On August 11, 1996, the first camp took place in premises owned by Bullittsburg Baptist Church in Boone County, Kentucky, with 20 children attending from five states.

At their request, then-Kentucky Representative Tom Kerr sponsored legislation (House Bill 70) exempting religious organizations from anti-discrimination requirements of public accommodation laws.

Edwin and Helen Kagin continued as co-directors of the original Camp Quest based in Ohio until their retirement in 2005.

[13][14] The first UK camp was supported by a grant from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and was held in Somerset.

[3] Campers are also encouraged to explore mythology and philosophy,[20] including discussing ethics in a camp version of Socrates Cafe.

[29] During Camp Quest attendees are tasked with the invisible unicorn challenge, aimed at showing that a negative cannot be proven.

Any camper who can prove that the unicorns do not exist will win a godless one-hundred dollar bill (issued before 1957, the year the U.S. Congress mandated that "In God We Trust" be printed on American fiat currency).