Camp David

• 1. Introduction

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  Camp David does not appear on any official map of Catoctin Mountain Park, the public land that surrounds it. That deliberate blank hints at the character of the 125-acre retreat tucked into the wooded hills of Frederick County, Maryland. It lies roughly 62 miles north-northwest of Washington, D.C., near the small towns of Thurmont and Emmitsburg. Seabees, Navy personnel, and Marines staff the grounds. Its official code name is Naval Support Facility Thurmont. Yet for all that secrecy and military structure, the retreat has served as a gathering place for family, for recreation, and for negotiations. Some of those negotiations rank among the most sensitive in American history. How did a modest government rest camp become an address for history? And what happens when the outside world refuses to stay away?

• 2. Named for Two Davids

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  Construction began in 1935, when the Works Progress Administration broke ground on Hi-Catoctin, a planned getaway for federal government workers and their families. The project was finished in 1938. Franklin D. Roosevelt converted it to a presidential retreat in 1942 and renamed it Shangri-La, after the fictional Himalayan paradise.

  In May 1943, with the Second World War still underway, Roosevelt hosted British prime minister Winston Churchill at Shangri-La. It was a wartime meeting between two Allied leaders.

  Dwight Eisenhower gave the property its permanent name in 1953. He chose Camp David to honor two men who shared that name: his father and his grandson. On the 22nd of November 1955, Eisenhower held his first Cabinet meeting at Camp David since a heart attack had struck him in Denver, Colorado, on the 24th of September that year. Camp David would, in September 1959, host two days of face-to-face talks between Eisenhower and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

• 3. A Diplomatic Stage

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  Jimmy Carter arrived as president intending to close Camp David and save government money. A visit changed his mind. In September 1978, he brokered the Camp David Accords there. Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin were the two parties he brought together.

  In July 2000, Bill Clinton convened the 2000 Camp David Summit at the retreat. Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat were the principals. Barack Obama chose Camp David to host the 38th G8 summit in 2012. He also hosted Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev at the retreat, as well as the GCC Summit in 2015. In August 2023, Joe Biden convened the U.S.-Japan-Korea Summit at Camp David. Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol were both present. Those talks concluded with a declaration called the Camp David Principles.

  After the September 11 attacks, George W. Bush convened a Cabinet meeting at Camp David to plan the United States invasion of Afghanistan. He had held his first meeting with a European leader at Camp David in February 2001. British prime minister Tony Blair came to discuss missile defense, Iraq, and NATO. Bush and Blair would meet at Camp David three more times over the course of the presidency.

  In 1984, Ronald Reagan hosted British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at Camp David.

• 4. How Presidents Used It

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  Ronald Reagan made 189 visits to Camp David during his two terms, more than any other president. He used the grounds for horseback riding, restoring the nature trails that Richard Nixon had paved over during his own 160 visits.

  Nixon personally directed improvements to Aspen Lodge, including the construction of a swimming pool. George W. Bush's 149 visits added up to 487 days at the retreat over his two terms.

  In 1992, George H. W. Bush's daughter Dorothy Bush Koch was married at Camp David. It was the first wedding ever held there. Bill Clinton spent every Thanksgiving at Camp David with his family during his years in office. John F. Kennedy often let White House staff and Cabinet members use the retreat when he and his family were not there.

  Lyndon B. Johnson hosted Australian prime minister Harold Holt and Canadian prime minister Lester B. Pearson at Camp David. He also held meetings with his advisors at the retreat.

  Dwight Eisenhower had golf course architect Robert Trent Jones design a practice facility at Camp David around 1954. Jones built one par 3 hole with four different tees. Eisenhower then added a 250-yard driving range near the helicopter landing zone.

  Donald Trump brought Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to Camp David in 2018. The Republican Party was preparing to defend both houses of Congress in that year's midterm elections.

• 5. The Retreat Tested

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  Donald Trump planned in 2019 to invite Taliban representatives to Camp David to negotiate a peace agreement for Afghanistan. A suicide bombing in Kabul that killed American troops led him to cancel those talks. The 46th G7 summit was scheduled to be held at Camp David on the 10th through the 12th of June 2020. Health concerns during what was then considered the height of the COVID-19 pandemic led to its cancellation.

  On the 2nd of July 2011, an F-15 intercepted a civilian aircraft roughly 10 kilometers from Camp David while President Obama was in residence. The two-seater had lost radio contact and was escorted without incident to Hagerstown, Maryland. On the 10th of July that same year, another F-15 intercepted a small plane near the compound while Obama was again on the grounds. Three aircraft in total were turned away from the airspace that weekend.

  Camp David is visible through publicly accessible satellite images and on certain web mapping services, including Google Maps.