Thomas Edison Thinking/Sitting Stone at Swallow Falls State Park
Famously known as “The Vagabonds”, well-known business magnates popularized outdoor recreation by automobile in America.
by Francis “Champ” Zumbrun and Offutt Johnson
Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and Henry Ford, who called themselves the Vagabonds, camped near Muddy Creek Falls in scenic Garrett County with their families for almost a week in late July 1921. Historians have stated that the Vagabonds’ two-week summer outings between the years 1915 and 1924 were the first linking of the automobile with outdoor recreation.
Newspapers across the country reported on the Vagabonds’ camping trips, and the public read these accounts with great interest. These stories, in part, created a desire in America to explore and discover the great outdoors in their automobiles, just like the Vagabonds. This demand created a new multi-million-dollar outdoor recreation industry. These camping trips also helped gain public support for the acquisition of additional land for public use, which became the national and state parks and forest systems we enjoy today.
Mina Miller Edison
Mina’s life-long interest in learning, studying foreign cultures, and giving her talents back to the community were likely formed early in her youth with her father’s founding of Chautauqua, a beautiful outdoor retreat on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
The Vagabonds’ 1921 camping trip to western Maryland was unique as it was the first time these industrial giants brought their wives and families with them. Thomas Edison’s accomplishments as a business entrepreneur are well known, but his wife, Mina, was a woman of significant achievements who helped to protect and conserve our natural resources.
Mina’s father, Lewis Miller, played a large role in establishing Chautauqua in upper western New York State. This organization fostered life-long learning in a natural outdoor setting to help rejuvenate and enhance the mind and spirit.
Mina, a conservationist in her own right, was very concerned with the urbanization of the East Coast and the loss of natural, rustic habitats. Conservationists such as nature writer John Burroughs, who was also a Vagabond, had a huge impact on Mina’s thinking. Mina’s influence and input in the early years helped establish our National Park System.
Henry Ford, another Vagabond, founded Kingsford Charcoal Company. The charcoal plant he established in his company town of Kingsford, Michigan, was fully up and running by 1921, the same year he camped with Edison and Firestone at Muddy Creek in present Swallow Falls State Park. Ford owned a sawmill in northern Michigan that produced lumber he needed to make his automobiles.
Ever the creative entrepreneur, Ford developed a manufacturing process to turn wood scraps from the sawmill into a commercial product – charcoal. Ford learned how to produce charcoal briquettes economically that were useful in grilling food. He made this popular product by charring a mix of softwoods like pine and spruce, then grinding the charcoal and mixing it with an adhesive. These small, dark squares of charcoal are used today by countless outdoor grillers who burn with more heat and produce less smoke than wood.
Originally Published by Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Thinking/Sitting Stone
Perhaps just out of view of this photograph of Thomas and Mina Edison at Swallow Falls, Henry Ford and his staff are grilling supper using one of his newest products, Kingsford charcoal.
