Episode 10: World War I & Camp Vail

Camp Vail was organized in the summer of 1917 because of wartime concern about an inadequate supply of farm labor within the state. To deal with the issue, the Vermont Farm War Council, composed of representatives of agricultural organizations and agencies in the state, appointed Frederick H. Bickford of Bradford as Farm Labor Agent. Bickford conceived the idea of creating a camp to train young Vermont boys in farm work as a means of helping assure an adequate work force at wage rates Vermont farmers could afford to pay. Camp Vail at Lyndon Center, Vermont, was the result. The location was a nearly 2,000-acre area on the farm of Theodore N. Vail, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, near the site of present-day Lyndon State College.

For more background on this episode, visit: https://vermonthistory.org/world-war-i-camp-vail-1916