The Book of Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart is a guidebook for people traveling in the wilderness. Published by The Outing Publishing Company in September 1906, it combines advice on choosing an outfit with the resourcefulness required when a traveler must work with the materials around him.
Choosing what to carry
Kephart begins with outfitting, clothing and personal kits. His foreword explains why he gives these subjects considerable attention: in town the traveler faces many choices, while in the woods those choices have already been made.
The clothing discussion connects comfort with the conditions in which garments will be worn. Personal kits, tents, tools, utensils and food follow as parts of a coherent outfit rather than a collection of unrelated purchases.
A checklist and packing chapter bring the selections together. For readers interested in the history of lightweight or self-reliant travel, the book provides an early account of balancing usefulness, convenience and the burden of carrying equipment.
Making and managing camp
The camp chapters consider the choice and arrangement of a stopping place. Kephart treats camp life as a series of practical decisions about shelter, work and the use of available materials.
The camp-fire receives a chapter of its own. Fire serves cooking and comfort, and the discussion connects its usefulness with its arrangement and management.
These chapters give the book much of its enduring historical interest. They record a style of outdoor travel in which the traveler expected to make, adjust and improvise rather than rely on a fully equipped fixed campsite.
Food and outdoor cooking
Kephart follows the outfit and camp material with chapters on dressing and keeping game and fish and on camp cookery. Food is considered both as something carried and as something prepared under outdoor conditions.
The cookery section is substantial, bringing a domestic skill into a setting with fewer implements and less control over heat. The relationship between equipment, ingredients and working method is central to the account.
Hunting and marksmanship also appear in the book. These chapters document the sporting culture in which Kephart wrote; present-day readers must apply current laws, food-safety practice and appropriate training to any activity they undertake.
Traveling through the forest
A group of chapters concerns forest travel, keeping a course, blazes, survey lines and natural indications of direction. Kephart links observation with the ability to move through unfamiliar country.
Getting lost and making a bivouac form a further part of this discussion. The emphasis shifts from the planned outfit to the decisions required when the journey no longer follows its intended course.
These subjects make the book relevant to the history of outdoor judgment as well as camping equipment. The traveler needs habits of attention and reasoning, not simply a list of possessions.
Woodcraft and natural materials
Later chapters turn to emergency foods, edible plants, axe work and the qualities of wood and bark. Kephart describes the surrounding country as a source of materials whose usefulness depends on recognizing their properties.
Other sections concern buckskin, rawhide, tanning pelts and animal products. They extend the book from travel and camp management into traditional processing skills.
The botanical, health and emergency-treatment material reflects the knowledge of 1906. It is valuable historical reading but should not be used alone to identify edible plants or make medical decisions.
Who will enjoy this book
This free ebook suits camping historians, woodcraft readers and people interested in the development of wilderness travel. It is particularly useful for comparing the equipment-centered part of preparation with the improvisation Kephart considered necessary after leaving town.
Photographs and drawings accompany the text, showing camp settings, equipment and practical arrangements. They help place the advice in its historical environment and make the book a record of outdoor life as well as an instructional work.
Kephart’s organizing idea is that preparation and experience support one another. A thoughtful outfit reduces avoidable difficulty, while knowledge of the woods helps the traveler respond when equipment alone cannot supply an answer.
Book details
- Author: Horace Kephart
- Publisher: The Outing Publishing Company, New York
- Year: 1906
- Edition: Published September 1906; no numbered edition stated
- Digital length: 364 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 14.89 MB
