Even the father of invention and the man who first mass-marketed the automobile needed an escape. So starting in 1914, best friends Thomas Edison and Henry Ford would take an annual long camping trip together to recharge their own batteries.
Before long, the two men were regularly joined by naturalist John Burroughs and rubber and tire baron Harvey Firestone. Calling themselves the “Vagabonds,” in 1918 the group set off on a lengthy road trip from Pennsylvania to Tennessee to camp in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Of course, this was in the early days of automobiles, and paved or even reliable dirt roads, let alone highways, didn’t really exist. Neither did accurate roadmaps, and with Edison attempting to navigate by compass (and deliberately seeking obscure routes), the going was slow.
“We never know where we are going, and I suspect that he does not either,” Firestone wrote of Edison’s skill as navigator. Almost inevitably, calamity ensued, and a broken fan punctured their radiator.
Local residents were treated to a unique sight as four of the most powerful men in the world pulled over, with Ford rolling up his sleeves and using his still-sharp mechanic skills to repair the car with his own hands.
In camp, Burroughs would teach the group how to make bird calls and recognize plants, while Ford instigated contests from wood chopping to high kicking. Edison, ever the life of the party, shared chemical formulas by the campfire.
Despite their desire to get out in nature, as the years went by, the most powerful quartet in the woods didn’t exactly “rough it” — their road trip soon grew into a 50-car caravan of support staff, with embossed luxury tents, a full kitchen truck with stoves, fridges and chef staff that Burroughs dubbed the “Waldorf-Astoria on wheels,” and a mobile electric generator brought by Edison to keep their campsite fully electrified. Part of this expanding attention was by design — there was no better advertisement for Ford cars or Firestone tires than seeing the Vagabonds regularly taking them on the road themselves.
Eventually, the attention proved too much for the aging Vagabonds, with newspaper headlines announcing their trips (“Millions of Dollars Worth of Brains off on a Vacation”) and movie theater newsreels nationwide showing the men at play. Harvey Firestone complained that their “simple, gipsy-like fortnights” had become a “traveling circus” — even though it was in many ways his fault. Although they continued for a few years after Burroughs died in 1921 (they let President Warren Harding pinch-hit on that trip—he brought along his piano and dancing stage), by 1924, the Vagabonds made their last trip together, this time just to a hotel in Boston. But they had already successfully inspired an entire generation of Americans (and their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids) to hit the road each year looking for adventure — and inspired adults like me to never completely grow up.
(Mainly, I just wanted an excuse to post the great photo of Thomas Edison with Henry Ford dressed up like a cowboy.)
Enough history, now for the cache! This one should be easy if you use your geosenses. And be sure to use stealth, as there are plenty of muggles around. BYOP!
Congrats to BigA800 for the FTF!