On large well organized camp sites it wasn't uncommon for someone to have an old rail-type car jack to pull up stakes.

This observation was made back in the 70s. A local company that specializes in large tents for receptions and such used steel form stakes, about 3/4" diameter, for hard soils like limestone and asphalt and shop-made stakes of what looked like 1" x 1" angle iron in two and three foot lengths for sand and soft duff. From solid limestone to beach sand the combination seems to work.

For very soft sand, what we call 'sugar sand', they put a stake in deep and tie it off to a second stake in-line behind the first or, in extreme, cases a third. When all else fails, for key anchors, they bury a length of 2by6 with a piece of rope drilled through the flat and a knot backed by a large washer as a deadman.

As of last year, the last reception I went to, most tent companies seem to use the steel form stakes for hard soils and hydraulically driven spiral anchors, mobile home anchors, for everything else. That's for very large, near circus sized, tents that have to put up with thunderstorms and high winds.

None of that is light or compact. They pretty much had one truck which carried nothing but stakes, jacks, ropes, hammers and drivers.