Hoover's Camp on the Rapidan River
During the administration of former President Hoover a fine camp was built on the banks of the Rapidan River in Madison County where the Chief Executive, his family and friends enjoyed the trout fishing and rustic life that the camp afforded. A main lodge was erected for the President. Guest lodges for the Cabinet members and others were located nearby. This retreat is within easy driving distance of the White House and was in constant use for week-ends during the summer months. From Washington the Presidential parties took route 211 to Warrenton and from there two routes were offered: either a continuation of route 211 to Sperryville, then south to Criglersville on route 16, or from Warrenton to Culpeper to Criglersville.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Hoover became very much interested in the life of the mountaineers who grew to be their friendly neighbors. You have heard the story, no doubt, of the small unlettered boy who brought a gift to the President and who aroused in him and Mrs. Hoover the desire to see a school built in the neighborhood which would serve a large mountain area. An excellent little frame building nestles among the sloping hills which attracts the children of all ages within a radius of many miles. One part of the building is used for class instruction and the rest for living quarters for the teacher. This school was made possible largely through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover.
One may see the school and the entrance to the Rapidan Camp by following the road which leads from Big Meadow, a plateau on the Skyline Drive, to Criglersville.
The camp is still in use at times. Cabinet members and other government officials enjoy its stream and mountain beauties, but not to the extent of former times.
Charlottesville and Albemarle County
The Father of the University of Virginia
Every school child knows the outstanding facts about Thomas Jefferson. He will rattle off quickly that he was born near Charlottesville in Albemarle County, in 1743, that he was at William and Mary College when only seventeen and played his fiddle which he had carried as he rode the long miles between Charlottesville and Williamsburg. He graduated there and was admitted to the bar. Thomas Jefferson drafted, at the request of the Committee, the Declaration of Independence. He was Governor of Virginia during the trying years of the Revolutionary War. We shall not give all the offices which he held, except to mention that he spent some years abroad in France as United States Minister. For almost forty years he served his country, having been President of it from 1801 to 1809.
It is from the quaint letters of his granddaughter, Ellenora Randolph, that one may read of the tenderness, the lovable disposition and the human side of this great American.