Nine-tenths portion of the civilized human family almost shudder at the thought of sleeping on the ground in open air; or even in a well regulated tent. “You will take your death of cold;” or get the rheumatism they will…
Is there a racist component in camping? Or is it a question of common sense? For a “white boy” who grew up middle class in the South, in the midst of the civil rights movement, I thought I had seen…
Herb Ringer discovered his love for the West in 1939. He had traveled from his home in Ringoes, New Jersey to Reno, Nevada to procure a quick divorce, and spent that winter working in a local market, occupying a cramped…
Readers of the Zephyr have always shown a particular fondness for Herb’s 1950 Ford ‘Woody’, which appears in a number of his photos. Below are a number of photos of that beloved car, taken from 1950-1953…JS HERB RINGER came West…
‘SUMMER CAMP’ 1944-1952 HERB RINGER came West from his home in New Jersey in 1939. Camera in hand, Herb captured the American West, from the Canadian Border to the Rio Grande and from the Big Sur coast to the High…
The world of light and space that Edward Abbey found at Arches National Monument in the late 1950s and early 1960s and that he wrote about in Desert Solitaire survives in Great Basin National Park in far eastern Nevada. The…
(Click each image to enlarge.) The Early Years: Camping in the ’36 Ford and the ’41 Lincoln “Zephyr” The ’50 Ford “Woody” Herb’s ’71 Ford Econoline (that carried him more than 350,000 miles) Don’t forget the Zephyr ads! All links…
When I was a seasonal ranger, I lived at the Devils Garden Campground at Arches National Park for a full decade. Some people thought I’d never leave; even I wondered if I’d ever get out of there alive. I worried…
NOTE: The Zephyr recently received a DVD of a 1949 documentary film by Ray Garner. The film is silent; Mr. Garner exhibited this film to audiences around the country and provided ‘live’ narration. The film is now in the public…
Can there be any doubt that we live in an age quantified, represented and defined by the cell phone? I came to this conclusion a few years back when visiting San Francisco at the Thanksgiving Holiday. I had given two…