FDR’s Canadian Getaway

Campobello Island, New Brunswick

We picked another rainy, foggy day to check out the Roosevelt Campobello International Park. We are not even beginning to question the advice of our blind psychic advisor, Chris Macleod, but we press ahead, fearing to question the radio waves instructions of our guru which we receive though the microwave implants in our teeth. I begin to consider fashioning a new tinfoil hat, but fear the retribution that we might suffer.


FDR’s parents built a “cottage” here in the late 1800’s and Franklin grew up spending his summers on the island.

Franklin and Eleanor built their own “cottage” here in 1910 on four acres.

The cottage had over 10,000 square feet, 12 bedrooms and six bathrooms. Strangely, the beds are very Spartan. Franklin had a windmill to draw water to a tank in the attic the attic, but no electricity. FDR called this his "beloved island". He started spending summers here at age one. He had a clay tennis court and his own golf course. The rich are different. They have more money.

FDR contracted polio here and was evacuated on a stretcher. 13 years later he was sworn in as President of the United States and served an unprecedented 12 years and four months before dying on the job.

Six of the 12 cottage bedrooms were for servant girls. FDR never visited his cottage after 1939 when things were going south in Europe. In 1952, new owners installed electricity in the cottage and later donated the building to the International Park Commission.


This is said to be the only International Park in the world. The visitor center has some interesting displays about the cooperation between the U.S. and Canada.


- The 5,900 mile undefended border between the two counties is the longest in the world.
- Canada provides more energy to the U.S. than any other country.
- Canada is by far the biggest trading partner of the U.S.
- The cooperation between Canada and the U.S. during WWII and the Cold War was very close.

There is picture at the park of a Canadian Voodoo 101 intercepting a Russian “Bear” off the Coast of Newfoundland in 1985. Both the Bear and the Voodoo were seriously obsolete at the time.