The settling of the North American frontier led to a shift in the meaning of wilderness.

While early accounts of the wilderness depicted it as dangerous and evil, the closing of the frontier led to a vision of the wilderness as an American Eden. Beginning after the Civil War, elite Americans began to make recreational visits to the wilderness, beginning at sites like Niagara Falls, the Catskills and the Adirondacks and moving west until Yellowstone was made the first true national park in 1872. The late nineteenth century saw the development of summer camps and wilderness vacations as a means to get in touch with particularly American values. The Boy Scouts, for example, with their emphasis on wilderness were designed to inculcate civic values and individualism through back-woods experience.

The American automobile industry allowed increased visits to the “wilderness,” and, after the Second World War, many Americans took advantage of greater prosperity to tour America and camp in its campgrounds which developed in and around wilderness areas. Over time, camping developed as a way for urban, laboring Americans to get in touch with not only the values embodied in non-productive nature, but the peculiarly American nostalgia for the frontier. The association between camping and correct values has continued in outdoor programs, like Outward Bound, for troubled teens. While camping is often associated with the rustic experience of campfires, cowboy cooking and tents, more recently there has been a trend towards convenience. Recreational vehicles have replaced tents, and private campgrounds have developed alongside those operated by the National Park Service.

Summer camps focused on children and adolescents may also recall the wilderness in pseudo-Indian names, sports, crafts and facilities. In a prosperous and competitive market, however, these camps may also specialize in language learning, competitive sports, arts, computers and weight loss. These camps, whether day-oriented or distant from cities, also meet the needs of two-career families who cannot provide safe and organized home activities during school vacations.