Airstream owners have been staging caravans and rallies worldwide for decades. They gather together, in their iconic aluminum travel trailers to share their adventures and their lifestyle.

Usually, it’s at a campsite or an RV park.

But members of the Oregon Airstream Club are veering off the beaten path this weekend for the second-to-last event on their 2017 schedule, an urban camping rally in downtown Independence.

Twenty members are expected to set up camp on Main Street for Friday and Saturday nights in what they hope will be the first of many urban rallies the club holds in the future in small towns across Oregon.

“Our goal is to bring people to the downtown and spread the joy of camping and Airstreams," said Kathy Ellis-Kelemen, a club member in Salem.

Urban rallies are becoming popular in the Airstream community. An event in Michigan caught the eye of someone in Independence, who happened to know someone in the Oregon Airstream Club, and the rest is history.

“Being a small town, you’ve got to be creative,” said Shawn Irvine, the economic development director for Independence. “We don’t have a lot of lodging options. This is a fun way to get people to stay downtown.”

The Airstreams will park only along the East side of Main Street, which is part of Oregon Route 51, a state highway running between Monmouth and an intersection with Highway 22 west of Salem.

City officials originally planned to line trailers bumper to bumper on both sides of the street, but they worried it would be too tight a squeeze for regular traffic.

“It’s harvest season,” Irvine said. “We’ve got combines and tractors coming through there.”

Highway 51 will be closed from about 2 to 4 p.m. Friday while the trailers are maneuvered into position with a forklift.

Independence offers the perfect setting for the Oregon Airstream Club and its inaugural urban rally.

“It has that classic, old downtown feel, and a beautiful downtown park,” Ellis-Kelemen said. “This will be a really good place to start.”

The Oregon Airstream Club, formed in 1959, has 230 members and is the third-largest in the nation. There are more than 110 units of Wally Byam Caravan Club International across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Wally Byam was the founder of Airstream.

This event will be a show-and-tell for both the town and the club, which is charging members $50 for the rally with all proceeds benefiting the Independence Downtown Association.

Members are looking forward to patronizing local establishments and to hosting an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday when the public can tour their Airstreams.

On display will be a mix of trailers, both old and new, big and small. But that will be just a glimpse of what can be expected next June when the parent club's 2018 international rally is held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds.

Salem hosted that event in 2006, and more than 1,200 Airstreams rolled into town.

If you don’t know much about Airstreams, here’s a quick lowdown. The polished aluminum trailers often are referred to as silver bullets, and they have a cult-like following.

Byam built the world’s first Airstream trailer, a tent contraption on a Model T chassis, in 1929. His wife wasn’t a big fan when it rained, so he replaced the tent with a teardrop-shaped permanent shelter, and he knew he was on to something.

By the 1950s, Airstream had become as much of a movement and culture as it was a business, and that holds true today.

Ellis-Keleman and her husband, Ron, bought their first Airstream in 2011. Two years later, they came down with what she referred to as one-foot-itis, trading a 19-footer for a 20-footer because of the preferred layout.

“They’re beautifully made, and they have a fabulous history,” she said, reciting a claim many Airstream aficionados do. “Seventy-percent ever made, at least the shell, are still being used today. They are indestructible.

"An Airstream is a forever trailer — unless you get one-foot-itis.”

“Forward This” appears Wednesdays and Sundays and highlights the people, places, and organizations of the Mid-Willamette Valley. Contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or 503-399-6710, or follow her the rest of the week on Twitter @CapiLynn and Facebook @CapiLynnSJ.

Airstream open house

What: The Oregon Airstream Club hosts an open house during its urban camping rally

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7

Where: Main Street in Independence

Cost: Free