Subcultures of Environmental Awareness: American Motorcycle Touring in the 1960’s

Un-published. Written in 2002.

America is not only its mainstream culture, but also the sum of all of its cultures and subcultures. Environmental history is not only about environmentalists and environmentalism, but about the interactions between all humans and the land as well as the attitudes that affect these interactions. By studying what some might call the “fringe elements” of society and their interactions with nature, an added element of cultural depth is given to the field of American environmental history.

While environmentalism has become a key issue in American mainstream culture – a regular topic in political campaigns, the foundation for annual Earth Day celebrations, and a unifying point for diverse political organizations – the history of recreation through mechanized touring has little to do with “environmentalism” per se. Environmentalism is defined as “a moral code or a set of mediating values to manage human conduct or a concern for environment elevated to a political pursuit.” From the 1960’s through the mid-1970’s, a fervor of concern for the environment was kindled in American culture.ⁱ Within this context of increasing environmental awareness came a rise in recreational touring of America on motorcycles. Motorcycle touring, though, is unique in its relation to the environmental awareness of the time in that no formal political agenda is sought or achieved through this form of recreation. The similarity with the central theme to modern environmentalism – human separation from nature as the root cause of the current ecological crisisⁱⁱ – begins and ends with the need of motorcycle tourists to escape from the mediated environments of cars and cities to be part of the nature being observed. The act of motorcycle touring, while creating a superior connection with nature than with other forms of mechanized touring, has no central philosophy on the “ecological crisis.” Most motorcycle tourists are only subtly aware that the connection with the environment they achieve on their bikes is necessary. The history of motorcycle touring in 1960’s America is not one of environmentalism, but one of physical and psychological interactions with nature, romanticism of the frontier ideal, and the political identity of outlaw patriotism.

Foundations of Mechanized Tourism

In the late 19^th century, touring developed as a pastime for the elite with the aid of the completion of the rail system. Tourism, Marguerite Shaffer has argued, “reshaped the built environment of the United States and transformed the symbolic value of the of American landscape.”ⁱⁱⁱ Begun as a booster campaign, the “See America First” slogan helped increase the popularity of tourism as a recreational pursuit with the added intention of rejuvenating patriotism through appreciation of the western wilderness. Fisher Sanford Harris, the man who invented the slogan, wrote:

The number of jaded, overworked men and women of the crowded cities who feel in their hearts the irresistible “call of the wild,” is greatly increasing… To such as these the field and the streams, the mountains, lakes and canyons of the West lie fallow for the working out of their physical and mental salvation.^iv

This emphasis on touring for mental health has a linguistic reference to spirituality through the use of the word “salvation.” This harkens to the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, “the supreme critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest.”^v Consuming the resource of nature as recreation gained the implication of virtuousness and patriotism towards the wilderness that was being culturally manufactured to represent “America.”

By 1915, advertisers were touting Glacier National Park as a tourist retreat, replete with luxury hotels as well as trails and roads for travel throughout the park. Shaffer mentions the Glacier Park Hotel, the décor of which relied upon symbols of conquest over the western “frontier.” The vision – aimed at middle or upper class Americans – represented by this décor was one of a re-connection with the pioneers and frontiersmen who were credited with “civilizing” the West. The “See America First” campaign, by promoting the myth of the American West, was implicitly based in a cultural anxiety towards industrialization, incorporation, and urbanization.^vi It could be claimed that this anxiety was based in a fear of the homogenization of society and concern about the lack of freedom and independence that would result. Under these conditions and attitudes, along with the added fervor of patriotism brought about by World War I, touring of national parks became a “fashionable” form of recreation.

During this time, railroads advertised the pleasures of viewing western wildernesses from their passenger cars. In addition to the railroads, the Lincoln Highway Association began promoting automobile touring along a planned transcontinental highway, using frontier and adventure imagery. Newton Fussle, in a series of article written for Travel magazine, explained the benefits of car touring over railroad touring in terms of a “feeling of nearness.” Shaffer additionally credits automobile touring as allowing the tourist control over the tour, and bringing the tourist to nature. The rise of automobile tourism turned this form of recreation into a much more “intimate, personal, and authentic experience.”^vii

While the views of nature from a railroad car are much like scenes from a movie, in a car these scenes are closer to a slide-show or a photograph with the added benefit of being able to get out and explore.^viii Nonetheless, with both railroad and car touring the scene is framed. The view from a car or a train of the natural environment is sublime but, like the paintings of the Hudson River School, maintains this sublimity through its detachment from the reality of nature. Viewed through any frame, nature is simply “art.” With the invention of the motorcycle in 1885,^ix though, a harsher and more intimate form of mechanized touring was born. While a car provided for a more intimate experience of nature than the railroad, the motorcycle surpassed the car in providing personal contact with the environment of America. Ann Ferrar, writing about women and motorcycles, describes the experience of touring:

The view from the saddle is panoramic, unobstructed by the TV-tube frame of a car windshield. She marvels at the scenery… and may be simultaneously splattered with it. She is undeniably alive, connected at once to her own humanity, the earth, and the powerful bike that carries her faster and farther than she could go on her own.^x

Motorcyclists often refer to cars as “four-wheeled ‘cages[s]’” and to the driver and passengers as “cagers.”^xi This is because, as Ferrar notes in her description, car tourists only see nature from an artificial environment and through a frame. Car touring does not allow for insects to get stuck in your teeth, or for tourists to smell the earth and wind to such a degree that they can differentiate between the smell of a cow or a horse. Motorcycle touring, on the other hand, is an experience of nature comparable to John Muir’s experience of climbing a tree in a windstorm and experiencing “the delicious fragrance that was streaming past.”^xii

Mediated Environments and the experience of the “Cage”

In 1978, Jerry Mander wrote about the effect of artificial environments on the human psyche in an essay he titled “The Walling of Awareness.” Mander’s theory exemplifies the evolution of tourists’ interactions with and attitudes towards nature and patriotism through the use of motorcycles. Explaining that natural environments have, for the most part, given way to environments made by man, Mander discusses the effect of this on our health and social consciousness. What Americans perceive with each of the senses – taste, touch, smell, sight, and even thought – has been processed for them through the creation of artificial environments. Most Americans’ experiences of the world are no longer direct, but secondary experiences.

Mander writes about the mediated environment of the city, in which artificial lighting removes people from an emotional understanding of night and day and machines remove people from the sounds and smells of nature. The modern office building processes all sensory experiences for workers. Through architectural design, workers’ sense of height, depth and irregularity is removed. Through the use of sealed windows and heating and cooling systems, workers are unable to feel wind or changes in temperature. This mediated experience of the world limits people’s perceptions of their place in non-human systems and damages their psychological and physical health. Drawing on examples from evolutionary theory and experiments with sensory deprivation chambers, Mander argues that mediation of the environment, by limiting people’s sensory perceptions, leads to a reduction in the richness of their mental and physical life. Referring to all human sensory perceptions, Mander argues that when the environment is reduced from being varied and multidimensional to being fixed and one-dimensional, humans lose the capacity to adjust and become “grosser, simpler, less varied, like the environment.”^xiii

While Mander’s focus is on the city, his observations can be transferred to the discussion of car touring. Within a car, the environment is mediated in much the same way as within an office building. The tourists remain at a fixed distance from the environment, with an artificial floor beneath their feet, artificial temperature and fixed frame through which to see the environment. If the windows in a car are closed, tourists do not perceive the smells and full light of the environment surrounding them. Motorcycle touring further evolved this perception, reducing the mediation of the environment and creating a more interactive relationship with nature. While the machine still reduces the sounds of nature and the tourist still remains at a fixed distance from the environment, the motorcyclist perceives the wind, changes in temperature, and smells of the environment. The motorcycle tourist escapes, at least in part, from the artificial environment that Mander decries.

Origins of Motorcycle Touring and Existential Conflict

While individual motorcycle tours of America began around the same time as the “See America First” movement, touring on motorcycles as a recognized and organized activity dates to the formation of the American Motorcyclist Association in 1924. The formation of the A.M.A. was in part to serve the needs of American motorcyclists looking for organized “gypsy tours,” large group tours from which most organized motorcycle tours evolved.^xiv With the introduction of motorcross into American sports in the 1960s, motorcycle touring across America became an even larger part of American culture. Motorcross is a racing event and not a form of touring. Nonetheless, the introduction of this sport in America is representative of both the growing popularity of motorcycles and an important aspect to motorcyclists’ relationship with the environment.

Motorcross is to motorcycling what the rodeo is to horseback riding. People gather from across the country to watch riders on dirtbikes race across rugged terrain. The organizers of the race often alter the land to create artificial challenges when there are not enough natural challenges for the riders. This alteration of the land to create challenges and the concept of the sport itself represents the frontier mentality of motorcycle tourists. The challenge is one of conquering nature. This basic conflict between humans and nature extends to motorcycle touring. While motorcycle tourists are more aware of the environment, at the same time, they are involved in a conflict of themselves versus nature.^xv

The 1960’s: American Outlaw Patriotism

In 1969, Dennis Hopper directed what has become the quintessential film about American culture and motorcycle touring in the 1960s, Easy Rider. The tagline of the film, “A man went looking for America and couldn't find it anywhere,”^xvi represents the unique patriotism associated with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and motorcycle touring at the time. Much as the “See America First” movement was an attempt to use touring as a foundation for patriotism, motorcycle touring in the 1960s provided the foundation for an outlaw patriotism associated with Harley-Davidsons and motorcycle tours even to the present day. Peter Fonda’s custom Harley-Davidson chopper is painted with the Stars and Stripes of America. In addition, his motorcycle jacket has a United States flag on the back and his helmet is also painted with Stars and Stripes. In this way, Fonda’s character represents American patriotism. The patriotism represented by Fonda’s character, though, is not the type of patriotism that was being encouraged by the “See America First” movement in 1915. Instead, this new brand of patriotism, which could be called “outlaw patriotism,” is an outgrowth of the culture of American youth in the late 1960’s. Outlaw patriotism is based in a love for the environment and individualism of America combined with distaste for the social homogenization and mediated environments created by modern American culture.

Creating an association between motorcycle touring and the romantic American ideal of cowboys and the western frontier, Easy Rider speaks to an American subculture that reminisces the days of living off the land in early American history. Through juxtaposition of horses and motorcycles and through Peter Fonda’s character name (“Wyatt,” a reference to Wyatt Earp, American frontiersman and law enforcer^xvii), the motorcycle tourist is made to represent not only the quintessential American, but also the American cowboy and his horse. Early in the film, Wyatt and Billy (Hopper’s character) encounter a farming family, the first group of Americans who express kindness to them. Wyatt compliments the owner of the farm by saying, “It’s not every man that can live off the land,” idealizing the perseverance and work that goes into “natural” living. The next location that Wyatt and Billy find themselves in is a hippie commune – representative of the “back to the country” movement in the 1960s. The scenes at the commune are the only time in the film where the American flag is displayed other than on Wyatt’s clothing and motorcycle. The hippies, after having planted their seeds, say a prayer thanking God for the opportunity to “make a stand.” The display of the American flag within this context implies that true patriotism lies with people living in harmony with the land.

As Wyatt and Billy travel farther east in their journey across America, the landscape changes. While the western landscapes shown are scenes of majesty without human intervention, the land shows less majesty and more technology, such as bridges, cars, buildings, and icons of pollution as the duo travel farther East. In addition to the changes in the land, the people change from West to East as well, becoming more intolerant the farther Wyatt and Billy travel. The American odyssey traveled by Wyatt and Billy on their motorcycles begins with the beauty of the American “frontier” and ends with the mechanized modern world and the death of American patriotism as represented by Wyatt.^xviii

The attitudes reflected by motorcycle touring in the 1960s were, in part, a result of the motorcycles being used. Since the patriotic climate of the 1950s was tinged with a great deal of xenophobia, American manufacturers were preferred in consumer purchases. American motorcycles have had only two major manufacturers, Indian and Harley-Davidson. With the disappearance of the Indian manufacturing company in 1953, Harley-Davidson had the 1960’s motorcycle market to itself. While there were an increasing amount of imported British motorcycles entering the American market in the 1950’s and 1960’s, these bikes were small and unsuitable for touring. Thus, the story of motorcycle touring in the United States in the 1960’s is one of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.^xix

The history of the outlaw patriotism inspired by motorcycle touring begins just after World War II. Dissatisfied army veterans returning from the war, fascinated with the new technologies they had been exposed to overseas and feeling cast out of normal society, created the outlaw image of Harley-Davidsons. This image was tinged with the machismo of the military. Though there were tamer hot-rod motorcycle clubs, the gangs formed by these veterans were highly visible in their debauchery and thus created a macho/outlaw image for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company from the mid 1940’s through the 1950s.^xx In the 1960’s, while the majority of Harley-Davidson riders were sedate blue-collar workers, the outlaw myth of Harley-Davidson lead to a rise in bikers attempting to mimic the post-World War II veteran gangs.^xxi The prevalence of the Harley-Davidson motorcycles, the company’s long tradition as an American manufacturer, and the outlaw myth associated with the company could be said to have contributed to the sense of outlaw patriotism evoked by motorcycle touring of America as much as the environmental experience of touring itself.

Evolution and Popularity: the 1960’s and beyond

Unlike the choppers used in Easy Rider, most motorcycle tourists in the 1960’s preferred the more comfortable V-twins. These touring bikes were fully equipped with better shock absorption and superior engines for long distances. ^xxii The additional capabilities and comfort of these machines contributed to the rise in touring during the 1960’s that led to the first mention of motorcycles in the special regulations of the National Park service in 1964.^xxiii The prevalence of motorcycle touring slowly progressed throughout the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, with only a few thousand bikers showing up at the annual bike shows in Sturgis, South Dakota and Daytona, Florida, the journeys to which account for a large portion of motorcycle tours in the United States. In 1978, Easy Riders magazine “discovered” Sturgis and began publishing information on this annual event. In 1979, there were 25,000 bikers at Sturgis, a number that increased to more than 100,000 over the next ten years.^xxiv

Since the mid-1970’s, there have been many stages in the evolution of motorcycle touring in the United States. The subculture has been altered and expanded through the introduction of new riders, changes in cultural attitudes towards the environment, the introduction of new philosophies on work and play in American culture, changes in the format of organized tours, and the evolution of both the brands and mechanics of motorcycles. As motorcycle touring has evolved, it continues to reflect a unique form of American patriotism and interaction with the natural environment.

Mechanized Tourism, Patriotism, and Mediated Environments:

What it all Means

The evolution of mechanized tourism in America, from the transcontinental railroad to the motorcycle tours of the 1960s and beyond, is a story of patriotism through the experience of the American “frontier” and a gradual shift towards more intimate connections with nature. The railroads touted fast-paced, distant views of the America’s wilderness as a way to increase patriotism through the spiritually beneficial picturesque assets of nature. The campaign for car tourism latched onto this same idea, but provided tourists with the means to get closer to the natural environment and move at a self-directed pace. The evolution of motorcycle touring took the experience of nature to an even more intimate level, by removing the tourist from the mediated environments of railroad cars or automobiles. Unlike the campaigns for railroad or car touring, which used mainstream patriotism for economic gains and tourism as a method for increasing this patriotism, the patriotism invoked by touring on a motorcycle was unplanned and unique.

The political identity created through the activity of motorcycle touring is an evolution of the notions of freedom and independence evoked in the era of car touring. As suggested by the film Easy Rider, motorcycle touring, like the promotion of car touring, has implications of distaste for social homogenization brought about by industrialism and commercialism through its idolatry of the American “frontier.” Additionally, the individual control of the pace and direction of touring that was introduced with the rise of car touring created a sense of freedom that was further evolved within the context of outlaw patriotism and motorcycle touring. Thus, the brand of patriotism invoked by the motorcycle was tinged with an outlaw culture influenced by romantic notions of the American frontiersman and of freedom.

It could be claimed that the outlaw patriotism of motorcyclists is additionally due to the removal of the tourist from a secondary experience of nature and the re-introduction of primary experiences of the environment. As Jerry Mander theorizes, a mediated environment is a social and physical filter on the environment that leads to a lack of understanding of humanity’s place within the world. The outlaw patriotism of motorcycle touring in the 1960’s could then be said to be, in part, a result of primary experiences with the environment leading to a deeper understanding of one’s place in human and non-human systems that leads to a more critical view of modern American society. 


 

i¹ C.J. Barrow, Environmental Management: Principles and Practice. (New York: Routledge, 1999), 157.

ii² Martin Lewis, “On Human Connectedness with Nature.” Literature and the Environment: a reader on nature and culture. Eds. Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John Grady. (New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., 1999), 393.

iii³ Shaffer, Marguerite S, "Negotiating National Identity: Western Tourism and See America First." Reopening the America West. Ed. Hal Rothman. (Tuscan: University of Arizona Press, 1998), 123.

iv⁴ Shaffer, 127.

v “Ralph Waldo Emerson Expounds on Nature and Wealth, 1844,” in Major Problems in American Environmental History, ed. Carolyn Merchant (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993), 183.

vi Shaffer, 125-126.

vii⁵ Shaffer, 138.

viii⁶ Shaffer, 122-146.

ix⁷ Ann Ferrar, Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles, and the Rapture of the Road. (North Conway: Whitehorse Press, 2000), 18.

x⁸ Ferrar, 11.

xi⁹ Ferrar, 12.

xii¹⁰ See John Muir, “A Wind Storm in the Forests.” The Mountains of California. (Washington: 1993), available online at http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/; field notes, 11/20/2001.

xiii¹¹ Jerry Mander, “The Walling of Awareness.” Literature and the Environment: a reader on nature and culture. Eds. Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John Grady. (New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., 1999), 211.

xiv¹³ Ferrar, 23-24.

xv¹⁴ Ferrar, 51, 103-104.

xvi¹⁵ The Internet Movie Database, available online at http://us.imdb.com/Title?Easy+Rider+(1969).

xvii¹⁶ "Earp, Wyatt Berry Stapp," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation.

xviii¹⁷ Easy Rider, 1969.

xix¹⁸ Jim Glastonbury, Harley-Davidson: A Love Affair. (New York: Gramercy Books, 1998), 30.

xx¹⁹ Brock Yates, Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul. (New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 1999), 11-15.

xxi²⁰ Yates, 37.

xxii²¹ Glastonbury, 35.

xxiii²² U.S., Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Special Regulations, Areas of the National Park System, 93.

xxiv²³ Glastonbury, 94.