For the centennial celebration of the Tin Can Tourists, Hunt Jones put together a narrated history of the vintage trailer club.

2. Michigan 1917

3. Buffalo

4. Chicago 1917

5. OHIO

6. Wisconsin

7. New York

8. Boston

9. Snow Day? Nope!

10. Florida Sunrise 1918

11. Florida Sunset 1917

12. Florida Winter on Sunset Beach
Tampa

13. …and on Palm Beach

17. By Railroads? The Two Henrys:
Plant and Flagler

18. Railroads & Hotel Captive Tourists
Grand Wintering at $100+/Night (vs.$2)
Plant’s Tampa Bay Hotel Flagler’s Ponce de Leon

19. A Few By Early Auto Train…
Buffalo-Miami $$$

20. But There Was A Third Henry!
Ford’s Model T (1908-27)
“The Most Influential Car of the 20th
Century”

21. Ford Model T: Inexpensive, Simple,
Rugged, Reliable, Interchangeable parts
1919 $385 New. Every 40 seconds. 50% of US Cars

22. “Good Roads Movement”
• The Lincoln Highway (1912, Carl Fisher)
• The Dixie Highway (1915, Carl Fisher)
Chicago to Miami
Sault Ste Marie MI to Miami
• The Atlantic Highway (1915)
Calais ME to Miami
• Great Lakes-Atlantic Highway (1915)
Cleveland to Miami
• Two routes within FL for Tampa and Miami
• Tamiami Trail to link west & east coasts
(Tampa to Miami)

23. Dixie’s Atlantic’s
East & Linear
West Route
Divisions (Later U.S.1)
(Later used the
some of Dixie from
U.S. 41) Jacksonville
to Miami

24. The Good Roads Movement
Didn’t Promise “Good Roads”

25. …Nor Did It Always Deliver…
Road Hazards Were Plentiful
“That’s a good road. Somebody just
made it through there
yesterday.”

26. Motorists traveled with at least one spare
and several inner tube patch kits

27. Travel Time from La Salle MI-Tampa
• 17 days. 100 miles/day = good run @ 12 mph
• Scarce pavement. Dirt/mud/sand roads
• Network of existing roads “We’re lost again”
• Dixie Highway Signage on Utility Poles
• Washed-out bridges, no bridges
• Rope-pulled flatboats/scows across rivers
• Steep mountains and grades littered with cars and
burned out engines
• Constant tire blow-outs
• Swamps, snakes, mosquitoes
• Few services, filthy Camps

28. “Modern” Ferry with Cranked Winch

29. “Florida, Here We Come!”
Who Arrived by Auto? Not the Wealthy
The New
Middle Class!
With Auto-
Tents (two
private rooms
for $6.50)…

30. Or Tents
…or Free-
Standing
Tents…

31. Or “Pop-Up” Camping Trailers
(1918 $385)

32. Singly or in Groups

33. No Trunk? No Problem!

34. Most Traveled in Auto Campers,
some by Glenn Curtiss’s Adams Motor Bungalow
First Commercially Built Trailer 1917-23, $1200
Later Re-named the Curtiss Aerocar 1926-42

35. Many in Home-Made House Cars

36. (Note Chimney!)

37. Some in Conversions

38. Some in Aftermarket Conversions:
Zagelmeyer Kamper-Kar
Bay City MI ($550)

39. A few wealthier “Canners,” eschewing
the long rides, arrived by dirigible)

40. Who Were These Guys?
• Able to Spend 6 Months in FL
• The Burgeoning Middle Class
• From 380 different occupations
• Farmers, dairymen, contractors, builders,
carpenters, electricians, painters, doctors,
lawyers, merchants, policemen, preachers, war
veterans, manufacturers, show business people,
retirees, service pensioners
• Their Families

41. 1919 Tampa: Formation of TCT
24 Campers converge at Tampa’s De Soto Municipal Park

42. The Tin Can Tourists
What’s in a Name?
From the 1919 Journal of Mrs.Wm Austin, La Salle MI:
“About that time the city tourists found out we were having such a
good time they wanted to take over the Tampa park. We talked
about it in our nightly meetings. One night Mr. Hiser talked
about it; he suggested we call our organization “The Tin Can
Tourists” after our Tin Lizzies; all other cars had a hard time
getting through the sand roads; I supported Mr. Hiser’s motion;
The motion carried; Before that we had a dozen names; In fact
every one almost you talked to had a different name… Mr.
Freeman was elected our Can Opener.”
The Tin Can Tourists of the World Received Their
Official Florida State Charter in 1920

43. The Tin Can
From the 1919 Journal of Mrs. Wm. Austin
“Mr. Oblested went down on 7th
St. and purchased
gas at a reduction of one cent per gallon, if we
would buy our gasoline from him. He told us to
put a tin can on the radiator for identification as
TCT’s to buy gas. It was not long before
everyone had cans for their cars; After we
named it [Tin Can Tourists], we put T.C.T. on the
cans for our emblem.”

44. Tin Can Tourists
• Not named for heavy metal cans
carried for gas and water
• Not named for cans of food
imported from other states
• Not named for empty/rusted
tin cans soldered or welded to
a radiator cap
• Not named for tin cans slung
around a radiator filler neck
• Tin can was used when hung
from the filler neck of a disabled
vehicle as a sign of distress.
• Tin Cans with painted TCT placed Temperature Gauge
in merchants’ store windows for 10 million sold
discounts Boyce MotoMeter

45. Membership
• No Dues. Membership Card (in person)
• Requirements: 12+ years old/Good Moral
Character/Live in a tent, car, housecar, trailer,
or nearby cottage
• Initiation: Secret Handshake/Sign/Password/
Song
• Objective: To fraternally unite all campers
• Written Constitution/Articles/By-Laws:
Clean Camps. Golden Rule. Destroy no
Property. Own no FL property. Steal Nothing.
Wholesome Entertainment

46. Membership Card (Front and Back)

47. Membership (continued)
• Club Officers: Royal Can Opener, Sec’y,
Treasurer, Sgt-at-Arms (Royal Sergeant)
• TCT Police Court created
• Children: 50 cents/week registered kids to
attend local schools
• Growth: 1919: 24 members
1921: 17,000 members
1922: 30,000 members
• TCT Camps established throughout FL

48. Other TCT Camps
Gainesville FL Gate 1920
Site of 2nd
Winter Convention

50. “Royal Can Opener” Title Change 1923
Note TCT Emblem on Packard radiator.
MotoMeter radiator cap

51. The “Police Court” for Transgressors
“Round Up the Usual Suspects”

52. License Plate Topper

53. …On 1947/’48 Mercury

54. TCT Original Brass Emblem
(now reproduced with date change)

55. Radiator Badges, Arcadia 1925
1923 Essex

56. De Soto Park, Tampa
“Just Got Here Yesterday fr Sarasota”

57. 1920: The Park offered free sites,
restrooms, wash house, hot/cold
running water, free entertainment

58. Information Please!
At the Wash House or Campfires

59. Wash House Socializing

60. Meetings for Information
Mostly Scheduling Summer Reunions

61. Entertainment: Pony Rides

62. and horseshoes, shuffleboard, cards,
fishing, baseball, TCT band, dancing

63. Dancing Elephants too…outside
the Park

64. First Summer Reunion 1921
Traverse City MI
08/20/21 Battle Creek Moon Journal
(Other Summer Reunions in Battle Creek MI, Lansing MI,
Sandusky OH, Portage WI, Kenosha WI)
“…California last
winter or Alaska
in other years.” (?)

66. TCT Summer Reunion, Portage WI

67. Tampa 1919-1924
The Bloom was off the Rose
FL Governor Hardee on “penny-pinching”
Canners: “They came with one pair of
underwear and one twenty dollar bill and
changed neither.”
Local Ybor City (Tampa) residents
petitioned City Hall
for four years to
reclaim their park

68. • Disparaging Statements Untrue (especially the
underwear)
• Other names: “Trailer Trash,” “Vermin,” “Squatters,”
“Yokels,” “Hoboes on Wheels,” “Deadbeats”
• TCT Camps brought tens of $ thousands to local
economy
• TCT influx improved FL Road Systems
• By 1930, members no longer “undesirables”
• Stigma continued for another 80 years

69. Lurid Pulp Fiction

70. Stigma? Cousin Eddie’s Condor
National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation”

71. Stigma
The Simpsons:
cartoon characters
Cletus and Brandine
Spuckler with 70 kids
(49 named & one
still attached by
umbilical cord,
(“Embry Joe”)

72. 1924 The Braden Castle Park Story
(A Special TCT Camp)

73. Braden Castle, Bradenton FL
• Canners need for “roots” after
1924 ejection from Tampa
• By Laws: TCT’ers can’t own
FL land
• TCT Royal Chief created
a shell club: “Camping Tourists of America”
• Bought 38 acres on confluence
of Manatee and Braden Rivers ($16k)
• Platted 200 lots for sale

74. Braden Castle Park (Cont’d)
• Cottages to be built within 1.5 years
• A Self-contained Community: Hall, Men’s &
Women’s Clubs, Gas, Library, Grocery Store,
P.O., Western Union, Barber Shop, Rest Rooms
• Boat Docks, 700 ft Fishing Pier, Camping Area
on river
• Shuffleboard, Horseshoe Areas, Large Lagoon
• 1983 National Register of Historic Places
• Currently home to 6 TCT Members

77. Braden Castle Park Pre-1948

78. Braden Castle Park

79. The Auto-Camping Boom
New Industries Support Campers
53 Pieces

80. Home-made Kitchen

81. Some Unusual
Equipment
“Manifold Destiny”

82. And Really Unusual

83. Tents to Manufactured Trailers*
1929 Arthur Sherman’s 1936 (?)
“Covered Wagon”
1938 1000 units/month
* by 1938 a $30 million industry

84. Upgrading AutoCampers to Trailers
brought Mfrs to Winter Convention

85. New Trailers
1949 Tampa Winter Convention

86. Some Shows Sponsored By Trailer
Life Magazine

87. The “Musical Chairs” Sites
Arcadia’s Invitation to their Specially Built Park
(1924-1932)

88. 1924 Arcadia Winter Convention
300,000 Attended

89. Arcadia Thanksgiving Dinner

90. TCT Group Meals
1922 Chow Line, Indiatlantic FL

91. Family Meals:
Trying “Air Casserole”

92. Healthier
“Airless
Meal”

93. Next Stop! Sarasota! Sarasota! Next Stop!
• 1932 Arcadia/Sarasota Mayors fight to host Winter Conv
• 1932 Sarasota Wins
• 1934 Membership at 800,000
• 1938 Members spend $650k in Sarasota but no longer welcome
• “Sarasota has become a Tin Canner’s Town.” Stigma

94. 1936 Bird’s Eye View Sarasota Camp
Payne Park (Boston Red Sox Spring Training )

95. Next Stop, Tampa! Tampa, Next Stop!
Storm Clouds
• 1937 rains made many roads impassable for mid-
west, northeast members, trailer manufacturers
• Other FL towns enacted repressive ordinances for
TCT camps: 1 hr parking, no cooking, lot taxes
• 1937 “Roosevelt’s Recession” begins. UAW Strike
• The ATA (Automobile Tourists of America, a splinter
group, held its 1938 Winter Convention a week later)
• Attendance down, membership down
• 1938 Decision for Tampa’s new Municipal Park (5 yr
contract beginning 1939).

96. Ohio River Flooding

97. Tampa Municipal Trailer Park 1939
1200 Trailers to celebrate TCT’s 20th
Anniversary
1940: 2000 Trailers at Tampa

98. 1941 & 1942 TCT Rally Advertising
(Before Pearl Harbor)

99. 1941 ad for 1942 Summer Reunion

100. WW II War Years
• No Recreational Trailer Production
• National Housing Agency’s Federal Spec’s for
Producing “Committee” Trailers to house war industry
workers. 1942-’43
• 35,000 8’ x 22’ Homosote* trailers built at $750 each
• Rental charge at $6.50 per month
• Gas and rubber tire rationing prevented recreational
travel. May 1942 in east, December 1942 all states
• FL Governor wrote FDR to exempt TCT from gas/tire
rationing. FL economy depended on them.
• REE-Jected!
• TCT’ers stay home
* Mix of paper & glue, rolled flat for panels to be screwed
to frames. Essentially Paper Mache’

101. 1941: GE Plant in Erie PA
(200 Homosote Trailers for Defense Workers)

102. Post-War Years
Aircraft Aluminum Available Again. These
Makes Built Using Aircraft Architecture
1946 Spartan Manor 1947 Airstream Liner

103. Still A Few AutoCampers
1949 Nash Airflyte “Potato Bug”
• Roof Tent Option
• Fold-down seats &
Nash mattresses
• Kids slept on top
• Nash screen inserts
for car windows
• Changing Room
on side
• Fly tent on side
for cooking

104. TCT Post-War Demographics
• Mostly Retirees (Farmers, Policemen, Civil
Servants) on pensions. Few children. Not
wanted anyway
• 1948 Winter Convention 500+ of 1500
trailerites were full time squatters.
• Lot rent at $12/mo included all utilities
• 1948 each Canner family spent $200-
$300/month in FL
• Cities still vying for Winter Convention
• 1948 Membership at 100,000

105. 1953 Arcadia Winter Convention

107. 1956 Thanksgiving Melbourne Park FL
1978 Thanksgiving Servers, Eustis FL
Melbourne Eustis
• Eustis RV Park was the “last” FL Convention
• City Tourist Camps diminished with the advent of
motor courts and motels

108. TCT Decline
• 1950’s trailer production increases:
Boomer Generation goes camping
• National/State Parks create trailer sites
• Family vacation trailer travel increases
• Interstate Highways
• Snowbird FL migration now to Mobile Home
Parks: full amenities (pools, courts, libraries,
halls, golf and beach access).

109. TCT Decline (Cont’d)
• MH Parks offered Gated Security
• Full-Time living and FL residency
• Parks for Seniors: 55+ year-old resident
requirement
• 1980’s TCT held small rallies in MI and WI
and some monthly luncheons
• TCT unofficially “laid down” by 1988

111. 1998 TCT’s Rebirth
• Forrest Bone’s 1998 presidency of the
Vintage Airstream Club
• One-make/Model found to be too restrictive
• VAC founder Bud Cooper mentioned TCT as
all-inclusive
• Research showed name Tin Can Tourists
was clear, could be registered (1998)

112. 1998 TCT’s Rebirth (Cont’d)
• 1st
Renewal Gathering at Camp Dearborn
(Milford MI) for all makes regardless of year
(75% own vintage makes)
• 22 units attended. 50 as “Charter Members”
• “Annual Gatherings” continue through
current year
• 400+ rallies/events/caravans held 1998-
2018

113. 1998 Camp Dearborn
Forrest Bone New Canners Enjoy Dinner

114. Timeline
• 2000 Winter Reunions resume at Tampa’s FL
Trade Show (11 Units)
• 2001-current Camp Dearborn Fall Campouts
added, FL “Winter Conventions” at various
venues until settling at Sertoma Youth Ranch
(now at 100+ units)
• 2001 Coming of Age: Growth. Regional
Representatives/ Representatives-at-Large,
State Representatives host regional and state
rallies

115. Timeline (Cont’d)
• TCT expands to Canada, United Kingdom,
France, Japan, Australia, Netherlands with
International Representatives
• Open House Walkthroughs: new members
• 2004 Hall of Fame established “for club
members who have made a significant
contribution to the vintage trailer and
motorhome community.” 21 Inductees as of
2018.

116. 2006: Forrest named Exalted Chief Royal Tin
Can Opener, Jeri: Royal Exalted First Lady

117. 2006 Historic National Road Caravan
(National Road Bicentennial)
30 Vintage Units travel from Cumberland MD
to original 1837 terminus at Vandalia IL

118. National Road with World Famous
Indianapolis Police Escort
Staging Area
Sirens, closed intersections, motorcycle acrobatics

119. National Road Caravan

120. Camp Dearborn Annual Concours d’Elegance
Jeri Bone, Chair
Efforts to Make a Winner: Ken and Lana Hindley’s
1936 Curtiss Aerocar & 1938 International
D15

121. …were successful!

122. Interior (With Intercom to truck)

123. Timeline (Cont’d)
• 2007: 140 Units attend the 10th
Annual Gathering
at Camp Dearborn
• 2007: 44 Units attend Winter Convention at
Cedar Key FL. 2000 visitors for Open House
• 2009: 160 Units at 12th Annual Gathering (sell
out)
• 2010: Pennsylvania’s Route 6 Caravan
• 2012: 57 Units attend Winter Convention at
Sertoma Youth Ranch (FL)

124. Timeline (Cont’d)
• 2013: Lincoln Highway Centennial Caravan
• 2014: 180 Units at Annual Gathering
• 2015: Super Duper Yooper Looper
Caravan (Upper Peninsula, MI)
• 2016: 25k visitors for 4 day Open House at
Tiny House Festival, St Augustine FL
• 2019: Centennial Celebration Conventions/
Caravans in FL and MI

125. Camp Dearborn Annual Gathering
2014’s Sell-Out (180 Rigs)

126. 2010 Pennsylvania Route 6 Caravan
• 20 Units
• 10 Days, 6 Open Houses, 3 Vintage Diners
• 2 Roadhouses, 1 Defunct Amusement Park
• Nat’l Geographic: Rt 6: “One of America’s
Most Scenic Drives

127. Pennsylvania Route 6 Caravan
1936 Pierce-Arrow
Travelodge
Wayfarer’s “Open Bar” or
“Bar Open”

128. 2013 Lincoln Highway Centennial
Caravan
• 25 Units
• 14 Days from Van Wert OH to Kearney NE,
the exact midway point from NYC and San
Francisco
• Free Campgrounds or Overnights. Open
houses
• Free Meals
• 12,000 See Parade Through Downtown
Kearney

129. Lincoln Highway Caravan
Original Tama Iowa Bridge
Concrete (in case you were lost…
Marker which happened)

130. 2013 Lincoln Highway Centennial
Group Participants by John “Canner” Culp’s ’47 Westcraft
RV Heritage Museum & Hall of Fame, Elkhart IN
Kearney NE City Park Prior to Parade

131. Lincoln Highway Centennial Parade
& Open House for 12,000 visitors

132. 2015 Super Duper Yooper Looper
Caravan
• July 30- August 8
• 10 days around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
• Traveling Caterer
• 29 Units
• No Black Flies
• Plenty of Dogs

133. Super Duper Yooper Looper

134. Super Duper Yooper Looper
Chow Line (with partial dog)

135. Camp Dearborn Entertainment?
Absolutely!

136. And Dancing on Tables
(in Period Clothes)

137. Annual Friday Night Lights Contest

138. Presentations
Dan Hershberger’s 1920’s Motor Camping
Demonstration

139. Presentations
Hunt Jones’s “On The Road” series

140. Presentations
Tim Heintz on Travel Trailer History

141. Entertainment
The Great
Kensington:
Sword
Swallower,
Fire-Breather,
Blockhead
Rich Squires photo by permission
Winter Convention

142. Entertainment
Terry Evens Annual Treasure Hunt

143. Two Weddings!
Exalted Chief Royal Tin Can Opener
Forrest Bone Presiding
….At Camp Dearborn MI ….At Sertoma Youth Ranch FL
for Larry & Angie Perry
(photo courtesy of Terry Evans) (photo courtesy of Richard Squires)

144. …and a Proposal at Winter Convention
Rich Squires
Photo
Winter Conv
With permission

146. Everything Old Is New Again…
And Still Rolling
John Driscol’s 1949 Federal House Car traveled
from Oregon to TCT’s 2017 FL Winter Convention
Richard Squires photo with permission

147. For 100 Years, The Tin Can
Tourists Continue to Roll On
Our Heartfelt Thanks to Forrest and Jeri Bone for