CAMPS 105 



Amid general excitement he purchased gasoline (50 cents a gallon), had 

 his lunch, inquired of roads, adjusted his duster, and started on his way, 

 but not before he had signed the register at a local mercantile company. 

 By 1919, cars were no longer an oddity. More than 6,000 were registered 

 in Arizona alone, and travelers, the business people reported, "came from 

 everywhere and were destined for every place." State highway flow maps 

 indicate that well over 30,000 "foreign" and some 45,000 Arizona cars 

 pass each year through Springerville now. 



Visitors to the Apache Forest exceed 50,000 annually. Of these, some 

 35,000 are "en routers," passing through. Of the total, about 1 in 10 lingers 

 long enough to enjoy the scenery, the climate, or the stillness; and slightly 

 fewer than 1 in 10, around 4,000, stay an average of 7 days, fishing, hunting, 

 or camping. There are now 17 camp and picnic sites on the forest, 230 

 miles of forest highway, and another 400 miles of forest development roads. 3 



What happened on the Apache happened as rapidly, or even more 

 rapidly, and with much higher concentrations of use, on many other 

 forests. And as more and more people came, an important change devel- 

 oped — important from the standpoint of forest administration. 



Virgin lands for recreation were no longer near at hand. More and 

 more people seeking wilderness lands turned toward the national forests 

 wherein, in many parts of the West, are the only remaining wild areas. 

 And the character of the forest visitors and their habits changed rapidly. 

 The capable, resourceful, outdoor-pioneer type soon was outnumbered 

 by men and women with less woods experience. Accustomed to more 

 urban surroundings, the newcomers were much less woodswise; they did 

 not so much delight in roughing it. This change did not take place in 1 or 

 2 years, but the rate of change was so great and the increase in volume of 

 use was so large that recreation, as a forest use, began to require special 

 facilities and assume the status of a major activity on the national forests 

 much more rapidly than had been anticipated. 



3 Forest highways are built primarily for the use of people living in and adjacent to 

 the national forests, or as part of the general highway system. Forest development roads 

 are built primarily to facilitate use of the forest resource and for the use of forest adminis- 

 trative and protective forces. 



