Courtesy Photo | This graphic gives different looks at where historical areas are found on South Post...... read more read more
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During the early summer of 2022, archaeological investigations were performed near building 6158, currently the family housing office building in family housing on South Post at Fort McCoy in advance of new construction.
Building 6158 is one of the last standing vestiges of what is known as “Old Camp McCoy” — the pre-World War II (pre-1942) portions of Fort McCoy.
In this area, old concrete slabs are still visible on the ground surface and are some of the earliest artifacts from the early 1900s military history known at present-day Fort McCoy. Historical documentation including photographs, postcards, maps, newspaper articles, and other documents about the development of Old Camp McCoy identifies the concrete slabs as Army tent pads.
Existing documentation shows that the tent pads have similar dimensions to the tents used by the U.S Army from the 1890s through the 1940s. Existing documentation does not, however, detail types of questions such as when or why the tent pads were constructed, or by whom. The explanation of why they were constructed may have been to improve early 1900s Soldiers’ hygiene, sanitation, and morale.
The tent pads allowed the Soldier and their belongings to stay dry and out of the mud when it rained. Answering when the tent pads were constructed is proving to be more difficult. The area of South Post Family Housing once had over 700 tent pads, but there are now fewer than 150 visible.
The tent pad construction must have occurred sometime between the time Camp Robinson was initially established in 1909 and when they appeared in 1939 aerial photography. In the 1939 aerial photographs of Camp McCoy, the tent pads, and other buildings are visible in the landscape surrounding what is now the South Post Family Housing complex.
Research now shows that the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and other military organizations used the tent pads from the early days of Camp Robinson (aka “Old Camp McCoy”) to the beginning of Camp McCoy in the 1920s.
The term “Regular Army,” which succeeded the Continental Army, appears on early maps of Old Camp McCoy and refers to the professional core of the broader U.S. Army of the time. The Regular Army was reorganized by the National Defense Act of 1920, and after World War II the demobilization of the Army led the U.S. Army to be split between the Regular Army and Army Reserve.
The tent pads were primarily used by Citizen Military Training Camp (CMTC) candidates from 1926 to 1941. The CMTC was authorized under the 1920 National Defense Act to introduce and provide military training for high school and college age males for Reserve or National Guard officers, similar to today’s ROTC programs.
While conducting background research on the tent pads, additional information was unearthed about other possible known archaeological features and sites around “Old Camp McCoy.”
Though relatively recent (less than 100 years old) history, the importance of the Camp Robinson and Old Camp McCoy areas to the military and civilian history of the base is something that base historians and archaeologists are now studying in greater detail.
Other historical sites related to 1930s Great Depression/New Deal CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), WPA (Works Progress Administration), train depots, and other features show the continued importance of Camp McCoy to the nation during these early 1900s eras as well.
It is uncertain which of these other groups may have used or constructed some of the tent pads. Some of these could have been civilian contractors, Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers, Regular Army engineers, or crews from the WPA or CCC as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Along with tent pads, many other building foundations and other features created by these distinct groups are visible in the 1939 aerial photograph and extant historical blueprints, and in the present-day landscape where Old Camp McCoy once stood.
The WPA building’s foundation, which managed the construction projects at Camp McCoy, is still south of Quartermaster Avenue. One of the many projects commissioned by the WPA was the construction of the two stone entranceways located on Ginger Road in South Post Family Housing and County Highway “A” (CTH A).
Some of the other projects the WPA managed were the construction of support buildings for the District Headquarters of the CCC located on Camp McCoy in 1933. This headquarters facility ran all the CCC camps in the state of Wisconsin during the early 1930s. By the fall of 1935, the CCC Headquarters had expanded rapidly in size and personnel and was forced to moved off-base to larger buildings in the nearby town of Sparta. Although the CCC Headquarters moved, the CCC program continued to use the remaining support buildings, warehouses, and equipment depots located on Camp McCoy.
The CCC program ended in December 1941 with the outbreak of World War II. In the spring of 1942, some of the old CCC buildings at Camp McCoy were converted into an emergency enemy citizen alien internment camp.
In 1943, the area was further transformed into a large World War II POW camp for primarily Japanese and German prisoners, and in 1944 the area also held Korean and Formosan prisoners (slave laborers to the Japanese Army) in addition to the Japanese and German prisoners.
Aerial photographs from 1946 show that most of the POW buildings were demolished after all remaining POWs were repatriated to their home countries at the end of the war. These same 1946 aerial photographs show three buildings to the south of the POW camp were still standing. The remaining buildings, which historic maps describe as CCC supply warehouses, were demolished sometime after 1946 and before the 1957 aerial photographs were taken. The CCC supply warehouse foundations remain on the landscape along with other foundations from the POW Camp and CCC Buildings to the north.
Another significant historic feature of the “Old Camp McCoy” historic landscape that is still visible is the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railroad lines that separate North Post from South Post. The railroad lines crossing through Fort McCoy were a vital part of why the fort was established in 1909.
From the time when Camp Robinson and Camp Emory-Upton were established on the south side of the lines, they brought troops, supplies, animals, and equipment. The railroad allowed Camp Robinson to grow into Camp McCoy and eventually Fort McCoy.
The most important item brought by the railroad to Camp McCoy and Fort McCoy from the beginning was, of course, the people. The Soldiers of the early 1900s were transported on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad or the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad and would arrive at McCoy Station East for Camp Emory-Upton or McCoy Station West for Camp Robinson.
By the late 1930s and early 1940s the “Old Camp McCoy” cantonment increased in size by several acres, buildings, and military and civilian personnel. Many Soldiers of diverse backgrounds passed through the depots as well as the POWs of World War II. Each of these people had different experiences at Camp McCoy.
The experiences or memories of people arriving at Camp McCoy are artifacts themselves. Their memories may include seeing the stone entranceway along Ginger Road from the railroad lines and the massive buildings and tents within Old Camp McCoy.
The current archaeological and historical investigations conducted at Fort McCoy continue to help support the Army by clearing areas for training and readiness, while at the same time preserving the archaeology, military history, and heritage, as well as the oral histories of the early 20th century including people’s memories and experiences when they first arrived at what is now known as Fort McCoy.
All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was sponsored by the Directorate of Public Works, Environmental Division, Natural Resources Branch.
Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.
Any individual who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any post-contact or pre-contact site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy violates federal law.
The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works, Environmental Division, Natural Resources Branch at 608-388-8214.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Archaeology Team that includes the Colorado State University’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands and the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.)
| Date Taken: | 02.20.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2024 00:20 |
| Story ID: | 464316 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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