How Did a President Change the Name of his Retreat from "Shangri-La" to "Camp David"?

https://www.c-span.org/video/?514395-1/inside-camp-david
@mythociate (21432)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
October 23, 2021 11:31am CST
Watching C-SPAN's interview with a former camp-commander, and someone had written in to ask how the camp's official name got changed from "Shangri-La" to "Camp David." I find out that the place was (originally? previously?) named Naval Support Facility Thurmont (for Thurmont, Maryland) and was known as Camp 3. No one knew about it, which made it one of the possible places for the President to take vacations. And--when reviewing those possible places--President Roosevelt (the WWII President ... I don't remember which 'Roosevelt' that was) compared it to the mountain-paradise in a favorite novel Lost Horizon (the paradise named Shangri-La). When Eisenhower became President, he simply "liked the camp so much that he named it for his grandson David." It may be that the name has NEVER officially changed from 'Naval Support Facility Thurmont.' But 'Camp David' and 'Shangri-La' and even 'Camp 3' are just "the names the media has for it" (the way it often refers to Blacks as "African-Americans" or Yellows as "Asian-Americans").
1 person likes this
No responses