Summer Camp: Images of Vacations Past

While researching historical information for a project at work, I found two wonderful things. One, this photograph and, two, that there are some great photographs and postcards of the old camps and inns in the local mountains around California that have been digitized for our viewing pleasure.

Today, people go camping. They sit around in uncomfortable chairs, swill beer, sleep on rocky ground, and cook indigestible food. Occasionally, they leave their parking space sized camp site for a hike or a swim. But in the first half of the twentieth century, people Camped. They went to wonderful places like Camp Baldy and stayed in little bungalows and hiked and fished and went swimming and had campfires complete with songs sung by women like this very stylish cowgirl here. They roughed it without being macho about it. They slept in beds. They let others cook for them. They went horseback riding and probably engaged in homey handicraft activities. It was vacation, for God's sake.

Being addicted to local history and in love with the charmingly dorky vacation spots of the past, since my recent discovery I have spent too many potentially profitable hours imagining what it would be like to vacation in the local mountains at a camp with a 1940s country/western theme or the ever popular Alpine theme. Here's something I wished I'd experienced firsthand:
The Mountain Home Inn must have been something. I can almost hear yodeling and the sounds of Swiss bell ringers.

Today, if you go hiking into the local mountains you can often see what's left of the old mountain camps and inns, but they are no more. In an attempt to partly satisfy your wanderlust (regrettably, I can do nothing about the space/time continuum) you can go to Calisphere's extensive collection of photographs and postcards of all aspects of California history and life. Just type in mountain inns or mountain camps or the names of specific places or camps and the Pomona Public Library has a collection of old postcards of Southern California mountains and camps taken by local photographer Burton Frasher.