At auction some years ago, I bought a box of slides of a family’s trip by car to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I bought them at a time when I was fascinated by slides, photos and postcards depicting how people lived and enjoyed themselves.
In the mid-20th century, people used slides and photographs to chronicle holidays and other celebrations, vacations and, as in one case, the building of a new home in the suburbs. All were captured through the lens of those ubiquitous and inexpensive Kodak cameras and Bell & Howell movie cameras, and more.
I was especially interested in this box because it contained a worn manila envelope with a handwritten narrative of the family’s trip. The father’s journal of the 1958 journey from a town just outside Philadelphia was accompanied by six small rectangular boxes of more than 350 slides and two tape recordings. Some of the slides were also from a scouting jamboree in 1960.
“Let me tell you about one family’s trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch,” the father wrote. “It all began in January when my wife read an article in Scouting magazine about such a trip. We asked the Council if we could go, and through them we were invited to attend a District Administrative Course. Then the planning began.
“We want to share with you the results of that planning and how we feel about the training, the trip, and the reaction of our family to this type of vacation. Let’s start with the family.
“Here it is, except for yours truly. And each & everyone, from Grandmother to the younger grandson will tell you the trip was an unqualified success.”
What followed were 28 pages written in longhand of the 4,966-mile round trip over two weeks through 13 states to Cimarron, NM, where the ranch is located. The family saw flatlands and buffalos (they even had buffalo steaks at one meal), grain elevators and farms, rivers and woodlands. The slides showed the hotels and motels where they stayed and the mountain peaks that they saw, and their experiences at the ranch.
One slide was titled “A Family Trip to Philmont Scout Ranch,” with stick-figure drawings of the family of six. On other slides, the father drew a line map of their route and a tabulation of the mileage for part of the trip. His wife apparently helped with the driving; he mentioned that two people were driving.
Philmont Scout Ranch had its origins in 1938 after a generous donation of 36,000 acres of land by an Oklahoma oilman named Waite Phillips. During the 1920s, Phillips had bought 300,000 acres near Cimarron, and built a ranch, a Mediterranean-style home for his family, hiking and horse trails, and cabins for his family and friends to enjoy between fishing and hunting.
Today, Philmont offers training, camping and work programs, with more than 950,000 people having participated in its activities since then, according to its website.
“All told, 20,000 people visit Philmont each year,” the father wrote on a small separate sheet of paper. “In picture & in narration you will see & hear the story of the trip & visit by 6 of these visitors in 1958. We hope you will catch some of the thrill & excitement we felt as you watch 255 slides and listen to a 30-minute tape recording.”
The family got started on its trip on a “bright Saturday morning in the middle of August.” They crossed four states as they drove west – staying overnight in Columbus, OH; St. Louis, MO; Wichita, KS, and Dalhart, Texas. Headed back home, they stopped in Colorado Springs, CO (where they drove up Pikes Peak); Grand Lake, CO; North Platte, NE, Mount Vernon, IA, and Angola, ID.
Much of the narrative is tied to individual numbered slides, which the father noted throughout the journal, although some appeared to be mis-numbered. He wrote the narrative as if he were standing in front of a group of friends, slide projector on, describing each experience as a slide flashed on a screen or blank wall before them.
Traveling by car
The slides beckoned to a time when cars had opened up the country to many Americans. But this family’s car had a convenience that many did not.
“I don’t sell automobiles, but believe me, a car contributes immeasurably to your experience, favorable or unfavorable, on a trip like this. Here is the one that gave us Pullman car comfort. The only unusual feature you can’t see is its air conditioner. And cars without this device can be fitted with simple water-type air coolers which are quite satisfying.”
Staying at the first of many hotels
“A weary traveler needs a comfortable bed. Here is where we found our first pleasant accommodations in Columbus, Ohio. Incidently (sic), we made, by mail, reservations for every night we’d be on the road before we left home. This gave us our goal for each day, and meant we could travel at our own leisure without concern over where we would find accommodations.”
Seeing their first buffalo
“And then we began to see things that eventually made the trip the wonderful experience it was for all of us, and the educational bonus for our children. Here is a Kansas Buffalo Herd. We saw more Buffalos later, but the thrill of the first site of live buffalo was very real.”
At Philmont Ranch and its Tent City
They stayed for six days in tents with 500 others like them, with sheets, blankets and towels supplied by the ranch.
The father attended sessions two to three times a day with other Scout leaders exchanging “ideas, suggestions and experience. Exchanging ideas with this group of men made the scouting training experience the most stirring and stimulating of the trip to me. But the family was busy, too.”
Everyone seemed to have gone horseback riding.
“You see the most appropriate dress for the kiddies while at Philmont. The big hats can be bought in Cimarron and are really very helpful. Ask the big boy if you meet him sometime, how his big black hat saved the back of his head and neck from the hailstones that fell during his horseback ride.”
His Explorer-age son made gliders and target-practiced at the archery range. His daughter was Cub-Scout age but since she was female, she became a Kit Carson girl. She did some shooting at the archery range, rode ponies and competed in a treasure hunt. The women visited the Kit Carson Museum, went hiking and made crafts. Kit Carson is part of the history of the settlement of the area, which was first inhabited by the Native American tribes of Jicarilla Apache and Moache Ute.
‘Old Faithful’ rainstorm washes out road
“Each afternoon about 4 p.m. a thunderhead, which we dubbed ‘Old Faithful,’ came over the mountain and dumped 10 to 20 minutes of rain on us. … This raging torrent which swept away the log you see here and many more, was just a sleepy 2 to 3’ wide Ponil River 20 minutes earlier.
“The water was rough & deep & covered or washed out the road in many places. Getting out of the same canyon with this wild water was quite a job for those cars, halted here for repairs to one. After passing through this last and deepest washout we paused and took stock – of 6 cars 3 had lost mufflers.”
Climbing Pikes Peak on the way back home
“It was raining as we began the 19 mile climb but cleared up somewhat before we got to the summit where it had been snowing. … We lingered too long and suddenly this cloud rolled up the mountain and we saw nothing but it for 7 miles down the mountain where we broke out into a beautiful sunset.”
Native Americans
“The Garden of the Gods provided some fun at Steamboat Rock – a last view of Pikes Peak – and real Indians.”
A drive through Iowa
“Look to the south – corn – look to the north – more Iowa corn. … Eastern Iowa produced a surprise also – large expanses of alfalfa – which is dried in plants such as this. The giant clouds of steam are as much a trademark all over this countryside as are the grain elevators in Kansas.”
In conclusion
“Now, you, too, have experienced just a small measure of the thrill, enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction every member of our family got from this trip. And a marvelous vacation has added even greater strength to our conviction that scouting is a program we must support.”
