Roadside park

A roadside park is a designated park on the wide side of a road for the traveling tourist usually maintained by a governmental entity, either local, state, or national. It is for recreational use such as a picnic spot or a trail head. A roadside park will generally be found in a rural setting, whereas a rest area will be found on an interstate highway in a suburban setting or between major destinations like cities. A rest area is specifically designed for the rest and relaxation of the motoring public. The roadside park with the use of picnic tables is the predecessor of the modern rest area / travel plaza.

Many roadside parks have restroom facilities or at least pit toilets, where some small roadside parks have no restroom facilities at all. Some have water and many are designated on state maps with a small picnic table.

Some continents have roadside parks, however they are not a worldwide phenomenon. They are popular in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe, however basically not known in Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, nor the Far East Asian countries.

Herbert F. Larson started the idea of the roadside park. History records that the idea goes back to 1918 in the early days of auto touring. Larson was then a history-minded highway engineer just out of the University of Michigan School of Engineering. He came back to Iron County where he grew up to manage the highway department.

Most of the big pines in Iron County were being cut down by the lumber companies at this time. Larson seeing this hoped someday to keep scenic wide strips of old growth trees along Iron County's principal roads. He envisioned the possibility of a

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