Here is a presentation on the history of the Tin Can Tourists Club
Notes for the Slides:
1. Tin Can Tourists Forrest & Jeri Bone
2. Credits: Florida History Museum Orange County Museum (Orlando) Florida Library & Information Services www.dos.state.fl.us.dlis History Wired – Smithsonian www.historywired.si.edu Library of Congress www.lcweb.loc.gov Mr. Bud Cooper – Founder of the Vintage Airstream Club Terry Bone – TCT Webmaster www.tincantourists.com
3. Tampa Paper Reports: Oscar Peter Family arrived in Tampa in 1906
4. The car provided the means & the end of the war supplied the first wave of snowbirds. Dixie Highway Completed 1915 – Montreal to Miami
5. Tin can tourists became a derogatory tag for those that had taken to the road out of necessity – spilled over to all autocampers
6. Journal entry – 12/23/1924 – Ohio to Florida 1,893 miles – 146 Hours – 12.9 miles per Hour
7. Unlike train travel, man had a major partnership with his car In 1920 – 80% of those Florida bound were in Autocampers
8. Auto Touring Stages of Development 1. Random Squatters (1905-1910) 2. School, Churches, around Municipal Buildings (1910-1917) 3. Public Campgrounds and Municipal Parks (1918-1939) 1925 Florida had 210 Municipal Campgrounds Perception of a community was greatly influenced by the quality of its park 4. Commercial Campgrounds
9. Word about communities traveled quickly around the campfire
10. X out –
11. TCT Organized in Tampa in 1919 To fight the erroneous conception that Autocampers were a jobless, shiftless lot, that lacked moral fiber. Membership in the organization provided a clear distinction between those that traveled for fun and recreation and those that travelled due to economic hardship.
12. Official Pin TCT Tin Can Attached to Radiator Cap
13. Secret Sign
14. Charles T. Fales – First Royal Can Opener, also known as “Mayor of Easy Street”
15. PASSWORD: NIT NAC
16. De Soto Park – Tampa Florida In 1921, there were approximately 17,000 members throughout the US and Canada
17. Tin Can Tourists Official Song The More We Get Together The more we get together, together, together The more we get together The happier we’ll be Because your friends are my friends And my friends are your friends The more we get together The happier we’ll be
18. Desoto Park – Tampa Florida 1921- 723 Camps – 1,841 persons Al Lang – Called TCT members undesirables
19. Police Court
20. Name changed from Royal Can Opener to Royal Chief in 1935
21. By 1930 TCT members were no longer undesirable or considered outsiders
22. Lot 37 Braden Castle Camp Skunk Hollow – Snob Hill
23. TCT moved to Arcadia Florida in 1924 Membership estimates – 100,000 to 300,000
24. Winter Convention – Arcadia Florida
25. TCT Left Arcadia in 1932 for Sarasota
26. TCT left Sarasota in 1938 when contract was not renewed by Mayor – signed a five year contract to return to Tampa
27. 1938 was a pivotal year in the history of TCT • Contract not renewed for Payne Park in Sarasota • Rains in the mid-west kept many trailer manufactures from attending the Winter Convention • Municipalities began to enact repressive ordinances aimed at trailerites • Splinter group ATA – Automobile Tourists Association was formed and held its Winter Convention a week after the TCT Convention in Bradenton Florida • Summer reunion was moved from traditional Traverse City to an Indian Reservation in Menominee Wisconsin – trailer manufactures didn’t attend and overall membership attendance was small • Economic recession created a huge shake out in the trailer industry – Covered Wagon which was the largest manufacture of trailers during the “trailer craze” of the ’30’s was bankrupt and out of business by 1939
28. Arthur Sherman’s Original Covered Wagon – Detroit Historical Museum
29. 1935+ Covered Wagon – Arthur Sherman
30. During the early days, autocampers were often homebuilt. Gas 20 cents a gallon, oil 15 cents per quart, tire estimate 2 cents a mile
31. Adams Motor Bungalo
32. House that Jack Built
33. Bouncing Betsy
34. Billy Graham began preaching at the TCT convention in Tampa
35. Winged Home Trailer
36. Committee Trailer Homosoat construction Tested at GM Proving Grounds – Camp Dearborn Vagabond, Palace & Alma Michigan Manufactures
37. FMC Concours winner 2004
38. Al Hesselbart – RV Heritage Museum in Elkhart, Indiana ahesselbart@aol.com
39. 1930’s Glider – Terry and Hardy Evans
40. 1936 Curtiss Aero Car – Ken and Lana Hindley
41. Wayzalot – Hardy and Terry Evans
42. 1949 Airstream Liner Southwind
43. BenRoy Teardrop
44. 1936 Bowlus Road Chief
45. Late ‘30’s Covered Wagon
46. 1949 Flxible
47. 1951 Spartanette Tandem
48. ‘60’s Chevy Greenbrier
49. 1946 Spartan Manor/Executive Paint
50. 1953 Marmon-Harrington Transit Bus
51. Two years in the making – 25 units started at mile marker zero in Cumberland, Maryland and journeyed to Vandalia, Illinois in 7 days
52. TCT Regional Representatives – Netherlands, France, Australia
53. TCT Regional Representative for Japan Hiroshi Okamoto TCT Biggest Supporter
54. Lanny Webb – TCT Photoshop Specialists 2013 Winter Convention February 21- 24 Sertoma Youth Ranch – Open House Saturday 23rd 11 to 3
55. 16th Annual Gathering Milford Michigan – May 16-19 – Camp Dearborn 161+ Vintage Trailers and Motor Coaches –
56. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES – TOP SIX 1. Galloping Bungalows – David Thornburg 2. Americans on the Road – Warren James Belasco 3. Ready to Roll – Doug Keister 4. Wheel Estate – Allan D. Wallis 5. Silver Palaces – Doug Keister 6. Mobile Mansions – Doug Keister OTHERS OF INTEREST • Bedouins or Adrift in a Trailer – Howard Vincent O’Brien • Dirt Roads to Dixie – Howard Lawrence Preston • Folding Trailer Ahoy – Charles Edgar Nash • Sun Hunting – Kenneth L. Roberts • The Family Flivvers to Frisco – Fredric F. Van de Water • Americans on the Move: Transportation and the American Story
57. The End
Tags: campground, Florida, History, TCT, Tin Can Tourists, travel, Vintage Trailer, Vintage Trailers