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During the week of July 21-27, 1921, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone camped at a site about six miles east of Hancock in Washington County, Maryland. During the weekend, President Warren G. Harding joined the “vagabonds” — the name the wealthy industrialists gave themselves when they camped together. The 200-acre farm where they made camp was located about one mile north of the National Turnpike along Licking Creek. Today, the campsite lies inside Camp Harding County Park. A plaque memorializes the gathering of these famous campers.
July 1921. "Warren Harding at Firestone camp." The president with industrialist Harvey Firestone and the inventor Thomas Edison (napping). Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
When the "vagabonds" went camping, they didn't rough it. This is a little description of their trips taken from The Henry Ford Museum:
The 1919 trip involved fifty vehicles, including two designed by Ford: a kitchen camping car with a gasoline stove and built-in icebox presided over by a cook and a heavy touring car mounted on a truck chassis with compartments for tents, cots, chairs, electric lights, etc. On later trips, there was a huge, folding round table equipped with a lazy susan that seated twenty.
Gotta love the bow-tie Henry's sporting. If this is roughing it, I can only imagine how he dressed on a normal day!
Harvey's thinking, "The things I do to sell a million tires!"
This snippet is remembered from some book or article on these camping expeditions, actual citation long forgotten:
Henry Ford's favorite practical joke was hand-carving wooden "croutons" and putting them into Harvey Firestone's soup.
There it is. His reputation will be forever enhanced.
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