more permanent settlement. Mrs. Hoover oversaw construction as the Marines built thirteen assorted buildings including a lodge, two mess halls, cabins and a "Town Hall." They also created several miles of hiking trails, a stone fountain, concrete-lined trout pools, and a miniature golf course. To reduce the presidential budget, Hoover decommissioned the Presidential Yacht Mayflower shortly after taking office. The Filipino mess crew from the Mayflower were transferred to Rapidan Camp, along with the kitchen supplies and china. 1929–1933: Presidential Retreat At the 164 acre (66 hectare) Rapidan Camp, President Hoover enjoyed fishing in the streams, which were stocked with trout by the Interior Department. While Mrs. Hoover enjoyed riding horses at camp, Mr. Hoover did not enjoy riding horses simply to reach the camp. The state of Virginia added a one-mile extension from Rapidan Camp to a nearby road they had already planned. The road remains unpaved to this day, and occasionally challenged the presidential motorcade. The New York Times described camp as "frontier-like". Mrs. Hoover described the drive and camp: In a public speech at the celebration of "Hoover Day" in the county seat of Madison, on August 17, 1929, President Hoover spoke of fishing and his camp: Fishing was conducted only outside the camp grounds, and the fish within camp were "so tame that if you threw a pebble in the water they will rush out at it, or perhaps drift slowly into the open to look you over." U.S. and foreign leaders came to the isolated and secure location of Rapidan Camp for strategy sessions with the President. His distinguished guests included inventor Thomas A. Edison and his wife, aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., psychologist Lillian Moller Gilbreth, businessman Edsel Ford, and British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. The President and guests would head immediately for the fishing ponds after arriving at camp. The press were rarely, if ever, invited to Rapidan Camp with the President, until his final year in office when he campaigned for a second term and "invited a massed attack by film men who were given the run of the camp." However, the President was not without friends in the press, and at least one of those, "Ding" Darling, the accomplished cartoonist for The Des Moines Register and with whom Mr. Hoover