Tin Can Tourists – Early Images

Campers in Corkscrew Swamp: Collier County, Florida – 1940s

Campers in Ocala National Forest Date: October 1961

Camping area at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: Key Largo, Florida Date: June 10, 1969

Campsites at Knights Key Park Campground: Marathon, Florida Date: July 1965

Car and trailer crossing a bridge: Astor, Florida Date: March 1957

Cooking barbecue at a Tin Can Tourists convention: Arcadia, Florida Date: ca. 1920s

Dick Layton at Layton’s Cottage, Trailer, and Fishing Park during construction of cottages: Riviera Beach, Florida Date: 1935

Evelyn Stillwell teaches a ballet class: Sarasota, Florida Date: January 1953

Family in their camping trailer: Monroe County, Florida Date: February 1966

Family with their travel trailer: Monroe County, Florida Date: February 1966

Fred and Violet Holtzman in the office of the Tampa Municipal Trailer Park Date: 1939 General Note: Fred and Violet Holtzman are manager and business manager of the trailer park [see following image].

Hollywood camp on the ocean front: Hollywood, Florida Date: June 1950

House car named Harriet at Tin Can Tourists convention: Arcadia, Florida Date: January 10, 1929

House cars at a tin can tourist campout Date: Tehachapi, Calif Camp Cards, ca. 1930

John & Lizzie Wilson from Boston in Bradenton, Florida Date: 1951

Ladies sit near the community swimming pool: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Date: November 1967

Morris Monts de Oca, Charlie Anderson, Bill Buford, Freddie Crews, Wyatt Blassingame, Von Walker, & Wilton Sauls. After 6 days and nights on the beautiful Suwannee River these men are headed home. They traveled the river from Okefenokee Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico. – December 5, 1949

Michael Sadler holding a sculpture stands outside a trailer: Dead Lakes, Florida Date: July 1947

Mr and Mrs. Herbert Smith camp at Apalachicola National Forest: Leon County, Florida Date: September 1961

Mr. Paul E. Linthieum tends to the garden near the trailers: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Date: 1963

Otho Granford Shoup, Royal Chief of the Tin Can Tourists 1923-1925.

People picnicking at St. Andrews State Park: Panama City, Florida Date: 1977 General note: The park opened in 1951 and now consists of more than 1,260 acres. During World War II, it was part of St. Andrews Military Reservation. Circular cannon platforms are still in place on the beach near the jetties.

Red Coconut Trailer Park Date: 1949

Residents at the beach: Hollywood, Florida Date: January 1953

Residents at the pool at the Belle Haven Trailer Park: Miami, Florida Date: January 1953

esidents by the pool: Miami, Florida Date: January 1953

Retired railroad man sitting on the bumper of his house-car Date: 1931

Retirees at the trailer park: Fort Lauderdale, Florida Date: 1963

Retirees play shuffleboard at the trailer park: Clearwater, Florida Date: August 1955

Roey Stickles sits out on the porch in the trailer park: Sarasota, Florida Date: 1946

Square dancers at the trailer park: Sarasota, Florida Date: January 1957

Tampa Municipal Trailer Park Date: 1939 General Note: Owned and operated by Fred and Violet Holtzman

Tin can tourist: Florida Date: Chicago Curt Teich, ca. 1920 Poem copyrighted by F.C. Pfeiffer

Tin Can Tourists at De Soto Park Date: December 25, 1920

Tin Can Tourists’ band: Sarasota, Florida Date: 1940 or 1941

Tin Can Tourists camp: Gainesville, Florida Date: ca. 1920s

Tin Can Tourists camp: Gainesville, Florida Date: 1922 Tin Can Tourists camp is by the white filling station. The camp has electric lights, city water and every convenience for campers. Photograph of a Curt Teich postcard.

Tin Can Tourists camping park in DeLand Date: ca. 1930 The park was located at Florida and Walts avenues. The office and wash shed are shown.

Tin Can Tourists convention: Arcadia, Florida Date: January 7, 1929

Tin Can Tourists convention: Arcadia, Florida Date: 1953

Tin Can Tourists convention: Arcadia, Florida Date: Photographed between January 5 and 10 of 1931

Tin Can Tourists convention at Dade City Date: 1940 Royal Chief Bob Foster’s trailer

Tin Can Tourists convention at Payne Park: Sarasota, Florida Date: 1936

Tin Can Tourists: Gainesville, Florida Date: ca. 1921 General note: Man to the right of the table is Otho Granford Shoup. Woman next to him is Rose Elizabeth Shoup.

Tin Can Tourists playing shuffleboard: Dade City, Florida Date: Photographed on December 9, 1936

Trailer enters the Bradenton Trailer Park: Bradenton, Florida Date: July 1949

Trailer park: Cape Canaveral, Florida Date: December 1958

Unidentified couple tends to their yard at Trailer Estates: Sarasota, Florida Date: November 1967

nidentified people camping at Torreya State Park: Rock Bluff, Florida Date: May 1976

Unidentified women sunbath at the Hollywood Beach Trailer Park: Hollywood, Florida Date: January 1953

View of Hollywood Beach Trailer Park: Hollywood, Florida Date: January 1953

View of the Briny Breezes Trailer Park: Delray Beach, Florida Date: 1963

View of the Briny Breezes Trailer Park: Delray Beach, Florida Date: 1963

View of the Flamingo camping area: Everglades National Park, Florida Date: March 1960

View of the Sarasota Trailer Park: Sarasota, Florida Date: December 16, 1948 General note: Accompanying note “The city owned trailer park in Sarasota is one of the world’s largest. Thousands gather here every winter to enjoy and Florida’s Scenic beauty.”

View of the shuffleboard court at the trailer park: Clearwater, Florida Date: June 1957

View of the Tin Can Tourists camp: Gainesville, Florida Date: ca. 1930 General note: Before the modern highway, side hotels were the tourist camps all over Florida, such as this “Tin Can Tourist Camp” in Gainesville. Gainesville had many tourist camps, and this one dates from the years immediately following World War I when traveling became popular and automobiles became more plentiful.

iew of the Trailer park and boat area at Briny Breezes: Delray Beach, Florida Date: 1963

View of trailer parked near entrance to the Myakka River State Park: Sarasota, Florida – 1947

View showing area for camping at the Hillsborough River State Park: Thonotosassa, Florida Date: ca. 1970s General note: The Hillsborough River State Park opened in 1938 as one of Florida’s first state parks. It is divided by the swiftly flowing Hillsborough River. Fort Foster, a replica of an 1837 fort from the Second Seminole War, is located on the park grounds, adjacent to the river.

View showing visitors with their boat trailer at the Pahokee State Park: Palm Beach County, Florida. Date: June 1974

Visitors at the campground of the park: Thonotosassa, Florida Date: January 1961

William Frost Layton in recreational vehicle on tract of land he later developed into Layton’s Cottage, Trailer, and Fishing Park: Riviera Beach, Florida Between 1935 and 1955