tour camp david

Take a look inside Camp David, where presidents host world leaders and escape Washington

• Camp David has been a destination for presidential rest and relaxation since it opened.
• The camp has also been the site of meetings and summits with various world leaders over the years.
• Camp David has been the site of some big national and foreign policy decisions.

Nestled in the countryside of Maryland, in the Catoctin Mountain Park, is the presidential country retreat known as Camp David.

The first parts of the complex were built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935, and Franklin D. Roosevelt made it the presidential retreat. FDR originally named the property "Shangri-La," a name it kept until the Eisenhower administration, who named it Camp David after his grandson.

The compound has expanded over the years, with new cabins being built and even a pool. It has also been the site of diplomatic events like the Camp David Accords in 1978 and the G8 summit in 2012.

Here's a look inside Camp David, where presidents go to escape Washington.

The original name of Camp David was Shangri-La, the name of a fictional Himalayan paradise in the 1933 novel "Lost Horizon."

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office, he renamed the property "Camp David," after his father and grandson who had the same name.

By the end of the Eisenhower administration, Camp David looked like this. The president's cabin — Aspen Lodge — was originally called the Bear's Den by FDR.

From the beginning, Camp David gave presidents a chance to enjoy the countryside.

Here, FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fish in the woods around "Shangri La." The two men reportedly planned the D-Day invasion from a porch on one of the cabins.

Since Camp David is in the Catoctin Mountain Park, it has a number of trails around it that presidents and their families can enjoy.

Horseback riding is also a common activity for the trails, as seen here with President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush.

Originally, the pool at Camp David was far from Aspen Lodge. President Lyndon B. Johnson can be seen enjoying the pool with family, friends, and staff.

Here's another shot of Johnson at the Camp David pool.

President Richard Nixon added a pool behind the Aspen Lodge in the 1970s. President Barack Obama apparently still enjoyed it decades later.

Obama White House photographer Pete Souza snapped a number of great behind-the-scenes shots of life at Camp David, which also has tennis and basketball courts.

As well as a pool table.

Camp David can provide a relaxing setting for presidents to do their work, away from the chaos of Washington.

Many presidents have spent Christmas at Camp David.

It's pretty nice in winter too.

President Jimmy Carter turned Camp David into a place where diplomacy was conducted, like the landmark Camp David Accords in 1978.

Like Carter, President Bill Clinton used Camp David as a location for talks between Israel and Palestine.

Obama also used Camp David as a place for diplomatic events.

In 2012, he hosted the leaders of the G8 nations at Camp David.

It's not all work, though. European leaders took a break during the 2012 G8 to watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final.

President Donald Trump visited Camp David five times in his first year in office, calling it "a very special place" in one tweet.

In January 2018, Trump brought senior Republicans to Camp David for a leadership retreat.

During his presidency, Trump frequented his properties more than Camp David.

Before taking office, Trump once told a German journalist in an interview, "Camp David is very rustic, it's nice, you'd like it. You know how long you'd like it? For about 30 minutes."

By August 2020, Trump had made 500 visits to his properties. Of those 500, Trump had visited Mar-A-Lago 134 times. 

Comparatively, Trump visited Camp David five times in his first year in office, according to USA Today. He visited his golf clubs 150 times in his first year. 

Sources: Washington Post , Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington , USA Today

President Joe Biden made his first trip to Camp David three weeks into his presidency for Valentine's Day weekend.

Source: Reuters

Biden was at Camp David during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

He spent 72 hours at Camp David and cut his trip short to return to the White House and address the nation. 

Source: Washington Post

In February 2023, Biden and his team prepared for his State of the Union address from Camp David.

Source: CBS News

Most recently, Biden and his family spent the Fourth of July weekend at Camp David.

Source: Washington Examiner

Editor's note: This story was first published in February 2018 and has been updated with recent information.

• Main content

Mobile Menu Overlay

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

• Known formally as the Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Camp David is the President’s country residence. 
• Located in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, Maryland, Camp David has offered every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt an opportunity for solitude and tranquility, as well as an ideal place to work and host foreign leaders.
• Adapted from the federal employee retreat Hi-Catoctin, President Franklin Roosevelt originally established the residence as USS Shangri La, modeling the new main lodge after the Roosevelt winter vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia. President Eisenhower subsequently renamed the institution in honor of his grandson David.
• Camp David has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries. Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain attended the first such meeting in May of 1943; the summit held at the residence in 1978 for Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin resulted in what are now known as the Camp David Accords.

Stay Connected

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden.

Where is Camp David? As Biden returns, a peek at the storied presidential location

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was partial to the Camp David movie theater. George W. Bush was a fan of the cooks' fried chicken. Bill Clinton made it a family tradition to spend Thanksgiving at the presidential retreat.

Offering seclusion in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland that is not afforded at the White House, President Joe Biden has also turned to the government-owned facility, which has a movie theater, arcade, chapel, fitness center, skeet shooting range, tennis courts and a swimming pool, for respite and relaxation like many of his predecessors.

"The whole family, including the grandkids, really enjoy it," said Michael LaRosa, former press secretary to first lady Jill Biden. "They feel like they have privacy there."

Unlike the first family's Delaware homes, Camp David is a short helicopter ride away from Washington. The Bidens usually bring their dog, Commander, and cat, Willow, with them to the getaway spot. Willow once had to be fetched by Secret Service after she went from lounging by the pool, not too far from the president, who was engrossed at the time in a briefing book, to wandering Camp David's surrounding woods.

This Friday, the president will welcome Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the property, bringing back a dormant tradition of hosting foreign dignitaries at the isolated country residence of U.S. presidents that is roughly 70 miles from the White House.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"There's a difference between going to the White House and the formalities, or a private estate, versus bringing someone into your family at Camp David," said Michael Giorgione, who was the commander of Camp David under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. "And to me, it says a lot to world leaders. I would feel more special being brought to Camp David."

What is Camp David used for?

The last time the property was opened up to heads of state was in 2015, when Barack Obama convened Gulf Cooperation Council nations. A gathering of Group of Seven leaders at Camp David during Trump's final year in office was canceled amid the pandemic.

The cabins at Camp David famously housed secret negotiations in 1978 between Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during Jimmy Carter's presidency, producing a landmark peace agreement framework known as the Camp David Accords. Clinton also held talks there in 2000 with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat that failed to yield the same result.

"Camp David, as you know, has been a historic setting for summit meetings and for significant foreign policy conversations throughout the history of its existence," White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters last week. "And the president's looking forward to hosting both of these leaders, Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon, at Camp David for what we believe is a discussion of historic proportions."

White House officials said ahead of the summit that the leaders would announce a crisis hotline that the three countries will pledge to create and use to consult one another during moments of uncertainty that affect the security of any one of the nations.

The gathering will be symbolic, if little else is achieved.

"Our heightened engagement is part of our broader efforts to revitalize, to strengthen, to knit together our alliances and partnerships – and in this case, to help realize a shared vision of an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, prosperous, secure, resilient, and connected," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference this week.

Biden's summit may not have the historical importance of Carter's or Clinton's, although it is expected to be the start of a more formalized relationship between the United States and the two countries with strained relations that have sought to forge closer cooperation in the face of North Korea's provocations and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The relationship with Japan and South Korea is at the core of U.S. foreign policy and the nation's economic competition with China.

How did Camp David get its name?

Camp David was constructed as a retreat for government employees. It was christened "Shangri-La" by Franklin D. Roosevelt and renamed Camp David by Dwight D. Eisenhower after his grandson .

Presidents have used the cozy retreat for a variety of purposes over the years: Richard Nixon entertained Bob Hope and George H.W. Bush played tennis with champion Chris Evert there.

There's an "auroa" to the mountaintop, said Giorgione, who authored "Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat" and commanded the naval support facility in Thurmont. "It's casual, open collars, there's no press, unless press is invited," Giorgione said. "It's eerily quiet. It's peaceful."

"That's not every president's style," he added, "but it has worked for many of them."

Can anyone go to Camp David?

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the first foreign leader to visit Camp David in 1943. Obama held the G-8 summit there, when the economic group included Russia. In a controversial move, Trump revealed and canceled a plan to hold secret peace talks at the site with the Taliban.

Trump hosted other leaders, including former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, at his Florida golf resort Mar-a-Lago.

Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary who later served as Melania Trump's chief of staff, said the then-president preferred to have world leaders at his privately-owned clubs, where he turned a profit, "because he felt that they were the most beautiful properties in the world."

He would bring Cabinet members and senior staff to Camp David, she recalled. "He knew that Camp David was kind of a treat, kind of an honor, that not a lot of people get to stay at Camp David or even see Camp David."

Although he called it "very rustic" in an interview before he took office and did not spend as much time there as some of his predecessors, Grisham said Trump came to enjoy the property's solitude. "I never saw him super cranky up there," she said. "He just always seemed so relaxed to me, and he loved the movie theater."

George W. Bush regularly invited heads of state to join him at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. But he was also a frequent guest at Camp David, bringing former British Prime Minister Tony Blair there in February of 2001 for the pair's first meeting and again in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq War. The leaders visited Camp David together four times during their tenure. Abe was also a guest during Bush's tenure.

The Bushes and Ronald Reagan, who took Queen Elizabeth II to his isolated ranch outside of Santa Barbara, California, spent more time at Camp David, which has a dozen guest cabins, than any other U.S. leaders. George H.W. Bush's family was so fond of Camp David that his daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch, had her wedding there.

"We can walk outside, and we can also be with family and friends. And the president has used Camp David to host a lot of heads of state," former first lady Laura Bush said in an interview on the occasion of her husband George W. Bush's 100th visit to the property in 2005.

The informality of the location allows for a different type of conversation, Bush said, and meals shared with family members, aides and friends cooked by Navy Mess staff. "They're great at fried chicken and a lot of other foods that we all like. And so we can have sort of an American weekend in a beautiful setting with great American foods for heads of state."

Biden family at Camp David

For the current president, whose personal homes in Delaware do not offer the same type of seclusion or prestige, Camp David offers an intimate alternative to the executive mansion.

The Bidens spent their first Valentine's Day in office there, helping them to escape the city during Trump's second impeachment trial. President Biden has regularly visited the property ever since, spending time at Camp David over the summer with his son Hunter and grandson Beau. The first family also spent the weekend leading into Independence Day at the retreat this year.

Biden is often accompanied by staff when he visits. He went to Camp David with top aides in February as he was putting the final touches on his State of the Union speech. He was at the facility, which has a secure conference room, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. The White House shared a rare image of him at Camp David, two years ago this week, conferring with his national security team during the crisis.

He arrived at the retreat this Thursday, a day ahead of the Japanese and South Korean delegations, to prepare for the summit. Yoon and Kishida were due to arrive in the U.S. on Thursday evening. They were set to be transported, with their aides, on helicopters from the president's fleet on Friday morning.

The leaders will lunch with Blinken and the White House's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, after a day of joint and individual meetings. They are also scheduled to hold a news conference.

Presidents have a dedicated cabin, the Aspen Lodge, and guests are assigned to the property's 12 other cabins, all named after trees. Every guest cabin has a binder with laminated sheets that lists the dates and names of prior occupants going back to roughly 1969, the first lady's former spokesman said.

LaRosa recalled staying in the same spaces as Melvin Laird, defense secretary to Nixon, and former GOP Congressman Mark Meadows, the last Trump chief of staff, as well as Dorothy Rodham, former first lady Hillary Clinton's mother.

"I loved that aspect to it," LaRosa added, "that you could see all the people who stayed in your cabin every time you stayed there."

The Weekend Roady

Discovering north america and the world one adventure at a time.

AS CLOSE AS YOU’LL GET TO CAMP DAVID

Anyone that has an ear for Presidential politics surely has heard of Camp David, the Presidential retreat that often plays host to a variety of high level meetings and summits (including, most recently, the G8 Summit last year).

But, unlike the White House, how many know where it actually is?

Despite many “big name” National Park units in an around the D.C. metro area, Catoctin Mountain Park is often packed with area hikers.

Camp David is actually housed within the boundaries of a U.S. National Park site – but you wouldn’t know it from the official brochure’s map . Yes, Catoctin Mountain Park – an hour or so drive from the D.C. beltway, houses Camp David, but you won’t be seeing the President or any of the major buildings while you hike the many fantastic trails offered within the park.

I love mossy forests, my favorite still being the woods of Fundy National Park in New Brunswick (Can.)

The park does little to promote the fact that it plays host to the “other” White House, thwarting would be curious onlookers creating unnecessary distractions. The park leaflet does mention the fact that Camp David exists, noting its origins as “Shangri-La” during the FDR administration before assuming the current name (after Dwight Eisenhower’s son, David). In fact, the Camp David sign at the entrance existed for some time before being changed to the “Camp #3” sign you see above. Because, who would care about “Camp #3”? It’s not as if anyone obsesses over Area 51, right…?

This is really the easiest trail in the park, a short walk to a nice view…

I’m not unearthing any secret information here. Google Maps has displayed the exact location of Camp David for some time now. To see the “Camp #3” sign and entrance, all you need to do is get on the park’s main road (Park Central Road) and drive a little further past the most popular trails. The entrance is about a mile past the Hog Rock parking lot. I’m sure many people miss it, only going so far as Hog Rock during their Catoctin visit.

These two took my view, so they made for a nice reference point in the photo instead. Camp David would in the general area to the right of these two, but can’t be seen anywhere from along this trail or from any vantage point.

The park flyer states that you won’t see any of the Camp David buildings from the main road, but an intimidating wire fence surrounds the area and at least two lookout towers can be seen with a sharp eye. This is as close as Joe Public is going to get, and I wasn’t about to press my luck during my visit to the park.

Downtown Gettysburg, with the famous Gettysburg Hotel in the background. The town is only about a half hour drive from Catoctin Mountain Park.

Oh, and about my visit. I’ve always passed up Catoctin (despite knowing about Camp David) on drives from D.C. to Gettysburg. The park is exactly an hour drive for me and yet it took me a little over two years to get there since moving to the D.C. area. A cool day in May makes for perfect hiking at Catoctin and we did the fairly easy Blue Ridge Summit overlook hike. I also made it four states in one day as we scampered up to Pennsylvania for a late lunch (in Gettysburg) and West Virginia for a little gambling in Charles Town before heading back through Virginia and into Maryland. At one point during the trip I crossed from Maryland into Virginia and into West Virginia in less than a minute’s time. This oddity is detailed nicely on twelvemilecircle .

Location info:

( Catoctin Mountain Park Visitor Center  – open year round, hours vary – 14707 Park Central Road, Thurmont, MD.  (301)-663-9388 )

( Camp David  – National Park Service ,  whitehouse.gov )

Share this:

5 thoughts on “ as close as you’ll get to camp david ”.

Yeppers. Just try to follow these directions. Hehehehe … We will see you in a few centuries.

Just browsing around and read through your article. I wanted to correct one thing with the photo of the two hikers sitting on the rock. You state that Camp David is to the right of the hikers when in reality it is to the left. This photo was obviously taken from The Blue Ridge Summit Overlook and you’re looking north towards Victor Cullen Center and Sabillasville, MD. I’ve lived in the area my entire life and worked at Victor Cullen for a while. Just wanted to clarify that. Otherwise nice article.

Thanks for the clarification – you are most definitely correct!

I’ve been to Camp David. Really, I have. Used to go there every day. Did so for over a year. Well, that’s only because I was stationed there as part of Marine Security Company, detached from Marine Barracks in DC. After serving in Camp David for a minimum of 12 months we are awarded the Presidential Service Badge and Certificate, a very nice thing to have in my resumé.We were in charge of ALL the security there. It is a very nice place to visit but it is an impossible thing to do unless you have a Top Secret, Category One Security Clearance. Jimmy Carter was there quite often and enjoyed treating the Marines to movies, games, and what not Security there is extremely tight, as you must imagine. It is actually a Navy base, what they call a Naval Support Facility. Once you get transfered from there, you will never go back. I, by circumstances, was the only one to ever have done so. There is absolutely no way to get even as far as the fence line without being detected. It is the most immaculately kept place I have ever been, even more so than the White House. Due to security, you don’t know when you’re actually going to be stationed there or leaving; you just get called in and you have about 1 hour to pack all your gear and move. It is a beautiful place and the security rivals that which you would find in a James Bond film.

I’ve been to Camp David. In the 70s my father packed my sister and myself into his old Mustang and drove us as far as we could get on wheels. After that, we had to walk down miles of road and then miles through the woods (I remember crying because my feet hurt from all the walking, and my dad getting a little short with me!). I also recall that when we ran out of water there were a couple of rocky/mossy trickling streams we came to and drank from. I was reluctant at first, but recall my dad saying that the rocks the stream flowed over cleaned the water–and it was surprisingly cold water, considering the heat of the day. At that time, the main interior room of Camp David had a braided rug and a big rocking chair, stone hearth, and, in a word, the, lasting impression I have of it after all these years is “cozy.” I think we must have gone as part of a tour, because there were a few others in the room, even tho we’d walked there alone. I remember my dad pointing out the rockerfor, and for some reason that memory sticks out. I was eight or nine at the time, so don’t recall a lot, but it was a neat experience, even with all the walking.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• Insider Reviews
• Tech Buying Guides
• Personal Finance
• Insider Explainers
• Sustainability
• United States
• International
• Deutschland & Österreich
• South Africa

• Home ›
• Military & Defense ›

Take a tour of Camp David, where presidents host world leaders and escape Washington

The original name of camp david was shangri-la, the name of a fictional himalayan paradise in the 1933 novel "lost horizon.".

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office, he renamed the property "Camp David," after his father and grandson who had the same name.

By the end of the Eisenhower administration, Camp David looked like this. The president's cabin — Aspen Lodge — was originally called the Bear's Den by FDR.

From the beginning, Camp David gave presidents a chance to enjoy the countryside. Here, FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fish in the woods around "Shangri La." The two men reportedly planned the D-Day invasion from a porch on one of the cabins.

Since Camp David is in the Catoctin Mountain Park, it has a number of trails around it that presidents and their families can enjoy.

Horseback riding is also a common activity for the trails, as seen here with President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush.

Originally, the pool at Camp David was far from Aspen Lodge. Here is a video of the Johnson family enjoying the pool.

President Richard Nixon added a pool behind the Aspen Lodge in the 1970s. President Barack Obama apparently still enjoyed it decades later.

Obama White House photographer Pete Souza snapped a number of great behind-the-scenes shots of life at Camp David, which also has tennis and basketball courts.

As well as a pool table.

Camp David can provide a relaxing setting for presidents to do their work, away from the chaos of Washington.

Many presidents have spent Christmas at Camp David.

It's pretty nice in winter too.

President Carter turned Camp David into a place where diplomacy was conducted, like the landmark Camp David Accords in 1978.

Like Carter, President Bill Clinton used Camp David as a location for talks between Israel and Palestine.

Obama also used Camp David as a place for diplomatic events.

In 2012, he hosted the leaders of the G8 nations at Camp David.

It's not all work, though. European leaders took a break during the 2012 G8 to watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final.

President Donald Trump visited Camp David five times in his first year in office, calling it "a very special place" in one tweet.

Most recently, Trump brought senior Republicans to Camp David for a leadership retreat.

• RIL cash flows
• Charlie Munger
• Feedbank IPO allotment
• Tata IPO allotment
• Most generous retirement plans
• Broadcom lays off
• Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
• Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
• Nestle Sept 2023 report
• India Equity Market
• Best printers for Home
• Best Mixer Grinder
• Best wired Earphones
• Best 43 Inch TV in India
• Best Wi Fi Routers
• Best Vacuum Cleaner
• Best Home Theatre in India
• Smart Watch under 5000
• Best Laptops for Education
• Best Laptop for Students

• Advertising
• Write for Us
• Privacy Policy
• Policy News
• Personal Finance News
• Mobile News
• Business News
• Ecommerce News
• Startups News
• Stock Market News
• Finance News
• Entertainment News
• Economy News
• Careers News
• International News
• Politics News
• Education News
• Advertising News
• Health News
• Science News
• Retail News
• Sports News
• Personalities News
• Corporates News
• Environment News
• Top 10 Richest people
• Top 10 Largest Economies
• Lucky Color for 2023
• How to check pan and Aadhaar
• Deleted Whatsapp Messages
• How to restore deleted messages
• 10 types of Drinks
• Instagram Sad Face Filter
• Unlimited Wifi Plans
• Recover Whatsapp Messages
• Google Meet
• Check Balance in SBI
• How to check Vodafone Balance
• Transfer Whatsapp Message
• NSE Bank Holidays
• Dual Whatsapp on Single phone
• Phone is hacked or Not
• How to Port Airtel to Jio
• Window 10 Screenshot

Copyright © 2024 . Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.

Trips to Camp David

Camp David is a Presidential Retreat in the Maryland Catoctin Mountains about 60 miles outside Washington, DC. The Reagans visited Camp David frequently for horseback riding, walking with their dogs, watching films on Friday and Saturday, and just generally relaxing.

• January 30-February 1
• February 13-16
• April 25-27
• July 31-August 2
• August 11-13
• September 18-20
• September 25-27
• October 2-4
• October 9-12
• October 30-November 1
• December 11-13
• January 8-10
• January 22-24
• February 12-14
• March 12-14
• March 19-21
• April 17-18
• July 30-August 1
• August 13-15
• September 10-12
• October 1-3
• October 15-17
• October 29-31
• November 19-21

• January 7-9
• January 21-23
• February 4-6
• March 11-13
• March 18-20
• April 15-17
• September 16-18
• October 7-10
• October 14-16
• October 28-30
• November 4-6
• December 2-4
• December 9-11
• January 6-8
• January 13-15
• January 20-22
• February 3-5
• February 24-26
• March 16-18
• March 30-April 1
• April 14-15
• June 29-July 1
• August 24-26
• September 7-9
• September 28-30
• October 5-7
• October 12-14
• October 26-28
• November 30-December 2
• December 7-9
• December 21-23
• January 4-6
• January 11-13
• February 1-3
• February 8-10
• February 22-24
• March 29-31
• April 19-21
• May 31-June 2
• September 6-8
• September 13-15
• September 20-22
• October 4-6
• October 11-14
• October 25-27
• November 1-3
• December 20-21

• January 10-12
• January 17-20
• January 31-February 2
• February 21-23
• February 28-March 2
• March 14-16
• April 11-13
• April 18-20
• May 30-June 1
• September 12-14
• September 19-21
• September 26-28
• October 3-5
• October 17-19
• November 7-10
• November 14-16
• November 21-23
• December 5-7
• December 19-21
• January 16-19
• January 23-25
• February 20-22
• March 13-15
• March 20-22
• April 24-26
• September 11-13
• October 23-25
• November 6-8
• November 13-15
• January 15-18
• February 5 -7
• February 19-21
• April 22-24
• September 23-25
• October 21-23
• November 11-13

What can we help you find?

While we certainly appreciate historical preservation, it looks like your browser is a bit too historic to properly view whitehousehistory.org. — a browser upgrade should do the trick.

Main Content

White House History Live: Inside Camp David

Show Me More

Join us in learning more about White House History right from your own home. Our Facebook Live series, White House History Live, delves into the stories that make up the history of the Executive Mansion.

In his book Inside Camp David , Michael Giorgione provides an insider account of the famous presidential campsite in the Catoctin Mountains. A Navy veteran of 29 years, Giorgione served as the Commander of Camp David during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He will tell stories of his time at Camp David and provide details about the fascinating history of this exclusive retreat.

This event will be live streamed on the White House Historical Association's Facebook and YouTube pages starting at 5 pm ET on August 10th.

The Official 2024 White House Christmas Ornament

Tour Description

How the pentagon relocates to site r.

Too busy for a tour? Now you can visit us online using Google Streetview.

Camp David, History of the Presidential Retreat

Presidential Retreat Has Hosted Private Moments and World Events

• U.S. Presidents
• Important Historical Figures
• Native American History
• American Revolution
• America Moves Westward
• The Gilded Age
• Crimes & Disasters
• The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Latin American History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History

Camp David, a rustic retreat nestled in the heavily wooded mountains of western Maryland, has been used by every American president since Franklin Roosevelt as a place to escape from the pressures of official Washington. Over the decades, the secluded and heavily guarded enclave has hosted not only the private moments of presidents and their families, but also meetings which have impacted the entire world.

What had been a rugged camp built by WPA workers in the 1930s, the location in the Catoctin Mountains became a highly secret presidential hideout during the darkest days of World War II. The existence of the camp wasn't even acknowledged by the federal government until after the end of the war.

Key Takeaways: History of Camp David

• Camp David was originally called Shangri-La, and in wartime replaced FDR's presidential yacht.
• Though only a short flight from the White House lawn, it is secluded and a world away from official Washington. The rustic retreat in the Maryland mountains has hosted many private presidential moments, but also historic world events.
• Notable visitors to Camp David have included Winston Churchill, Nikita Khrushchev, Margaret Thatcher, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat.

Camp David has often played a part in the mystique that surrounds the presidency. It has hosted barbecues, cabinet meetings, sledding parties (which cost a first lady a broken leg), peace conferences, summits, outings on horseback, and competitive afternoons at the camp's skeet range.

History of Camp David

Something most Americans never realize is that Camp David is a naval facility. Officially designated as Naval Support Facility Thurmont, the camp is situated near the small town of Thurmont, Maryland.

It seems odd that a camp far from the ocean and high up in Maryland's mountains would be run by the U.S. Navy. But Camp David's history begins with a boat.

When America entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt's diversion of sailing the Potomac River in the presidential yacht (also named Potomac) became a major issue of national security. In the winter of 1941-42 U-Boats raided the American Atlantic coast. There was a genuine fear at the top levels of government that a U-Boat could conceivably sail into the Chesapeake Bay and up the Potomac River.

With yachting out of the question, the Navy was tasked with finding a suitable location for the president to escape from the stress of Washington. The desire to avoid humid conditions pointed the search toward higher altitudes, which led to some heavily wooded land the federal government happened to own in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.

As part of a New Deal program in the 1930s, acreage thought unsuitable for other purposes was dedicated to new uses. The land in the mountains, which couldn't be farmed, was transformed into rustic recreational camps. One of the camps, known as Camp 3, seemed like a potential location for a presidential retreat. It was relatively remote, it sat high up in dry cool air for most of the year, and it met the standard for wartime security. Hardly anyone knew it existed.

Roosevelt was driven to the camp in May 1942 and loved it. The cabins at the camp were soon brought up to a comfortable, but hardly luxurious, standard. Plumbing was installed in what would be the president's cabin, and members of the military installed communications equipment. Fences were built around the camp. With wartime building projects accelerating around the country, the building of a presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains went unnoticed by the press and the public.

The location was still known officially as Camp 3. Roosevelt was a fan of the novel Lost Horizon , the plot of which involves airplane passengers stranded in a mountain paradise called Shangri-La. To the president, Camp 3 would be known as Shangri-La. The existence of the camp was not announced to the public.

Roosevelt began using the retreat in 1942, and welcomed an important visitor in May 1943. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled to the U.S. to discuss war strategy with Roosevelt, and some of their time, which included some planning for the following year's D-Day invasion , was spent at Shangri-La. The two leaders enjoyed sitting on a screen porch at the front of Roosevelt's cabin, and on spring afternoons they visited a nearby stream to fish for trout.

Newspaper reports about Churchill's visit mentioned him being at the White House and addressing a joint session of Congress. But wartime security concerns meant there was no mention of his trip up into the Maryland hills.

Historically Significant Events

Following Roosevelt's death, Harry Truman visited Shangri-La a few times, but never really took a liking to it.

When Dwight Eisenhower became president, he became a fan of the camp, and he liked it so much he named it for his grandson. Camp David soon became familiar to Americans. Eisenhower was the first president to use a presidential helicopter, which put Camp David within 35 minutes of the White House.

Eisenhower's use of Camp David seemed to perfectly fit the America of the 1950s. He hosted barbecues, at which he loved grilling steaks. Following his heart attack in 1956, he recuperated at Camp David.

In September 1959, Eisenhower invited Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to Camp David in hopes that the placid atmosphere would reduce Cold War tensions. Khrushchev later referred to the "spirit of Camp David," which was seen as a positive sign, though relations between the superpowers remained tense.

When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, he was asked about the presidential retreat. He said he would keep the name Camp David, but didn't expect to use the facility much. For the first two years of his administration, the Kennedy family rented a horse farm in Virginia for weekend getaways. But in 1963, they began to use Camp David more.

Kennedy, who loved history, traveled from Camp David for two visits to nearby historical sites. He visited the battlefield at Gettysburg on Sunday, March 31, 1963. According to news reports , he drove himself and family members in a convertible. The following Sunday, April 7, 1963, Kennedy and friends took a helicopter from Camp David to tour the battlefield at Antietam .

As the 1960s turned turbulent, Camp David became a welcome refuge for presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon . By flying to Camp David, they could escape the chants of anti-war protesters that carried to the windows of the White House.

When Jimmy Carter came into office in 1977, he was intent on removing some of the pomp associated with the presidency. According to some accounts, he was intent on selling off Camp David, as he viewed it as an unnecessary extravagance. National security officials explained to him that Camp David had unseen features which make it impossible to sell to civilians.

Beneath some of the cabins were bomb shelters and command bunkers built during the Eisenhower administration. On a visit to Camp David in 1959, British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan was shown the underground facilities, which he described in his diary as "an underground fortress."

Carter forgot about selling the presidential retreat when he began to use it and came to love it. In September 1978 Carter hosted talks at Camp David between Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt that went on for 13 days of difficult negotiations. The Camp David Accords were the eventual result.

Carter's Camp David summit stood out as perhaps his greatest achievement, and later presidents would occasionally use Camp David as a backdrop for diplomacy. Presidents Reagan and Bush hosted world leaders for meetings. In 2000, Bill Clinton hosted what was billed as the "Camp David Summit" between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The summit garnered a lot of news coverage, but no substantive agreement came out of it.

Following the 9/11 attacks on America, President George W. Bush used Camp David extensively as a getaway from the White House.

In May 2012, President Barack Obama hosted a G8 Summit, a gathering of world leaders, at Camp David. The meeting was originally planned to be held in Chicago, and it was widely assumed the change to Camp David was intended to avoid demonstrations.

Private Presidential Moments

The true purpose of Camp David has always been to provide a relaxing escape from the pressures of the White House. And sometimes the recreation pursuits in the Maryland woods have taken a surprising turn.

In January 1991, first lady Barbara Bush broke her leg in a sledding accident at Camp David. Newspapers the following day showed her arriving back at the White House in a wheelchair. The break was not too severe and she recovered quickly.

At times, the array of diversions at Camp David has prompted skepticism. In 2013, Barack Obama , while talking about the issue of guns in a magazine interview, mentioned shooting at clay targets at Camp David. Critics pounced, claiming the president had to be exaggerating.

To quell the controversy, the White House released a photograph showing the president firing a shotgun on the Camp David skeet range.

• Schuster, Alvin. "Woodsy White House: Camp David, long a retreat for Chief Executives, has become a prime news source." New York Times. 8 May 1960. p. 355.
• Giorgione, Michael.  Inside Camp David: The Private World of the Presidential Retreat. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
• The Camp David Accords, Jimmy Carter's 1978 Middle East Peace Plan
• 5 Presidential Places You'll Want to Discover
• 10 Things to Know About Jimmy Carter
• Jimmy Carter- Facts on the 39th President
• History and Events of the Presidential Inauguration
• Barack Obama's Two Terms as President
• What the President of the United States Does
• The First President on TV and Other Key Moments in Politics and Media
• First Pets: Animals in the White House
• Adlai Stevenson: American Statesman and Presidential Candidate
• U.S. Policy in the Middle East: 1945 to 2008
• All About the White House Press Corps
• The Resolute Desk
• The Youngest President in American History
• Biography of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War Era Soviet Leader
• Christmas at the White House In the 19th Century

• Skip to global NPS navigation
• Skip to this park navigation
• Skip to the main content
• Skip to this park information section
• Skip to the footer section

Exiting nps.gov

Alerts in effect, presidential retreat.

Last updated: February 21, 2021

Park footer

Contact info, mailing address:.

6602 Foxville Road Thurmont, MD 21788

301 663-9388

Stay Connected

A lunchtime newsletter featuring political analysis on the stories driving the day.

Four things to watch from Biden’s big Camp David summit

with research by Caroline Anders

 Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here . On this day in 1998, Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to testify as the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation. That evening, he made televised remarks in which he admitted he had had a relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky that was “not appropriate.”

The big idea

“First” things first: President Biden’s Friday summit with leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David will be the first time he has hosted foreign officials at the retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin mountains and is thought to be the first stand alone summit ever to group all three countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will be the first foreign leaders to visit Camp David since 2015. (The covid pandemic forced the cancellation of a planned Group of Seven countries summit there in 2020.)

It’s a momentous gathering. Historically, both countries have been extremely close American allies for decades, while nourishing considerable hostility toward each other , largely the legacy of Japanese rule over Korea for most of the first half of the 20th Century.

“It’s unprecedented,” according to Dennis Wilder, who served as the top Asia policy official on President George W. Bush ’s national security council from 2005 to 2009 and now teaches foreign policy at Georgetown.

“I don’t know a time in the recent past when you’ve had them together and off by themselves. They’re usually together on the margins of other international summits ,” Wilder told The Daily 202. (Both countries attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gatherings.)

And those don’t necessarily go well. Bush, who was “very eager to bind the alliance together” and made improving relations “part of our China policy,” convened a three-way meeting on the sidelines of another international forum.

“Afterwards, President Bush leaned towards us and said ‘well, that was a boxing match, not a meeting,’” Wilder recalled. “They were just going at each other, hammer and tongs, extremely hostile, didn’t care that we were there. It was frankly embarrassing as a meeting.”

“We’ve just come a long long way from that,” he said.

How far? Here are four things to watch.

1. How far do they go on mutual defense?

China, Russia and North Korea loom pretty large over the gathering.

Officials have set the table for some significantly increased cooperation on national security and mutual defense , though they won’t build something like Article 5 of the NATO charter, which requires signatories to come to the aid of an ally under attack.

“The three leaders are expected to affirm publicly for the first time that their nations’ security is linked, and commit to consulting each other in the event of a regional security crisis,” my colleagues Michelle Ye He Lee and Ellen Nakashima reported overnight .

• “Occasional trilateral military exercises will become annual, ballistic missile defense exercises will become regular and data-sharing on North Korean ballistic missile threats will grow more robust. A secure hotline will be set up to allow the leaders to be in touch in crises and in peacetime,” Michelle reported.

“It’ll be important to see what they say about what are our obligations to each other in case one is attacked,” Wilder said , “The more that we can signal a form of mutual defense, the better.”

2. Can they resolve some economic tension?

“On economic security, officials expect to announce initiatives to shore up supply chains for critical technologies, such as semiconductors and EV batteries , including through an ‘early warning’ system about shortages, officials said,” Michelle reported.

But South Korea and Japan — indeed, many allies that manufacture cars or microchips — have expressed deep concerns about the impact on their domestic industries of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS act, which come with billions of dollars of incentives to steer investments to the United States when they might otherwise go to allies.

All sides insist they are resolving their differences, and there are signs of workarounds. In December, the Treasury Department effectively declared that leased electric vehicles were exempt from IRA restrictions on foreign-made EVs qualifying for tax credits. 

3. Does 2024 intrude?

Here’s Michelle again: “But the current moment is fragile. Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida both face stagnant approval ratings. Yoon’s efforts may be hampered after the legislative elections in 2024, if his party cannot win a majority. Former U.S. president Donald Trump , who has questioned the value of alliances and was lukewarm on maintaining relationships with both nations, could be reelected next year.”

That could strengthen rather than sap the leaders’ willingness to cement the alliance. And a reelection-minded Biden wouldn’t mind headlines about a united front in the face of China. But it might also make him less likely to make economic-policy concessions .

4. What’s China’s real-time reaction?

China, which is the largest trading partner of both Japan and South Korea, is on the record denouncing the summit as an effort to build a “mini-NATO.” How will Beijing react, both during the gathering and in its immediate aftermath? Economically? A military show of force?

The meeting will be equal parts substance and symbolism — notably because that’s where U.S.-driven diplomacy helped lead to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

“Camp David has special meaning,” Wilder said. “To me, it symbolizes where two, if you will, warring parties, two adversaries, were able to come together, bury some history, and move forward together.” 

Politics-but-not

See an important political story that doesn’t quite fit traditional politics coverage? Flag it for us here.

What’s happening now

New vaccines this fall could curb covid variant, respiratory viruses.

“Health officials are unveiling a new arsenal of vaccines to protect vulnerable Americans and exhausted health-care workers from an expected wave of covid, flu and RSV as the fall respiratory virus season begins ,” Fenit Nirappil and Lena H. Sun report .

• “ An updated covid booster should be available by late September . Flu shots are arriving at doctors’ offices. And for the first time, infants and seniors could be immunized against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a persistent foe that public health officials had few ways to prevent.”

More : What to know about new covid booster, RSV vaccines, flu shots this fall

More than 60 feared dead off Cape Verde islands after migrant boat found

“ More than 60 people are feared dead after a migrant boat was discovered off the coast of the Atlantic island nation of Cape Verde , the United Nations’ migration agency said — more than a month after they are believed to have left Senegal,” Victoria Bisset reports .

Lunchtime reads from The Post

Inside the russian effort to build 6,000 attack drones with iran’s help.

“The engineers at a once-bustling industrial hub deep inside Russia were busy planning. The team had been secretly tasked with building a production line that would operate around-the-clock churning out self-detonating drones , weapons that President Vladimir Putin ’s forces could use to bombard Ukrainian cities,” Dalton Bennett and Mary Ilyushina report .

• “This was Russia’s billion-dollar weapons deal with Iran coming to life in November , 500 miles east of Moscow in the Tatarstan region. Its aim is to domestically build 6,000 drones by summer 2025 — enough to reverse the Russian army’s chronic shortages of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, on the front line.”
• “If it succeeds, the sprawling new drone factory could help Russia preserve its dwindling supply of precision munitions , thwart Ukraine’s effort to retake occupied territory and dramatically advance Moscow’s position in the drone arms race that is remaking modern warfare.”

How a fight over immunity unraveled Hunter Biden’s plea deal

“The public unraveling reflected tensions that have always hung over the Biden investigation — a case Republicans have used to attack President Biden’s integrity and invoked when Democrats talk about the criminal investigations of former president Donald Trump, the leading contender for the GOP nomination to challenge Joe Biden in 2024,” Perry Stein, Devlin Barrett and Matt Viser report .

• “And in the three weeks since, efforts to negotiate a new deal have also foundered, doomed by the federal government’s insistence that any immunity offered be narrow while the FBI keeps investigating Hunter Biden’s work for foreign entities — and by the younger Biden’s equally fervent demand that any agreement he signs should put his legal troubles behind him.”

… and beyond

Trump supporters post names and addresses of georgia grand jurors online.

“The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric , ” NBC News ’s Blayne Alexander and Ryan J. Reilly report .

• “It’s becoming all too commonplace to see everyday citizens performing necessary functions for our democracy being targeted with violent threats by Trump-supporting extremists,” said Daniel J. Jones , a former FBI investigator and staffer for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

Plea negotiations could mean no 9/11 defendants face the death penalty, the U.S. tells families

“The suspected architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his fellow defendants may never face the death penalty under plea agreements now under consideration to bring an end to their more than decadelong prosecution, the Pentagon and FBI have advised families of some of the thousands killed,” the Associated Press ’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Jennifer Peltz report .

The Biden agenda

For biden, celebrating what a law did rather than what it did not.

“The anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act happened to coincide with a significant decrease in the inflation rate, but the law was really about priorities like clean energy, drug prices and corporate taxes ,” the New York Times ’s Peter Baker reports .

Poll: Biden’s approval rating on the economy stagnates despite slowing inflation

“ Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the economy , slightly lower than the 42% who approve of his overall performance, according to the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research,” the AP ’s Josh Boak and Emily Swanson report .

• “ Both figures are close to where Biden’s approval numbers have stood for about the past year and a half, including just two months ago . Signs of an improving economic outlook have done little to sway how people feel about the Democratic president as he gears up for a 2024 reelection campaign.”

How quickly populations will run out of water, visualized

“ A growing population and rising temperatures will strain the world’s freshwater supplies over the next 30 years , jeopardizing available water for drinking, bathing and growing food, according to new research,” Veronica Penney and John Muyskens report .

• “An analysis of newly released data from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that by 2050 an additional billion people will be living in arid areas and regions with high water stress, where at least 40 percent of the renewable water supply is consumed each year . Two-fifths of the world’s population — 3.3 billion people in total — currently live in such areas.”

Hot on the left

How state capacity can help america build.

“Through an elegant study that isolates procurement processes, [ Zachary Liscow ] and his co-authors demonstrate that increases in government capacity, which can invite more bidders into a project and foment competition, translate into substantial cost reductions, which subsequently leads to faster and more robust projects . While one shouldn’t translate the study into an overarching monocausal theory for how to accelerate building, it’s a piece of the puzzle that is woefully understudied and should enter the conversation,” David Dayen writes for the American Prospect .

Hot on the right

As biden celebrates climate funding, republicans eye the money.

“The Biden administration is marking the first anniversary of its climate, tax and health care package on Wednesday as House Republicans are doing their best to gouge out big chunks of the funding provided by the bill but remains unspent, ” Roll Call’ s David Jordan reports .

• “The administration is trying to steer the funding to its intended uses, an effort that House Republicans are trying to obstruct in their fiscal 2024 spending bills .”

Today in Washington

At 12:35 p.m., Biden will travel to Avoca, Pa., where he will pay respect to former Pennsylvania first lady Ellen Casey in advance of a viewing.

Biden will fly to Hagerstown, Md., at 2:10 p.m. He will arrive at Camp David at 3:15 p.m.

Awkward Americans see themselves in Ron DeSantis

“ Awkwardness is not the kind of relatability a politician necessarily wants . It’s safe to say the DeSantis campaign was hoping their man would be defined by attributes such as toughness or youth,” Ben Terris writes .

• “Before he ran for president, he was this abrasive governor, always fighting with reporters and giving off an impression of being extremely confident,” said Joseph Coll, a native Floridian who is now in Arizona getting his law degree. “Now he’s like a sad puppy, and it’s surprising that he actually feels relatable to me.”

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

Didn't book FREE tour? Do it now!

2,5 absolutely FREE DAILY walking tour in Moscow. We're TOP-rated company according to TA reviews! Book now and get meeting points details!

TOURS / SERVICES

Testimonial

"A very enjoybale day in Moscow. We had a very nice and knowledgeable guide Anastasia.(Nastia) She was very passionate about the City and we learnt so much in our brief four hours walk with her! Certainly this walking tour added a lot of value to our Moscow Holiday. A great idea to educate visitors about Russia and Moscow. The group was intimate enough to ask questions and stop for snacks etc..we thoriughly enjoyed it and would highly reccomend it.Carry on doing a great job!"

"I really enjoyed the tour, it was a great experience, very informative and fun. I will definitely tell everybody about that tour, keep it it is a fantastic idea!"

"Sorry I do not remember the names :( ... They were very talkative and very into everything. I think they both really love the city, and they made me feel like this to. They knew much about History, which was very informative! Great guides!!!"

"We partook of the fantastic Petersburg Free Tour. Due to our timing during the low season (shockingly not everyone is flocking to Moscow while the average temperature is 15F), it ended up being just us and Sonia, the afore-mentioned super-guide. She quickly ascertained the limited scope of our wanderings.."