florida's swelling prosperity. During the winter of 1919-20 caravans of tourists who earned their money partly from canned meals they carried with them swarmed into Florida.” From a book by Karl Grimmer, Tampa, A History of the City of Tampa and the Tampa Bay Region of Florida · 1920 - A DeSoto County News editorial urged immediate steps be taken to put a proposed tourist camp site in proper condition. The City of Arcadia Trailer Park was developed on Highway 17 and still serves travelers.
• 1921 - DeSoto Park becomes the Tin Can Tourist's mecca. 723 camps with 1,841 persons
• 1921 - March 15th - 18th, Tin Can Tourists Jubilee was held in Gainsville, Florida, activities included addresses by prominent men

• After several annual conventions, the TCT were crowded out of Arcadia by those that came for the winter. Future gatherings were held in Sarasota, Ocala, then to various campgrounds
• 1922 - February, Tin Can Tourists to hold Winter Reunion at Green Cove Springs, Florida, from The Dixie Highway magazine.
• 1922 - April: Outdoor Life, covered TCT gathering
• 1924 - December 23rd: Journal entry: left at 8:30 stopped at 1:00 for lunch in Hastings. Arrived in Deland about 6. Total mileage for trip 1893 Estimated 146 hours driving time 12.9 MPH
• 1924 - Camping Tourists of America split for TCT to purchase 34 acres surrounding the Braden Plantation in Manatee County - Develop Braden Castle Park

• 1925 - April: Popular Mechanics, V.43, PP.554-5, Article on TCT
• 1926 - The TCT wore out the welcome at Tampa and moved to Arcadia.
• 1928-29 - The “white-pants Willies” were beginning to take over the club. They wanted to change the name of the club to Tin Can Tourists of the World, started referring to the Royal Can Opener as the Royal Chief, and had dropped the old soup can on the radiator cap in favor of a fancy new diamond-shaped radiator emblem you had to pay fifty cents for!
• 1930 - January: Tol and Ada Cline took a group of TCT to Carlstron Field, Arcadia, for swamp cabbage and barbecue prod and beef dinner
• 1930 - Arthur Sherman displayed his Covered Wagon at the Detroit Auto Show. An old timer showed up and asked Sherman, “You TCT?” Sherman thought this might be some sort of union and shook his head. The gentleman replied, “You ought to be. If you want to sell these things forget about auto shows and join Tin Can Tourists. Get yourself down to a convention.
• 1930s - TCT found they were no longer outsiders and undesirables. Suddenly they were being courted by every aggressive small town Chamber of Commerce in the state of Florida
• 1935 - Over 1,000 rigs showed up at Sarasota's Municipal Trailer Park, the official TCT campsite · 1935 - “it might, indeed, be difficult to determine whether trailers have developed because of the Tin Can Tourists, or whether the TCT, have grown with the trailer.” From Trailers Magazine, by Freeman Marsh
• 1935 on - an official bell traveled with the TCT to be placed at the entrance to the camp ground. It was rung to signal each members arrival and call meetings together.
• 1935 - A splinter group, the Automotive Tourists Association, broke away from TCT to protest the name (Tin Can Tourists)
• 1936 - 1,500 rigs showed up in Sarasota
• 1936 - A schism occurred and a formation of a rival group, the Automobile Tourists Association, pirated every last by-law of the TCT right down to its Golden Rule motto
• 1936 - two thousand members attended a rally in Sandusky, Ohio
• 1937 - Organization incorporated - Tin Can Tourists of American to Tin Can Tourists of the World.
• 1937 - TCT moved back to Tampa
• 1937 - Unseasonable warm weather in the Midwest prevented manufactures from bringing their trailers down to the convention
• 1937 - a small quorum of TCTers at the winter convention moved the summer reunion from Sandusky, to a Menomonee Indian Reservation up in northern Wisconsin. Almost nobody came.
• 1937 – Although both groups (ATA and TCT) tried to avoid conflicting dates for the Winter & Summer meets, the 1937 summer reunions were in direct conflict. This prevented involvement of both trailerites and exhibitors in Keshena, Wisconsin, site of TCT gathering. At the Winter Convention in Sarasota the membership voted to hold the 1938 Winter Convention in Mexico City. The newly elected officers put an end to that plan and Tampa was chosen for the Convention. The TCT Keshena meeting had atmosphere, but no crowd 400 units with a total attendance of 1,200; 78 Trailers were displayed by 25 manufactures; and 10 parts and accessory manufactures hawked their products. Many visitors lured by the promise of excellent fishing left when they were informed that the special licenses permitting them to fish on the reservation were recalled by the Indian Office in Washington because of a protest filed by the Indians themselves. 250 new members were added during the summer encampment bringing the membership to 24,000 (complete records have been kept the last few years). Membership estimates – recorded and unrecorded approximately 90,000. The ATA meet at Orchard Beach Park, Manistee Michigan was more generally attended and more enthusiastically received that the TCT meet in Keshena. ATA reported 430 units with 1,300 visitors. Many attendees came as early as a month early and didn’t depart until September.
• 1938 - Membership numbered 30,000- Members arrived for Thanksgiving in Dade City, moved to Arcadia for Christmas, and by January, situated in Sarasota
• 1938 – 400 units registered for Summer Reunion 48 units at trailer show

• 1938 - Orchard Beach State Park, Manistee, Michigan, expanded facilities to host Tin Can Tourist conventions by adding 33 acres - allowing baseball to flourish . The present day indoor picnic shelter built to accommodate Tin Can Tourist meetings.
• 1939 - Change in by-laws made it possible for members camped anywhere with a reasonable radius of the convention grounds (Tampa) to be included in the attendance roster. Last year 900 trailerites were barred from attendance through lack of space in the Sarasota campground. Oscar Peters, Royal Chief of TCT released an estimate of 3,000 members will be in attendance. - official roster (card index) holds 37,000 names.
• 1939 – Winter Convention date changed to January 6-29 to avoid conflict with Florida State Fair. Date Change put it in conflict with ATA convention. Annual Homecoming at Arcadia has a capacity of 1,200 trailers
• 1940 - Several thousand Tampans visit the manufacture's display of more than 100 brand new trailers all ready to hit the highways. Frank Van Epps, royal chief, said registrations were the largest number recorded with initiations being held daily.
• 1940 - 1450 Coaches present at Winter Convention – 350 parked in parks on outskirts – 92 new coaches exhibited representing 24 manufactures, and 16 accessory exhibitors. Paid membership registration 1,984 with 865 new members. Spring Get-Together – held at Dade City, Florida March 11-16; Second Spring at Winter Garden Florida on March 23-30; Summer Reunion at Traverse City Michigan July 22 to August 3; and the Winter Convention at Tampa Florida from February 10-24, 1941. Note: Captain Edward H. Jungclas headed up ATA for many years – ATA had plans for sectional organizations whereby state or territorial chapters of the parent organization are formed – for small intimate meetings
• 1941 - signed a formal agreement with city of Tampa to hold gatherings at a municipal trailer park in West Tampa on North Oregon Avenue.
• 1945 - necrology (memorial service) programs were an annual part of gatherings
• 1946 - After WW II, they gathered in Traverse City during the summer.
• 1948 - Attempted to change name to Trailer Coach Tourists.
• 1948 - Life Magazine publish an article on TCT
• 1949 - Membership numbered at 80,000

• 1956 - November 12th - 24th: A Thanksgiving reunion was held at Melbourne's Trailer Haven
• 1959 - Another attempt at name change, prompted by cheapness associated with “Tin Can” name. Proposed name “Twentieth Century Tourists of the World” - although a plurality favored the change, the vote lacked a necessary two-thirds majority.
• 1960's - group pictures showed members “in yellow snappy caps” with the TCT emblem. All officers had their hats on in pictures taken during this decade.
• 1962-68 - the summer reunions were held in Traverse City, Michigan.
• 1963 - Membership 100,000 claimed by group's bookkeepers
• 1966-67 - A “swan song” meeting was held in 1966 and the next winter meetings held in Eustis.
• 1972-73 - Summer reunion held in Portage, Wisconsin.
• 1973-76 - Summer reunions were held in Chesaning, MI
• 1978 - Summer reunion was held at Dick Smith's Locust Ranch in Dagger, Pa.
• 1978 - Winter gatherings were spent at Eustis RV Park, Eustis, Florida.
• 1998 - First Renewal Gathering held at Camp Dearborn, Milford, Michigan, on May 14th - 17th
• 1999 - Annual Gathering, Camp Dearborn, Milford, Michigan, May 20 - 23, 1999. - 39 Trailers and Motor Coaches
• 2000 - Winter Reunion, Tampa, Florida, in conjunction with the Florida Trade Show and Super Rally. 11 Trailers and Motor Coaches
• 2006 - Historic National Road Caravan - The Tin Can Tourists have been honored by the Six State Alliance of the Historic National Road by being chosen to participate in the Bicentennial Celebration. TCT in conjunction with the Six State Alliance have chosen 30 vintage trailers and motor coaches to travel the road from June 4-10, 2006 from mile marker zero in Cumberland, Maryland to its original terminus in Vandalia, Illinois. The selected RV´s will represent some of the industries premier manufactures from Airstream to Vagabond. Tow vehicles of similar vintage will tow many of the rigs. The Caravan will give people along the route a chance to see a rare Curtiss Aero Car towed by a custom International for the late 1930s and a 1936 Bowlus Road Chief towed by a 1937 Buick Roadmaster as well as other fine examples of trailers and motor coaches from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. http://www.tincantourists.com/hnr/
• 2006 - Forrest Bone was bestowed the title of “Exalted Chief Royal Can Opener of the Tin Can Tourists”
• 2007 - 10th Anniversary of the TCT renewal - over 150 trailers and motor coaches attended the Annual Gathering at Camp Dearborn in Milford, MI

Official Colors: Black and Tan

Stated Objective: To Unite Fraternally All Auto Campers

Guiding principles: clean camps, friendliness among campers, decent behavior and to secure plenty of clean, wholesome entertainment for those in the camps

“after WW II the tourists gathered in Traverse City, every summer”

The success of the movement was said to be due to the legend that once you roll with a trailer you'll never be satisfied with a stationary home again.

In 1982, Dorothy Trumble, of Clearwater, Florida, and TCT member, donated pictures to Florida Museum of History

Billie Vliet Tracy - El Paso, Texas- wrote of experiences traveling with her parents that is part of the Florida Museum's collection

“Mobile Home and Trailer News” published weekly in Florida, carried a lot of TCT items.

Ode to the TCT The Tin Can forever Hurrah! Boys Hurrah! Up with the Tin Can, Down with the foe. We will rally round the campfire, We'll rally once again. Shouting the auto camper forever, We will always be faithful. We will always be true. We will stand by the canner, our duty we will do. And we will rally around the campfire as we go passing through Shouting the auto camper forever. By W.H. Hesselman

The Little Lamp of Friendship The little lamp of friendship, We light along the way. Go shining on far down the years and brighten everyday. “Tis love that keeps them shining And sympathy and trust.” God help us that no lamp go out Because we let it rust. Unknown

Used metal ID tag on license plate - diamond shaped, TCT letter imprint (tan and black)

A Grand March kicked off the opening ceremonies.

Abide by this prayer ( from prayer delivered at meeting) - O'Lord grant us the power to do the things that we know are right and grant us the power not to do the things we know re wrong and grant us the knowledge to know the difference.

There was a definite rivalry between the campers and hotel owners. The hotels discouraged camping in public parks as contrary to public health and incidentally contrary to their business. They called them Tin Canners or those literally living out of tin cans, having limited facilities for cooking the tin can was a convenient item and a friend indeed.

The originals called themselves “Soupbone”

Our organization has a “tar and feather” element in it. The city of Tampa labeled the place (the camp), a nuisance and the better element were compelled to go to work and clean it out or lose their privilege as campers. Panhandlers were also declared as undesirables. When fishing was good the surplus of each individual fisherman was dumped on the ground, the less fortunate or slothful could help themselves.

Since 1933 when membership cards were first issued, over 43,500 have been placed on our filing list. Early Qualifications: ** over twelve years of age and good moral character. Must be living in a tent, car house, car, trailer or camp (tourist ) cottage, on or near the site of one of our meetings at the time application for membership is made. Applications must be made in person. Cost: Each applicant is required to purchase an official lapel emblem and each car carry on official car emblem. Membership card good for life, is given. At each official meeting each members pays for a registration card that entitles that member to all activities of the two weeks of meetings.

Three official meetings yearly, Annual summer reunion in some other city, annual winter homecoming and annual convention and trailer show held in Florida, - Thanksgiving reunion in Florida and an official Home Going gathering in Florida

Motto - “Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you.

Each camper also carried a large assortment of canned goods. There would be cans stashed under the seats, slung over the top, packed along the sides, tucked behind cushions and stacked on the floor.

Before going to bed be sure to lock the manipulating devices on your automobile so that no one may appropriate the carriage while you sleep. You might also place a six-shooter under your pillow. You will sleep just as well, and it might come in handy.

Tin Can Camper Exhibit at Museum of Florida History, Department of State, R.A. Gray Building, Tallahassee, Fl 32304

“trailordom's most modern portable palaces are being shown this week.” News clip advertising TCT gathering in Tampa

“They called us Tin Can Tourists, because of our cars and the fact that canned food was frequently on our menus.”

“Most people would have nothing to do with us. They thought we were gypsies. And a lot of sheriffs met us at the county lines.”

“With the postwar (WWI) drop-off in industrial production in the North, many laid-off workers still had a cushion of money - and a Ford Model “T”. Instead of despairing, they decided, 'Lets take a vacation.' And they headed to Florida.”

“St. Petersburg had endured wisecracks in that era (20's) as a “tin can” tourist town, with some avaricious natives avowing that the tourists ' arrived with one shirt and a $20 bill - and never changed either all winter'.”

” a new breed of winter tourists - restless, full of energy, frequently cosmopolitan rather than provincial, from cities instead of farms.”

“on display (at annual gatherings) are units ranging from small honeymoon homes to big macadam mansions, finished in padded leather. Prices vary from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.”

“If you met a (tin lizzie) on the road with a little tin can on the radiator cap, you knew he was a member and a gentleman.”

“It is said that before the typical tin Can Tourist relinquishes his hold on a 25-cent piece he gives it a farewell squeeze of such violence that the eagle on it frequently emits a strangled squawk of anguish.”

The official theme song of the T.C.T. “The More We Get Together” - The more we get together, the happier we'll be.. For your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends.

The main business of the Winter Convention was to decide when and where the Summer Convention was to be held, and vice versa.

Secret Handshake: Sawing motion

Secret sign: “C” made with thumb and forefinger

Those who have the cheaper trailers are known as the Tin Can Tourists, those who have the elaborate ones are veritable land yachtsman. Editorial; New York Times, August 8, 1936.

They called themselves “Tin Can Tourists.” They braved the dust and mud to drive their tin lizzies across the United States before transcontinental roads were paved, camping by the side of the road, heating tin cans of food on a gasoline stove, and bathing in cold water. They dressed in their Sunday clothes in the days before jogging suits and running shoes. A photograph of one 1920s camping club shows owners in front of their Weidman Camp Body vehicles, the men in fedoras, suits, and ties, and the women in dresses, cloche hats, stockings, and high-heeled shoes.

It took ingenuity to travel across the country in those days before the first motel, which opened in 1925 in California. In 1921, for instance, Lee Scoles of Fort Wayne, Indiana, converted his 1916 Federal truck to “a house on wheels” and drove it on an 8-month, round-trip journey to San Francisco with 11 relatives aboard. Such additions as solid rubber tires, a canvas awning, cots, a stove, and washtubs added to their comfort, according to his granddaughter Alice Worman, herself a motor home owner, who chronicled the story in Lifestyles, one of many such publications dedicated to RVing.

According to a story in RV West magazine, the family of Charles Ulrich set out for California in 1929 in a General Motors truck body mounted on a Ford chassis, with built-in bunks, overhead wardrobe storage, and a dining table with six folding chairs. The interior was polished mahogany and on the rear was a caboose-type open platform with iron railings. After their “once-in-a-lifetime” trip, which continued on to Hawaii aboard a Matson Line cruise ship, the Ulrichs stored the camper until the 1960s, when it was purchased by a group of hunters to serve as a forest base camp.

Originally, auto camping was regarded as a rich man’s hobby. The well publicized outings of auto manufacturer Henry Ford, inventor Thomas Edison, naturalist John Burroughs, and tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone, who called themselves “the four vagabonds” as they camped in America’s parks, had paved the way. Interestingly, it was the affordability and popularity of Henry Ford’s Model T, which made its debut in 1909 that helped bring auto camping to the average American.

• The first campgrounds were free, built and maintained by cities and towns hoping to attract affluent travelers who would spend money while they were in town. In the days before World War I, only the affluent had the time and money to go auto camping. When Ford’s Model T made auto camping affordable for everyone, campgrounds started charging fees to discourage some of the overflow crowds.
• One early pair of auto campers was a couple who were fearful their new travel trailer might pull the rear end off their car, so the husband drove the car and the wife sat in the trailer for the entire journey watching the car’s rear end to make sure nothing happened to it.
• Highways were notoriously bad in the early days. Quotes from the memoirs of some 1924 auto campers who termed themselves “Modern Gypsies” and wrote about a local resident telling them, “That’s a good road; somebody just made it through there yesterday.” Later, he says, the travelers commented, “When we left New York for Chicago, we were motorists. When we left Chicago for California, we were pioneers.”

• ca. 1901: The first motor homes are built as special-order units by auto body builders.
• 1907: Henry Ford introduces the first mass-produced Model T Fords, automobiles with a 2.9-liter, four-cylinder engine that make auto camping affordable for most Americans for the first time.
• 1910–15: The first manufactured, mass-produced RVs—folding camping trailers—start coming off the line from Los Angeles Trailer Works, Auto-Kamp Trailers in Saginaw, Michigan, and other pioneers.
• 1917: The first fifth-wheel trailer is built by airplane manufacturer Curtiss-Wright; its name probably originated from the trailer hitch, which is located in the center of the towing truck’s bed and could be considered a “fifth” wheel after the four on the bottom of the trailer unit.
• 1919: The Tin Can Tourists gather for their first rally, in a Florida campground near Tampa called DeSoto Park, with 20 members present, most of them Model T owners; by the mid-1930s, the club numbered 150,000.
• 1922: Fifteen million auto campers hit the road, according to the New York Times, most of them sleeping on cots, in tents, or in “newfangled houses on wheels.”
• 1923: There are 7,000 free campgrounds in the United States, including Denver’s Overland Park, with 800 campsites, piped water, a garage, restaurant, beauty shop, billiards hall, soda fountain, and eight electric washing machines.
• 1926: Fords equipped with Weidman Camp Bodies are first produced in Tonawanda, New York; the 1929 model sells for $1,900.
• 1962: John Steinbeck publishes Travels with Charley about his RV journey around America with his elderly poodle.
• 1966: Winnebago becomes the first mass-production motor home assembly line, turning out its early models (with moldings above the windshield that resembled eyebrows) in lengths of 17, 19, and 22 feet.
• 1966: David Garvin begins selling RV parts and camping accessories at his family’s campground in Bowling Green, Kentucky; by 1993, his chain of Camping World stores (which he calls “Toys ‘R’ Us for grown-ups”) has become the world’s largest retailer of camping supplies with 78 stores, 10 million mail order catalogs distributed annually, and a sales base of $150 million.
• 1967: Charles Kuralt rents a Dodge motor home to begin broadcasting “On the Road,” his famous series of CBS-TV news features that brought small-town Americans and their stories into the living rooms of people everywhere. During his 27 years on the road, Kuralt used six different motor homes; the last, a 29-foot FMC motor coach, is in the Henry Ford Museum near Detroit.
• 1976: Winnebago Industries introduces the Heli-Home, a helicopter camper for off-road exploration that could sleep six; we note it’s no longer included in their published brochures.