The Art Of Car Camping, In Vintage Photos — 1950s-1970s

Text by Patrick Bell.

As has been said many times:  Necessity is the mother of invention.  Today we have a gallery of solutions from the past in the outdoors, some of them more inventive than others.  Take a look and see if there may be some you want to borrow.

A rusty red 1959 Chevrolet Nomad wagon is our first entry today.  It had a roof rack and boat on top, and stuff packed in the back. It was equipped for trailer towing with a hitch and at least one mirror.  And it had snow tires on the rear and a mud/stone guard below the bumper.  I believe the logs held the boat up for access to the stuff underneath it.

The Nomad was based on the Impala, thus it was the top of the line wagon, but not the special model of the 1955-57 years.

Here was an interesting way to expand a wagon to have some shelter protected from the worst of the weather.  It looks like a camp stove was on the end, so provisions for cooking.  The car was a V8 powered 1953 Ford Mainline Ranch Wagon, the least expensive and most popular Ford wagon of the year.

We have visited with these folks before, and their 1950 Ford Custom Tudor with a visor and Alaska license plates.  They were enjoying a day at the beach and perhaps doing some clam digging.  Budweiser appeared to be their favorite beverage, with three cans in sight and a box in the trunk.

A 1957 Ford and a 1955 Buick plus their people apparently were traveling together.  In the top image the were gathered in a waterfront town, and the lower image looked like a lunch stop, where a makeshift cover was fashioned to keep the ladies dry as they prepared the meal.
The Ford was the new for 1957 top of the line Fairlane 500 series 4 door sedan, while the Buick was the least expensive Special 2 door sedan with the standard hub caps.

There is a lot to see in this image of camping in the trees.  There was a tent and a camp trailer, a nice table with lots of food, coolers, lawn chairs, a gas can hanging on a tree, people at the table, and in the back of the 1958 Chevrolet Yeoman 4 door wagon.

The Yeoman was based on the entry level Delray series, both of which were one year only names.

A 1959 Rambler was the display case for this lady’s rock collection, or perhaps just a few she found that day.  Also displayed was her beverage collection; a bottle of Seagram’s, perhaps a bottle of Squirt, and four cans of Schlitz.  To the left appeared to be a carton of eggs, and who knows what else was back there.

This group had a variety of equipment for their outing, with a tea kettle on the grille, a cooler, thermos, and coffee pot.  Somebody’s pants and shoes were drying out on the 1959 Edsel Ranger 4 door sedan, and there was more stuff in the trunk.
The Ranger was the entry level series of two, and the 4 door sedan was the most popular and the only model in Edsel’s three years to break the 10,000 sales figure with 12,814 produced.  It was from Pennsylvania, had snow tires on the rear, and this pink color was called “Talisman Red”.

Here was a working man that was doing his paperwork.  Perhaps there was a tent in the bed of that 1958 or 1959 Chevrolet Apache 31 “Task-Force” Fleetside to go along with the other camping equipment.  It had a Nevada license plate that was used from 1960-1964.

The Fleetside bed was new in 1958, a year after Ford’s Styleside, and a year before Dodge’s Sweptline.

If you needed an extra bed in your station wagon here was the way to go.  A roof top camping tent that was opened up for usage as shown, and folded down for traveling.  It was mounted on a 1963 Chevrolet Bel Air wagon, and had an extension on the back for some cover behind the car.

The Bel Air was equipped with the Turbo-Fire 283 cubic inch V8, curtains in the rear for privacy, and it is interesting how the owner backed the rear wheel up on a stone for leveling purposes.

The image notes report this was a hiking trip in the White Mountain National Forest that is mostly in the state of New Hampshire.  The man was securing the load on the toboggan and the snow shoes were ready in the background.  The car was a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Super Sport Coupe with possibly a Maine license plate.  I am not real sure about the cardboard around the front end, perhaps it was protection from a critter attack.

The meat was on the grille, so a good time to relax in the lawn chairs while it was cooking.  There was a portable grille, cooler, and the picnic table was the hood of a 1975-1977 Chevrolet Monza Town Coupe.  The Monza was an import fighter that added a sporty entry to Chevrolet’s lineup that was better trimmed than the economy Vega.

It was time for breakfast before hitting the trail.  On the menu was a well done pancake that had been cooked on a backpacking camp stove.  There was other gear on the ground as well as in the 1970-1973 Volkswagen Type 3 Squareback from California.  It had an aftermarket driving light that looked like it was pointed at the trees.

Here was a couple doing some serious cooking on a small charcoal grille.  The meat looked stuffed in the foil pan.  There was another grille in the background, with some other related stuff, and a dog in the foreground.  The car was a 1971 or 1972 Dodge Colt 2 door hardtop.  It was a captive import built by Mitsubishi and marketed by Dodge as their entry in the sub-compact field.

Thanks for joining us and have a great day!

 

More Vintage Photos Here