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Field School at Prince William Forest Park: Documenting Cabin Camps

The CESU Agreement

During the summer of 2018, four students from the University of Mary Washington participated in a field school to document two cultural landscapes at Prince William Forest Park: Cabin Camp 4 and Cabin Camp 2. The field school was coordinated by Michael Spencer, Associate Professor & Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington, the Cultural Landscapes Program staff of the National Park Service National Capital Region (NCR), and park staff.
Straight gravel road through deciduous forest leads toward cabins
The roads to the cabin camps are contributing part of the historic design of the cultural landscapes.

NPS / National Capital Region

Dappled sunlight on a wooden bathhouse with rough siding and a door on one side.
Unit D Bath House in Cabin Camp 4

NPS / National Capital Region

The field school provided students with practical, hands-on experience while helping the NPS to complete Section 110 documentation of these Prince William Forest Park cultural landscapes. Over several weeks, students documented existing conditions of landscape features using photographs, forms for data collection, and GPS equipment. Their work serves as baseline documentation for developing Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) reports.

The partnership was established through a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) agreement. CESUs provide research, technical assistance, and education to federal land management and environmental agencies and their partners. The field school was the pilot effort of this type for the National Capital Region Cultural Landscapes Program (CLP). It was modeled after the Acadia Field School that was managed by the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation and modified to meet the needs and resources of the park and the region.

The NCR was committed to finding a field school method that worked for both the National Park Service and the University of Mary Washington. As the project developed, the partners adjusted processes and protocols in response to what worked and what didn't. The outcomes of these decisions and the lessons learned by the CLP staff, UMW faculty, and students shaped the 2019 field school and will serve as a model for future iterations of the field school.
A wooden cabin surrounded by leafy trees has a wooden porch with a roof that is supported by four wooden posts.
The typical four-person sleeping cabin in Cabin Camp 2 at Prince William Forest Park.

NPS

The Field School

Starting in June of 2018, two juniors, one senior, and one graduate student arrived at the Prince William Forest Park, located about 35 miles south of Washington, DC. The students were at different stages in historic preservation and GIS programs, so they brought varying experience in landscape assessment.
Two people stand on the porch and two stand on the ground in front as they document a small wooden camp cabin
Field school participants document a structure in the cabin camp cultural landscape.

NPS / National Capital Region

One student with a camera around his neck looks over the shoulder of a student as she draws on a board, under a canopy of trees.
Students document the cultural landscape during the field school.

NPS / National Capital Region

During the first field session, NPS National Capital Region cultural landscape specialists Daniel Weldon and Maureen Joseph provided training in field documentation. Cabin Camp 4 served as the model that helped students understand the cultural landscape. They applied instruction on identifying landscape features and practiced reading the landscape by identifying patterns, features, and organization of natural and built systems.

In the second session, the students reviewed notes and photographs from their initial documentation of Cabin Camp 2 as they documented the second site, Cabin Camp 4. The practice helped them to compare the Cabin Camps and the possible reasons for their similarities and differences.

They used GPS equipment to document Cabin Camp 2 in a third session, producing a geo-referenced map of the site and connecting the forms of documentation they had practiced throughout the field school. Field work continued for several additional weeks.
The documentation will be used to complete CLI reports for Cabin Camp 2 and Cabin Camp 4 at Prince William Forest Park. The CLI identifies, documents, and evaluates all historically significant park cultural landscapes and their features and is an important tool for continued documentation and management of park cultural landscapes.
A group of people in a the bright shade, in a driveway near a wooden cabin.
Documentation at Cabin Camp 4

NPS / National Capital Region

The Rustic Style Camps

Prince William Forest Park preserves one of the largest parcels of undeveloped land in the National Captial Region. The park’s natural landscapes also speak of its rich cultural history. The cabins camps were developed as part of the Recreational Demonstration Area (RDA) program, when the park opened as a summer camp for children of nearby Washington, DC.
A group of boys of varying heights gather in a semi-circle, hands over hearts, as two boys in in center raise an American flag on a pole.
The young men of Cabin Camp One gather in front of the camp administration building (ca. 1936-1948).

Photo courtesy: Scurlock Studios, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Rustic wooden directional sign at Prince William Forest Park
Camp entrance sign (ca. 1936-1948).

Photo courtesy: Scurlock Studios, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the RDA program began in 1933 and sought to identify and reclaim land near urban centers where depletion of resources had left the soil, forests, and handful of residents in an impoverished state.

Over a period of seven years, more than 2000 young men in Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) companies developed the Chopawamsic RDA (later renamed Prince William Forest Park). They built the five cabin camps, created swimming and recreation lakes, and created many of the roads, trails, and bridges that are still used throughout the park today. Many of the materials they used in construction were found or made within the park, including wood and stone, a portable sawmill, and an on-site blacksmith shop.

NPS Design

"Park and Recreation Structures" by Albert Good

Learn More about the Rustic Style
While the labor was supplied by the CCC, the landscape and structural designs were attributed to Works Progress Administration architects and engineers. The Rustic style expressed in the public recreational architecture at Chopawamsic RDA is distinctive to this period (1933-1942).
Historic image of the dining hall interior at Cabin Camp 4 shows African American boys seated around tables at meal time.
Meal time in the Dining Hall of Cabin Camp 4 (ca. 1936-1948).

Photo courtesy: Scurlock Studios, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

The buildings, structures, and sites of the organized campgrounds represent a design harmony between the natural and built landscape, with attention to native materials and the promotion of a hand-crafted aesthetic.

When the Chopawamsic RDA opened in 1936 as a summer camp for children of Washington DC, it was the fourth largest of the 46 RDAs created across the nation. Organizations in the capital worked with the NPS to sponsor camps for children and families of different backgrounds. Each of the cabin camps had a slightly different character depending on the organizations that used it. The historic use of each camp also illustrates the impact of segregation in the park’s development. Two of the five cabin camps at the Chopawansic RDA were operated for African American children and families, including Cabin Camp 4.
The Dining Hall is a long wooden Rustic style structure with a row of windows, under autumn trees.
Dining Hall at Cabin Camp 4, photographed in November of 2016 as part of the overview survey of the landscape.

NPS / National Capital Region

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Prince William Forest Park

Last updated: October 15, 2021