Catoctin Mountains Tour - About Your Guides

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Chris Hill is the founder of Mountain Spies, a historical interpreter, researcher, and guide dedicated to uncovering the remarkable intelligence history of the Catoctin–South Mountain corridor.  Before turning his attention to historical research, Chris spent his career supporting the Defense Industrial Base and the U.S. Intelligence Community, working across a broad range of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) programs and advanced data analytics and cybersecurity platforms. Throughout his career, he transformed imagery, geospatial analysis, full-motion video, and complex operational data into clear, actionable intelligence for decision-makers. That analytical discipline—identifying patterns, connecting disparate information, and communicating evidence-based conclusions—continues to shape the way he approaches history today. 

Chris did not set out to become a historian. After living in the Catoctin Mountain region for more than thirty years, he began to notice patterns in how the landscape was—and continues to be—used. The routine presence of the V-22 Osprey, the occasional arrival of Marine One, and the historical footprint of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Camp Ritchie, prisoner-of-war camps, the Presidential Retreat, and Cold War facilities all pointed to the same question: Why here?

That question became the foundation of Mountain Spies. Rather than viewing history as a collection of isolated people, places, and organizations, Chris approaches the Catoctin–South Mountain corridor as a connected operational landscape. His research begins with the terrain itself—how geography influenced movement, security, decision-making, and human activity. From there, he examines how people, ideas, tradecraft, and operational knowledge moved across that landscape through relationships, collaboration, and shared experience.

This landscape perspective also shapes how he studies the history of intelligence. Instead of focusing solely on individual organizations, Chris changes the scale of analysis to understand how capabilities emerged through interactions among people, institutions, and alliances. His work emphasizes documentary evidence, primary-source research, field investigation, and careful historical interpretation to reveal connections that are often overlooked when events are studied in isolation.

The result is a broader understanding of one of America's most significant intelligence landscapes. Through guided tours, lectures, writing, and original research, Mountain Spies connects the history of the OSS, Camp Ritchie, the Ritchie Boys, Camp David, and the wider Catoctin–South Mountain corridor into a coherent story of people, place, and purpose. Every Mountain Spies experience begins with a simple question—Why here?—and follows the evidence wherever it leads.

I’m Christopher Price, a historical interpreter and tour guide with Mountain Spies, as well as a U.S. Army veteran and a retired CIA officer with 26 years of intelligence experience. My career focused on image analysis, geospatial intelligence, and the application of analytic methods to support decision-makers.

My work began with aerial and satellite imagery, monitoring North Korean activity, and later expanded in Washington, where I focused on the Russian military. After joining the CIA in 1999, I worked across a range of mission areas, including counterterrorism, global military capabilities, humanitarian crises, and public health, applying geospatial analysis and structured analytic techniques.

Across the intelligence lifecycle, from collection and analysis to production and training, I developed expertise in how geography, data, and analytic methods shape understanding. I also trained analysts and supported operations in complex environments where clarity and accuracy were essential.

One principle remained constant throughout my career: geography matters. The terrain shapes the options available and influences outcomes in ways that are often not immediately visible.

That perspective is what led me to the story of the Secrets of the Catoctin Mountains.  I am proud to share this perspective, a history of the Catoctin landscape informed by decades of intelligence experience, and the opportunity to share an often untold story whose legacy endures in the tradecraft of today’s intelligence community.