By Recreation Vehicle Industry Association
A century ago, the popularization of the automobile, improving
roads, and America’s passion for exploration gave rise to mass-produced,
manufactured recreation vehicles, and the RV industry was born. In
2010, Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) and the RV industry
will mark this centennial with an array of special activities
celebrating the 100-year journey of a uniquely American product.
In 1910, there was no TV, no air conditioning and no phone, but
there were RVs. Through war and peace, booms and busts, fuel lines, fads
and the cyber revolution, the RV lifestyle has endured and is still
going strong, even in today’s challenging economic times.
“Think about how far we’ve come in the past 100 years in terms in
technology, yet the reasons to RV remain the same,” says RVIA President
Richard Coon. “RVing has been able to thrive and grow because people
still enjoy the freedom that it provides.”
The industry will celebrate its centennial in 2010 with a series of
events that showcase today’s innovations and new products while
emphasizing America’s century-long love affair with RVs.
“Recognizing and celebrating the 100th anniversary of the RV
industry is a unique opportunity to tell our story to the media and
public,” says Coon.
The roots of RVing are as old as pioneers and covered wagons. But
1910 is the year that America’s leading RV historians – David Woodworth,
Al Hesselbart and Roger White – cite as the beginning of what has
become the modern RV industry.
“The first motorized campers were built in 1910,” says Woodworth, a
preeminent collector of early RVs and RV camping memorabilia. “Before
then, people camped in private rail cars that were pulled to sidings
along train routes. The year 1910 brought a new freedom to people who
didn’t want to be limited by the rail system. RVs allowed them to go
where they wanted, when they wanted.”
Hesselbart, archivist for the RV/MH Heritage Museum in Elkhart,
Ind., also pinpoints 1910 as the birth of the RV industry. “Camping has
been around for centuries, but 1910 is when the first auto-related
camping vehicles were built for commercial sale.”
Known as “auto campers” or “camping trailers” a century ago, these vehicles were a forerunner of today’s modern RVs.
“There were one-offs [individual units] built prior to 1910,” says
White, an associate curator for the Smithsonian Institution. “But 1910
is a good benchmark for the industry.”
“The 1910 RVs offered minimal comforts compared to today’s
homes-on-wheels,” says Woodworth. “But they did provide the freedom to
travel anywhere, to be able to get a good night’s sleep and enjoy home
cooking. One notable exception to today’s RV was the bathroom. In 1910,
it was usually either yonder tree or yonder bush.”
Hesselbart points out that one brand of auto camper in those days
was equipped with a bathroom onboard. “Pierce-Arrow’s ‘Touring Landau’
had a potted toilet,” he says.
A version of today’s Type B van camper, the Pierce-Arrow “Touring Landau,” was unveiled at Madison Square Garden in 1910.
In addition to Pierce-Arrow, there were several other companies or
auto-body builders producing motorized RVs. These companies and
innovative products were featured in a Popular Mechanics issue in 1911,
but Woodworth says the motorhomes highlighted in the article were
actually built in 1910.
Camping trailers made by Los Angeles Trailer Works and Auto-Kamp
Trailers also rolled off the assembly line beginning in 1910.
Hesselbart says the earliest RV on display at the RV/MH museum is a 1913
trailer, ancestor of the contemporary travel trailer.
Photos of 1910 RV models appear in White’s book on the history of
RVing and exist in both Woodworth’s and Hesselbart’s libraries.
To mark the centennial, RVIA is creating a special 100th
anniversary logo and commemorative decal that everyone in the industry
will be invited to use in their own promotions and marketing. RVIA is
planning an industry party on June 7 during the 2010 Committee Week in
South Bend, Indiana, to which media and political guests would be
invited.
RVIA will soon announce details of an RV caravan led by Woodworth
with one of his early RVs, as well as a menu of celebration and
promotion ideas for dealers, campgrounds, clubs and shows to use on
their own.
“Celebrating our centennial will create excitement and pride
throughout our made-in-America industry and provide an opportunity for
manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and campground owners to unite under
one banner,” says Coon. “For 100 years, we’ve been helping Americans
explore their scenic treasures and heritage more comfortably, affordably
and enjoyably. That’s something to celebrate.”