Wally Byam

Byam was born on July 4, 1896, in Baker City, Oregon and as a young child he traveled extensively with his grandfather, who led a mule train in Oregon. By the time he was three, his parents divorced and his mother married David Davis, a butcher. By 1910, the family had moved to Astoria, OR and Byam had taken the name of his stepfather, Davis. Later, as an adolescent, Byam worked as a shepherd while he lived in a two-wheeled shepherd's cart outfitted with a kerosene cook stove, a sleeping bag, and wash pail. In these early years, he also joined tugboats as an ablebodied seaman during summers on Astoria to Alaska trips which fostered his independence and love of travel.

By the time Byam ended high school both his mother and stepfather had died leaving him orphaned and with not much money he turned to college. In 1921, he graduated with a BA in history, registered under the name Wallace M. Davis at Stanford University. After graduating he traveled to Hollywood attempting a career but started a job at The Los Angeles Times. He married his first wife, Marion James, with whom he owned an advertisement mailer company. A do-it-yourself magazine he published featured an article describing how to build a travel trailer. When readers complained about the plans, Byam tried them out for himself. Indeed, he discovered the plans were flawed.

Byam was inspired to build his own travel trailer, to accompany a model T. Byam and his wife went on a camping trip in the teardrop model type pop up "tent". Byam wrote an article in Popular Mechanics describing how to build his trailer for under $100 — this time drawing an enthusiastic response from his readers.