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Camp Caesar, located on State Route 20 between Webster Springs and Cowen, is Webster County’s 4-H camp. The camp began in 1922, when J. N. Berthy Sr. and C. D. Howard of Cowen donated five and a half acres of land. From that beginning, Camp Caesar has expanded to more than 300 acres with accommodations for more than 400 campers and extensive recreation facilities.

Valued for the beauty of its surroundings and the isolation of its remote location, Camp Caesar has been the site of important state encampments for many decades. It has hosted the annual West Virginia state conservation camp for more than 50 years. Since 1960, Camp Caesar has also been the site of Camp Lincoln, the annual youth camp of the West Virginia Republican Party. Camp Caesar is also used by many religious groups for their summer camps and is the home of the Webster County Fair, which is held the first week in September.

The 4-H camp got its unusual name because ‘‘Caesar’’ was the nickname given to Julius “Judd” Wolfram, Webster County’s first agricultural agent, by early campers. During the Franklin Roosevelt administration, Camp Caesar leased land to the federal government for the establishment of a National Youth Administration facility for the training of unemployed young men. Many of the buildings were constructed during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration. According to the West Virginia Extension Service, there is some debate over whether some of the log cabins were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps or were part of a homestead relocation project from the Holly River area.

Camp Caesar was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Read the National Register nomination.

This Article was written by E. Lynn Miller

Last Revised on August 03, 2023

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Miller, E. Lynn "Camp Caesar." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 03 August 2023. Web. 27 November 2024.