Getta outta here to Hoover's 'Camp David'

Some hike for exercise; others enjoy scenic discoveries waiting at the end of an arduous climb. I prefer the latter.

But I knew two things as I descended nearly two miles from Big Meadows on the Skyline Drive: a.) it was going to be a steep climb back to the car, and b.) I wasn’t heading to a mountaintop overlook.

Instead, history was waiting.

Camp Rapidan.

It may not be well known to most as a presidential getaway, but it could have been. President Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, bought the Madison County property with that in mind, but apparently Hoover’s successor wasn’t smitten with the rustic retreat.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited, but stayed only for about a half-hour, a park ranger said. Perhaps it was because the two politicians weren’t the best of friends. Most likely it was because Camp Rapidan was not wheelchair-accessible, so FDR established his own Shangri-la in the Catoctin Mountains. (It was Dwight D. Eisenhower who changed the Maryland estate’s name to Camp David.)

Still, when Hoover left office in 1932, he donated the 165-acre site to what soon was to become the Shenandoah National Park, with the stipulation that the cabins still could be used by political insiders.

Over the years, they were. Cabinet members, congressmen, a Supreme Court justice, even President Jimmy Carter and his family vacationed at the camp. Carter and his daughter Amy are reported to have gotten off a helicopter at Big Meadows and jogged down the six-mile fire road that leads to the camp. (They didn’t jog back up.) Vice President Al Gore was among the last of the bigwigs to stay at Camp Rapidan, better known to locals as Camp Hoover.

The Boy Scouts had a lease for 10 years during the 1940s and 1950s, but what remains of the camp today is a little-known museum to the 31st president and his first lady.

Hoover, the first president to give away his salary, had declined other offers for a weekend retreat, including one for a $100,000 presidential lodge. Congress even offered $48,000 toward a weekend getaway.

Instead, the Hoovers used their own funds and bought the land for $5 an acre and spent more $15,000 on materials. Some people still grumbled that he used the Marines, at taxpayers’ expense, to build the camp as a training exercise.

Today, three of the original 13 cabins remain, with one used by park personnel. Another is the Prime Minster’s Cabin, where Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald stayed in 1929, houses historical exhibits.

And then there is the Brown House. The Hoovers named the brown building “Brown” because their Washington house was called “White.”

It is decorated much the way it was when Charles and Anne Lindbergh visited the Hoovers. Several pieces, including a cabinet made in Madison County, were there when the Hoovers moved in. They decorated their two-bedroom, two-bathroom getaway with handmade furniture and other items taken from a decommissioned presidential yacht.

Lou Henry Hoover — the first woman in America to earn a geology degree, from Stanford no less, and an avid supporter of the Girl Scouts — hired an architect who had built Girl Scout camps to design the Brown House.

Had she had her way, their cabin would have been little more than a wooden floor covered by a canvas tent, as it had started out, but the Secret Service was not fond of that idea. So for security purposes, the wooden structure was completed … as it still stands today.

Despite the Great Depression, the Hoovers were good Madison County neighbors. They gave a loan to a furniture maker when fire destroyed his business. They bought a bell for a nearby church. And, when they learned local children had no school, they built one and an apartment for a teacher. Even after they left the White House, Mrs. Hoover followed the children’s progress.

if you’re going
HIKING: The 4.2-mile Mill Prong Trail is steep, with an 870-foot elevation change and several creek crossings. Park at Milam Gap Parking Area, Milepost 52.8 on Skyline Drive. Or take the 6-mile fire road from Big Meadows, Milepost 51. For a mix of road and trail, take the horse trail terminus for two miles along this route..
VAN TOUR: Visit the Byrd Visitor Center or call (540) 999-3283 for reservations. Each van ride is limited to 12 people; book early.
WHEN: The camp is open May 24 through Sept. 1.
COST: Admission is free, but you will need to pay to get onto Skyline Drive.

Mary Alice Blackwell, who writes for The Daily Progress, can be reached at mblackwell@dailyprogress.com.