Only 25 miles west as the crow flies and an hour by car through the mountains is
The Greenbrier,
a mountain retreat and a resort fit for royalty as well as enthusiastic travelers who like tea in the afternoon, fabulous golf on three superb courses, world class cuisine, and much more.
Like The Homestead,
The Greenbrier history is rooted in colonial times when settlers discovered the medicinal properties of the warm mineral springs here. Purchased and expanded in 1910 by the C&O Railroad, the resort was converted to an army hospital during WW II. In secret, the US government used the 6,500-acre retreat after the attack at Pearl Harbor as a place of internment for Japanese and German embassy personal before their repatriation to their home countries. This program continued through mid 1942.
While golfers everywhere understand the "bunker," the term has a different connotation at The Greenbrier. At the height of the Cold War during the late 1950's, the Eisenhower Administration adopted an emergency relocation plan to transfer members of Congress to The Greenbrier in case of a nuclear attack on Washington, DC. Here, they could continue to conduct the nation's business safely and secretly.
While contractors were busy putting on an addition to the hotel above ground, construction was proceeding in secrecy below. The huge bunker was built of 5 foot thick concrete walls and included meeting rooms and dormitories. It also had its own power and water supply. The relocation plan was abandoned in 1992, and today the bunker is a tourist attraction and administrative office site.
At the Greenbrier, as at The Homestead, it was the railroad that first enabled hosts of visitors to come to this part of the world to enjoy such activities as hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and bathing in the natural warm springs. Today, the resort is owned by Richmond-based CSX Corporation.
Golf at The Greenbrier is what you would expect of a world class resort. There are three courses all right at the resort complex. Designed for every level of golfer, the courses meander out over this magnificent property within the shadow of the Allegheny Mountains. They include The Old White Course, a traditional Charles Blair MacDonald design opened in 1913 that features open routes to the greens, and The Meadows Course, designed by Dick Wilson in 1962 and revamped in 1999 by Robert Cupp.
The resort's signature course is The Greenbrier Course, a 1924 Seth Raynor creation that was redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 1977. The course hosted the 1979 Ryder Cup matches and the 1994 women's Solheim Cup competition.
For most of his professional life, Hot Springs native Sam Snead was The Greenbrier's host golf professional. "Guests would pay dearly to play a round of golf with Snead," declared resort historian Bob Conte. "Snead loved to take their money and guests opened their wallets willingly for the privilege of playing with arguably the greatest golfer of his era." After the round, Snead would invite his guests into the pub and entertain them for hours with his colorful stories. Today, that pub, which houses Snead memorabilia, is named after the great Slammer.
Beyond the resort's recreational offerings, The Greenbrier, which has 72,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, annually hosts some of the biggest meetings in the corporate and association worlds. And in early 2002, it hosted a large Republican Party retreat attended by the Republican presidential ticket.
The Greenbrier has a legion of awards including #1 Family Resort in North America and Top 100 hotels in the World, according to a Travel & Leisure Magazine readership poll.
The Greenbrier lies conveniently just off I-81 in southeastern West Virginia. Also, Amtrak has three trains a week from Union Station to the depot at White Sulphur Springs, which is just across the street from the hotel. Valet service is available as well to and from the nearby Lewisburg air
field. 
Virginia Golf
