Photo By Scott Sturkol | Contractors work on a renovation of the U.S. Army Garrison-Fort McCoy Headquarters on...... read more read more
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All of the garrison staff moved out of building 100 at Fort McCoy in late September to make way for a full renovation of the building that has been the U.S. Army Garrison-Fort McCoy Headquarters for decades.
Engineering Division Chief Dan Coburn with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works said renovation construction began on Oct. 1 and continues now.
The contract to complete the renovation was awarded to R.J. Jurowski Construction, headquartered in Whitehall, Wis., for $5.4 million.
“It is a complete gut and repair of the entire facility,” Coburn said. “Construction … is expected to take one year.”
The headquarters building was one of hundreds built at then Camp McCoy for what was known as the “New Camp.”
In 1942, as the United States braced itself for the full mobilization of World War II, the quiet rolling landscape of central Wisconsin transformed almost overnight. What had long been a patchwork of farms, forests, and the smaller training areas of Camp McCoy became the site of one of the most rapid and consequential construction efforts in the region’s history — the creation of the New Camp, a massive expansion that would reshape both the installation and the communities around it.
Construction began in the tense months following the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the War Department recognized the urgent need for expanded training capacity across the country. McCoy's location — strategic yet secluded, with terrain well suited for infantry maneuvering — made it an ideal site. The decision was made not merely to enlarge the existing cantonment, but to build an entirely new one: a self-contained military city.
Thousands of civilian laborers, engineers, carpenters, electricians, and contractors poured into the area. Many were locals answering the call; others were skilled workers traveling from across the Midwest to shoulder their part in the national war effort. They worked at a pace that would be unthinkable in peacetime.
Winter winds cut across the job sites. Mud swallowed machinery in the spring thaw. Lumber, steel, fuel, and equipment were all carefully rationed — but the work continued without pause.
What rose from the ground was staggering in scale: hundreds of barracks, mess halls, administrative buildings, warehouses, motor pools, and training facilities. Roadways extended like a grid across the once-rural land. Utility lines, wells, heating plants, and hospitals were built with remarkable speed yet enduring craftsmanship. The New Camp could house and train tens of thousands of Soldiers — men who would soon find themselves deployed to North Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and every theater of the widening global conflict.
For many who lived through it, the construction period left lasting memories. Local residents recalled the hum of machinery late into the night, the flood of new faces in nearby towns, and the sense — both heavy and proud — that they were witnessing history in motion.
Workers remembered long days, frozen hands, and the camaraderie forged under pressure. Soldiers arriving in the newly built barracks found a camp that felt both brand-new and urgently alive, humming with the energy of a nation preparing for war.
By late 1942, the New Camp at Fort McCoy stood completed — a testament to American industrial resolve, to the determination of ordinary workers, and to the profound moment in history it served. It became one of the most important training hubs in the Midwest during World War II, shaping the experiences of countless service members who would carry its memory with them across oceans and battlefields.
Today, the New Camp’s construction remains a defining chapter in Fort McCoy’s long story. It stands as a reminder that behind the movements of armies and the turning of global events are the hands of the builders — the men and women who, in 1942, raised a city of wood and steel in the Wisconsin hills to meet the demands of a world at war.
And with this renovation, the remembrance of that history will continue on for decades to come.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post 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.”
| Date Taken: | 12.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.10.2025 18:35 |
| Story ID: | 553799 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 563 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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