STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 141 



"picnic ground/' always wooded, to which the popu- 

 lation repaired on "the Fourth" and other holiday 

 occasions, and where public meetings and political 

 gatherings were held whenever practicable. Reli- 

 gious camp-meetings always were held in groves. 



What country-bred boy has not looked forward 

 to the summer as the time to load pots, provisions, 

 blankets, gun and fishing-line into a borrowed wagon 

 (now-a-days probably tin) and "go camping" at some 

 forest-bordered pond as far from home as possible? 

 I suspect that, with most sportsmen, the forest shares 

 fifty-fifty with the game in the pleasure of hunting. 

 The joy of camping-out knows neither age nor sex, 

 and when the automobile made it comfortable and 

 practicable to grown men and women, it became a 

 national pastime. Long-distance touring, with 

 camping outfit strapped on the running board, has 

 become one of our most popular methods of summer 

 pleasuring. Thus has developed a new use for our 

 National Forests not contemplated when the System 

 was conceived and built-up. 



When the "forest reserves" were first created 

 they were used recreationally by persons living 

 within driving distance and by hunters who camped 

 out. These uses increased as population neared na- 

 tional forest-borders. Applications from neighbor- 

 hood people for permits to build vacation shacks 

 were early recognized. Later on, summer hotels 

 were permitted in places specially favored by nature, 

 and here and there resorts developed. In 1917, when 



