Dudes and Sagebrushers * * * * 23 



all they themselves. But these are the exceptions to the rule among 

 the Sagebrushers, who, having their own transportation facilities, are 

 inclined to take their vacationing more leisurely. Having no schedule, 

 they make the side trips, explore for fishing streams and lakes, stop 

 over a few days or a few weeks sometimes at a site that pleases their 

 fancy. The Sagebrushers have always been the nomads of the parks. 



Sagebrushers derive their nickname from the early days when their 

 forerunners arrived at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and other older national 

 parks in covered wagons. Days on end they drove their horses or mules 

 across the plains, en route to the parks, camping each night in the sage 

 brush. Roads were bad, stores were few, and the early camper was 

 obliged to bring with him such comforts of home as he expected to 

 enjoy in the park. The trip was sufficiently strenuous and hazardous 

 that he stayed some time in the park, often a month or more. It took 

 the old-time Sagebrusher eight days to make the loop in Yellowstone. 



The first Sagebrushers to forsake their covered wagons for the 

 noisy early automobiles were not very hospitably received at the gates 

 of the national parks. They were told to park their cars outside the 

 boundary lines, until in 1913 the first autos were permitted to enter 

 Yosemite Valley as an experiment. The authorities there were sus 

 picious of the little juggernauts. The owners were instructed to drive 

 them to the parking area in the center of the Valley, where the tiny 

 machines were chained to great logs. By heck, they were not going to 

 have any of those two cylinder buggies starting up and running away ! 



These stern restrictions quite naturally met with much protest on 

 the part of automobilists, particularly in California where the automo 

 bile clubs were growing strong. The main concern over the use of 

 automobiles was not for the safety of occupants of the machines but 

 for the safety of Dudes riding in stages whose horses might become 

 frightened at the automobiles. For a time, there was discussion of 

 building special roads to the parks for automobiles. This plan was 

 abandoned because of the expense, but in most of the parks certain 

 hours were set aside when automobiles could use the roads. During 

 these hours, the horse-drawn vehicles were ordered off the roads. Many 

 people who opposed the admission of autos insisted that the use of a 

 machine in the mountains was but a fad which would pass. The fad 

 has not yet passed, though authorities are now faced with a new prob 

 lem of the same nature, the admission of the airplane. The rangers 

 still deny planes permission to land in the parks on grounds of safety, 

 and the time may soon come when these worries may seem as unneces 

 sary as those of earlier officials with regard to the automobile. 



The increase in travel to the national parks since the automobile 

 came into general use has been phenomenal. Twenty years ago a good 



