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May 3, 1959: Let’s go car camping!
Posted by: Ben Welter under Minnesota History, Minnesota Parks Updated: August 10, 2011 - 12:41 AM
A Tribune photographer followed the Donald F. Anderson family of Minneapolis into the wilds of northern Minnesota and captured the images below for Picture magazine. Did your parents take you camping? Did you rough it in the Boundary Waters or Glacier National Park? Or did you head for a nearby state park in a Country Squire station wagon packed with a canvas tent, camp stove, sleeping bags, air mattresses, fishing gear, board games and coolers full of food and drink?
Station Wagon Camping
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ORIGINAL CAPTION: Family camping is no longer primitive business. The Anderson family had home conveniences in a forest setting. (Tribune photos by Earl Seubert, with original captions) |
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On a trip, the floor space behind the front seat becomes a safe play area for Kristin, 11, and Rolf, 13. |
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You don't have to stay put at the camp site. You can use the campground as base of operations, go sight-seeing in the area. |
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Air mattresses, basic for sleeping comfort, can also be used for sun-bathing and water fun. |
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Station wagons are spare bedrooms for the younger members of the party. Besides flashlights your camp will need some kind of lantern. |
August 2011 update: Kristin Anderson Moore, now a program director and senior scholar at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., sent me this:
I remember this trip very clearly, as it was our family’s first camping trip. Our neighbor worked for the Sunday magazine, and they needed a typical family to try out and demonstrate the equipment. We were happy to do it, and it was fun! Both Rolf and I and our children have done a lot of camping in the ensuing 52 years. In fact, Rolf and I and our spouses are going canoeing in the Boundary Waters next week ….without the station wagon!
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