Vacationland U.S.A.

Title: Vacationland U.S.A.
Genre: Travel
Authors: National Geographic Society
Editor: Merle Severy
Publisher: National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Series: World in Color Library
Year: 1970
Pages: 424
Format: Hardcover, missing dust jacket.
Provenance: Unknown; contains a fold-out road map of the Eastern United States.
Chapter Title Examples: ...And the Pursuit of Happiness; We're Off to Sea; A Camper's Tale; Splendors of a Dive-In Park; Hostelers' Holiday; Ozark Odyssey; Home, Sweet Houseboat; White Water!; Exploring a Cherished Past; To the Top of Rainier.
From the Foreword: "Challenge. Quest. Discovery. Joy. No longer are most Americans content to vacation in a hammock. Forty million a year pitch a tent or pack a trailer at one of the Nation's 500,000 campsites. Millions more fill the seasons with hiking, biking, spelunking, trail-riding, canoeing, bird-watching, clambaking, skiing. But then, we've always been a nation of doers." (Melville Bell Grosvenor, National Geographic Society Editor-In-Chief)
Random Passage: "The charming Icelandic blonde fielded yet another question: 'That tapestry, largest in the world, was made in Belgium with 90,000 miles of thread — enough to go around the world nearly four times.'"
Notes: It's 1970 and you're an average everyday American itching to take off somewhere — but where? The editors at National Geographic helped quell that wanderlust with Vacationland U.S.A. The book delved into each region of the U.S. with essays, photographs and slick 3-D modern maps (see below). In 2011, blogger Vintage Disneyland Tickets shared the pages devoted to Southern California's theme parks here and here.