28 ***** "Oh, Ranger!" 



these campsites are tents, already set up, to rent at ridiculously low 

 rates for housekeeping purposes. These tents are equipped with beds, 

 stoves, and tables, and all the Sagebrusher needs is his own bedding. 

 Each year the park engineers develop new campsites or increase the 

 capacity of the old ones. Each year the Sagebrushers demand still 

 more campsites. 



It is a thrilling sight to visit the camp at Fishing Bridge, Yellow 

 stone National Park, or near Stoneman Meadow, Yosemite National 

 Park, or any of the dozens of others, and see from five hundred to a 

 thousand city folks busy with their little fires, the odor of a hundred 

 coffee pots and a hundred frying pans filled with bacon wafting across 

 the woods. Look into almost any camp and you will find fresh-caught 

 trout sizzling in the pans. Visit any of the scores of campfires after 

 supper and you will find half a dozen families swapping experiences 

 of the road. 



A generation ago, camping out was a means of getting away from 

 the conveniences and conventionalities of home. It was the complete 

 change from civilization to primitive life, from niceties to hoboing. The 

 rougher the camping, the better. The camper wanted hardships, sought 

 them out. Not any more. Camping, to the average Sagebrusher, is 

 merely an economical means of traveling about the country, of seeing 



the sights that formerly were available 

 only to the well-to-do, the Dudes. The 

 modern Sagebrusher wants a camp 

 that is almost as convenient as home. 

 Many of them have such camps. It is 

 an education in organization and in 

 housekeeping to see how some of these 

 camping layouts are planned and used. 

 That is one of the joys of Sagebrush- 

 ing, seeing how the other fellow lives, 

 just a few yards away from you be- 

 hind that clump of trees. 



Nevertheless, and in spite of the 

 fun there is in campfire cooking, the 

 rangers say that the average family of Sagebrushers would enjoy them 

 selves more if they took advantage of the luxury of the cafeterias in 

 the national parks. That would relieve the women folks of the drudgery 

 of cooking and dishwashing, something the male Sagebrusher usually 

 avoids by declaring seriously that he must go out and provide the fam 

 ily with a mess of fish. The role of the provider is a complacent one. 



Sagebrushers bound for the national parks or traveling in the parks 

 will do well to refuse rides to tramps, whether they be men or women. 



