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Original 1951 handwritten American road-trip vacation diary, kept in a compact six-ring Vernon Line binder measuring approximately 3.75 × 5.5 inches closed.
The black textured binder has blue embossed “VACATION” and “1951” labels on the front. Inside is marked “Vernon Line, R-502, Made in America U.S.A.” The cover material has not been confirmed as leather.
The pages shown document eleven dated daily entries from July 11 through July 21, 1951, along with two original black-and-white photographs punched for the binder. One photograph shows a mountain chairlift scene.
The diary records a substantial mid-century automobile trip through the American West and Upper Midwest, including references to:
Miles City, Montana
Red Lodge
Silver Gate
Yellowstone National Park
West Yellowstone
Jackson Hole
Salt Lake City
Saltair amusement park
Logan
Steamboat Springs
Cheyenne
Hot Springs
Mount Rushmore
Rapid City / reptile garden
Ellendale, North Dakota
New Ulm, Minnesota
and the return home
The writer records numerous day-to-day details that give the diary particularly strong social-history interest, including mountain-road delays, a snowplow, photographing animals, playing canasta, attending a nighttime ball game, cabin costs, daily driving mileage, and tourist attractions encountered along the route.
Several period prices are specifically noted, including:
Yellowstone park fee — $3
Jackson Hole chairlift — $1.50
Photograph of the rider — 85¢
The closing accounting records the writer’s trip totals as:
4,725 miles traveled
328 gallons of gasoline
Gasoline — $101
Cabins — $99.50
Food — $130
Total — $330.50
These figures are presented as the writer’s own recorded totals.
The final entry is signed:
“Log By Chick Bayer.”
The entries and photographs shown establish the surviving contents pictured here, but they should not be taken as proof that every day of the entire trip was originally documented or that the binder is complete beyond the material shown.
A wonderful piece of 1950s road-trip Americana, combining handwritten travel narrative, tourism history, national-park travel, period prices, mileage records, and original photography in a compact personal archive.
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