If you’re looking for a perfect place to go to take in the fall foliage around the District, this hidden gem of a deep forest park is just a 45-minute drive from the District, and should be at the top of your to-do list.
The park in question, Prince William Forest Park, is just a few minutes from Quantico, VA, and has a unique chapter in American history as the location where the OSS (Office of Strategic Services – the precursor to the CIA) trained spies and saboteurs during World War 2!
Sadly, while the government shutdown has impacted the park’s services, access to the park itself is still open to the public.
What makes Prince William Forest Park a must-visit
Aside from the Park’s unique history, it’s considered one of the few parks in the greater D.C. area that offers trails through deep woods, creeks, and a preserved Piedmont forest ecosystem!
The park has 40+ miles of trails, 13 cozy cabins available for rent, and a handful of spacious camping zones, making it an enjoyable visit for those who want to experience the ‘great outdoors’ while still being a short drive from home.
In fact, Prince William Forest Park is actually considered to be one of the best-preserved CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) landscapes in the entire National Park System!
Originally called the Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area, it is considered a “living museum” of President FDR’s “New Deal” in the 1930s, where the newly established CCC made it a point to display how degraded land could be restored and made accessible to the public.
Today, many of the CCC’s structures around the park are on the National Register of Historic Places.
How the park was used as a spy training ground
If you’re interested in visiting Prince William Forest Park specifically to see where the Secret Agents of WW2 trained, you’re in luck, because the areas where the OSS trained their secret agents are well preserved.
The roughly 15,000-acre park had around 5,000 acres worth of space sectioned off for two top-secret training areas: Training Area ‘A’ and ‘C’.
Training Area ‘A’ sprawled across a lot of the western portion of the park, reaching Cabin Camps 2, 3, and 5.
This area was used for training:
- Combat skills
- Sabotage
- Guerilla Warfare
- Commando Operations
Training Area ‘C’ was largely confined to the northeastern zone of the park, overlapping where Cabin Camp 1 is today.
This area was used to train Communications Branch radio engineers on how to send and receive secret messages behind enemy lines.