Boats Of The Road

Subscription rate and membership to the Classic Trailer and Motorhome Club (P.O. Box 43737, 615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106), $21.00 per year. CODE: LTH-1

TEARDROPS! EXCLAIMS THE COVER OF issue number two of Lost Highways Quarterly , a magazine devoted to the history of trailers. The teardrop trailer, just eight to twelve feet long and made of wood and Masonite, is but one of the many vintage vehicles that the co-editors Todd and Kristin Kimmell are eager to preserve—and to show off. The Kimmells were already antique-car enthusiasts when they became interested in old trailers, and as their letters column attests, they are not alone. Correspondence pours in from people who have collected trailers for years or are just beginning, and many are anxious for tips on how to locate the trailer of their dreams.

Lost Highways mixes the new with the old: period ads for Elcar Sun Coaches and Kar-A-Van Kamp trailers with advice on how to take good trailer photos, where to find rallies, and a piece on the Kimmells’ road trip through Florida, where they toured trailer parks in search of undiscovered treasures. The clunky 1951 Nashuas and sleek aluminum Silver Kings that fill these pages invite you to climb inside, settle in, and drive away. Be careful, though. LHQ reprinted part of a 1940 article, “Camps of Crime,” by J. Edgar Hoover, who marked trailers and trailer parks as ideal havens for convicts on the run. A heated response from K. H. Dixon of the trailer industry began: “To the evil-minded, all things are evil.”