Tourism has long been a staple of our Ozarks cultural heritage. It was interesting to read the article: Tourist Camp, published by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce in The Springfieldian in September 1923. Springfield's free Touirst Camp Grounds, located in Long's Park, in the heart of the city, had only been open a few months and already the superintendent's report for the month of August showed that 3,587 persons representing 24 states had registered there. Among them, the report contented, were 54 families who were so 'well pleased with Springfield they had decided to permanently locate here.'
Tourist camps and courts were a common form of lodging in the first half of the twentieth century. They may have been individual cabins or rooms rented for the night. I remember staying in individual cabins, in my youth, traveling with my family. Unlike earlier hotels that served mostly railroad passengers, tourist camps and courts evolved along roadways to accommodate the needs of the newly motoring public. In the 1920s, the average white, middle-class family likely owned a car and recreational travel by automobile became increasingly common. While roadside camping spawned city-sponsored campgrounds early on, most did not last too far into the the 1930s.
The experience of Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas was typical. The city opened a free campground in City Park (now MacArthur Park) around 1923. However, by 1926, the city was already in the process of making sure auto tourists could no longer camp there. Beginning in the mid-1920s, thousands of small, private, locally owned tourist camps were being built across the country. The more modern of these began calling themselves "tourist courts." Some even included heat in the winter, electric fans in the summer, private bathrooms and kitchens, linens, radios, and garages.
By 1935, for comparison, North Little Rock had eighteen tourist camps and courts. "Motel" became a popular term beginning int he 1940s and implied more rooms and greater conveniences to travelers. Naturally, the greatest number were located near popular tours destinations. The construction of the interstate highway system in the late 1950s and early 1960s signaled the decline of "mom and pop" tourist courts and motel, which had peaked in the early 1960s.
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