About

This is an unofficial blog and is not associated with or endorsed by anyone at Camp David   
Contact:  aboutcampdavid@gmail.com 

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I became interested in Camp David after researching it for my other website.  I found an abundance of information on it and wanted a place to share it.

I have no connection to Camp David. I've never been there and I don't know anyone who works there. Everything you find on this blog has come from open sources on the internet. I try to cite my sources whenever I can.  Some of the information and photos I've come across are widely referenced on many sites making it difficult to determine the original source.

There are two sources that I find myself using frequently.  One is a book: The President is at Camp David written by W. Dale Nelson.  It is a wonderful source of historical information about Camp David from its beginning with FDR through the Reagan presidency. I found the book coming up so often in my Google searches that I bought a copy as a reference. The second source I like to use is a former website titled Camp David Tour.  The website is currently only accessible via the Internet Archive.  It is a virtual walking tour of Camp David throughout its history and contains some old Navy photos that are hard to come by anywhere else.

Most if not all of the photos on this blog are in the public domain.  My best sources for the photos are the Presidential Libraries, the National Archives, and archived versions of whitehouse.gov.

Also, I discovered that Google has a great feature called News Archive Search. It allows you to perform keyword searches for articles in old newspapers. Using the keywords "Shangri-la, Roosevelt" and a date range of 1942-1945, I came across this gem from the Oct 4, 1945 edition of the Southeast Missourian that shows photos of "FDR's Super-Secret Shangri-La Retreat".

One thing I've noticed is that I sometimes find conflicting information about Camp David. This is probably because the presidential retreat has evolved over time making it hard to determine which changes were made when and whether those changes still exist in the current time frame.

If you have any personal knowledge or expertise about Camp David and notice something that is incorrect, please let me know in a comment or send me an email at aboutcampdavid@gmail.com.  Camp David is an active military installation. Please do not send me any "inside information" or tips regarding Camp David that have not been previously published.