Recreation is a many‐faceted phenomenon. It is curious that so dominant a place in American recreational literature has been held, virtually without exception, by studies of recreational activities in dominantly rural settings. The necessity of examining and understanding the characteristics of and utilization of recreation facilities within nonurban environments is not in question. The rapidly increasing economic and social significance of leisure in American life certainly requires studies of recreation in all its forms. Such frequently publisized trends in the American economy as the rising percentage of employment within the service industries, including recreation, should encourage interest in the economic aspects of the approaching era of greater leisure among more people. Accelerating urbanization has led understandably, to a search for additional nonurban sites for recreation, and to a program of analysis of the trends within and problems associated with outdoor recreation.