ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that when R. F. Washburne published his classic study on urban Black underparticipation in wild land recreation he performed both a tremendous service and major disservice to the worthy ends of understanding and reducing minority underparticipation. The great service he performed was to quantitatively demonstrate Black underparticipation, thus raising wider consciousness about the problem. The famous Washburne study was published, Bob Lee published a delightful and masterful paper based on qualitative participant observation titled innocuously, "The Social Definition of Outdoor Recreation Places." The chapter focuses on interracial relations for a variety of reasons. Ethnicity and marginality failed to explain all the variation in raw statistical terms. All of who were trained in outdoor recreation were grilled with the obvious and seemingly dull truth that the outdoor recreation experience is comprised of the trip to the site, the on site experience, and the trip back.
