This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan.

With a Michigan history moment.

Arthur Sherman thought that there had to be a better way to camp.

The Detroit pharmaceutical executive took his family on a camping trip in northern Michigan in 1926.

He planned to have a relaxing weekend fishing on a lake.

Instead, a rainstorm wrecked his tent trailer and his vacation.

Sherman returned home determined to build a better camper.

He enlisted the help of some carpenter friends and went to work.

He wanted a trailer that was easy to set up at a campground and would allow the occupants to stand upright when inside.

He soon had a prototype camper ready.

The trailer had a canvas cover stretched over curved boughs.

Arthur Sherman's children dubbed their new home Way From Home, the Covered Wagon due to its resemblance to the Conestoga wagons that had carried pioneer settlers westward.

Curious neighbors at campsites peppered Sherman with questions.

What was this new trailer?

How well did it work?

Where could they get one?

He soon realized that a market existed for his covered wagon.

He and a couple of hired hands started building trailers in a rented garage.

He exhibited an improved version of the trailer at the 1930 Detroit Auto show, where it drew crowds and numerous orders at $400 each.

By the end of 1931, the covered wagon company had sold 117 trailers.

Covered wagon brought camping trailers to the masses.

It outgrew its small facility in Detroit.

So in 1935, the company moved to an abandoned factory building in Mount Clemens.

Soon, Covered Wagon's workforce of 1,000 employees was making 20 trailers a day.

By 1936, one in six factory built camping trailers was a covered wagon.

President Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 re election campaign bought 60 covered wagons, equipped them with loudspeakers and sent them around America blaring the song Happy days are here again.

Covered Wagon trailers even appeared in movies including Fiberg Magee and Molly's this Way, Please.

Labor troubles and growing competition cut into Covered Wagon's profitability.

The company made truck bodies during World War II, but Covered Wagon closed in 1945 when the wartime contracts ended.

Of the 400 travel trailer companies in 1936, only one survived the war.

Airstream historians credit Covered Wagon with launching the recreational vehicle industry.

In 1974, Arthur Sherman was inducted into the Recreational Vehicle Motorhome hall of Fame.

This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.