Port Crescent Show

Vintage travel-trailer enthusiasts are bringing the glory days of “trailering” to Port Crescent State Park in Huron County as it hosts its second “GO-Get Outdoors” Vintage Camper Show, which begins on Thursday, July 8, and runs through Sunday, July 11.

Campers participating in this show will open up their vintage trailers for tours. Other activities will include a potluck for campers and a dance with music provided by The Bill Denbrock Big Band, a 15-piece band dedicated to keeping alive the Big Band sound with songs from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and many more.

The big recreational vehicles (RVs) often seen on Michigan highways have a venerable heritage of trailer travels in the United States, and the Tin Can Tourists is a group keeping this heritage alive. The original Tin Canners blossomed about 1920, in the early days of auto travel from the North to Florida. The group took its name from the campers’ habit of bringing along tin-can cuisine. Members sometimes fastened empty cans to the front of their Tin Lizzies to announce themselves to kindred spirits.

Members travel with rigs that include Shasta, Scotty, Airstream, Argosy, Helite, Travco, Newell, Yellowstone, Fan and Teardrop. Forrest Bone, a retired high school teacher who now splits his time between Florida and Michigan, renewed the Tin Can Tourists in 1998 as a rallying group for fans of antique travel trailers. Owners and fans of vintage travel trailers are invited to join the group, which is sponsoring the event at Port Crescent.

Port Crescent State Park is located at 1775 Port Austin Road near Port Austin. For more information about this event, the park, accessibility or persons needing accommodations to attend this event, contact the park supervisor at 989-738-8663 (TTY/TDD711 Michigan Relay Center for the hearing impaired) or visit www.michigan.gov/portcrescent.