Considering the millions Camp David is probably worth today on the real estate market in the Maryland mountains, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved to be a wily horse trader in the early 1940s. 

He was reluctant to give up his yacht for any piece of land but the president recognized the reality of the threat to his life on America’s seaboard.  He also wanted to avoid suffering sinus attacks from the heat and humidity of another Washington DC summer. His doctors were concerned about his condition and deteriorating health.  Consequently, the White House, the Secret Service and the National Park Service and other governmental agencies sought a suitable site in Virginia and Maryland.

The search committee examined three sites for the president to review.  Furnace Mountain, VA on the Potomac below Harper’s Ferry, the Shenandoah National Park and former President Herbert Hoover’s summer White House at Camp Rapidan, a 164-acre recreation site, were visited.  FDR spent one weekend at Camp Rapidan and never went back.  While fishing at Rapidan was considered the best, the nearest telephone was seven miles away.  The Shenandoah site was 3,000 feet above sea level and cool, it was about 100 miles from Washington, a three to four hour drive to the capital in the best of conditions in the days before helicopters.  A preliminary estimate figured the construction of what was needed in the Shenandoah would have taken more than $150,000.

Roosevelt, an astute politician, didn’t want to show the country and the Congress his needs would be costly at a time when Americans were being asked to sacrifice. 

A remote location in the Catoctin Mountain of Maryland was then checked out in mid-March, 1942.  Just four days after Jimmy Doolittle led a bombing mission on Tokyo, FDR left the White House in a five-car caravan turned north on Route 15, passed through downtown Frederick, MD and arrived late in the afternoon at Camp #3 called “Hi-Catoctin” in the Recreational Demonstration Area Project near Thurmont, MD.  A Works Project Administration site, Camp #3 offered a 125 acre area deep in the woods, with rough wooden buildings already in place. It met various criteria; one, it was only 70 miles or so from the capital, two, it was nearly 10 degrees cooler than Washington at an elevation of 1,600 to 1,800 feet above sea level; three, nearby streams offered good fishing; four, the Secret Service found it difficult to detect from the air and well-protected with a wall of forestation on all sides and fifth , and possibly an important reason to a president concerned about not alerting the Congress to an extravagant spending in time of war, the estimated conversion cost of this federal land was a cheap $18,650. 

It was a steal in those days before sub-prime mortgage difficulties. 

The pluses were too good to be true.  An Office of Strategic Services (OSS) camp would be installed next door with trainees who would become sentries and guards, A pond was close by for swimming or fishing and access roads, although rough, were ready.  In addition, construction lumber ---two and a half million of blighted Chestnut trees---was also available.  And WPA workers didn’t just clear the land and erect basic structures, they used their skills to fashion ironware and hinges for gates, doors, lighting fixtures, tables and window frames. 

President Roosevelt knew a good deal when he saw it; he selected Hi-Catoctin after his first visit April 22.  It was a turbulent time; the war wasn’t going well, Americans were being asked to make more and more sacrifices and the public mood wasn’t upbeat.  Thus, it wasn’t a surprise when Roosevelt seized the Doolittle raid on Tokyo to name the camp.  The code word for the raid was “Shangri-La” from James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon.

And Shangri-La was where Roosevelt wanted to be.

Let me know your thoughts on Camp David at jbehrens@roadrunner.com.