More than 20 people with the St. Adalbert School of Rosholt, Wis., visited Fort McCoy on March 31 for a stop at McCoy’s Community Center and then a tour of the historic Commemorative Area at the installation.
The visitors from Portage County, Wis., visited the area for just over an hour and viewed all the area had to offer. Their first stop, however, was a stop at the McCoy’s Community Center for a late lunch, Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office officials said.
The group visited mainly the Fort McCoy History Center and the historical buildings at the area along with a brief walk into Equipment Park and over to Veterans Memorial Plaza.
The 900 block of Fort McCoy and the 11-acre area surrounding it are the hub of the fort’s history-preservation efforts that make up the Commemorative Area. Many of the visitors would first take a walk around the Fort McCoy History Center.
Through every major operation, and everything else supported, that history is remembered in the Fort McCoy History Center. In 2015, the History Center was improved after several months of work to renovate the interior and exterior of the facility. That person said then those interior renovations provided for expanded exhibit floor space, improved lighting, and installation of energy efficient heating and air-conditioning systems. Exterior improvements included new steps and a ramp to improve access for visitors.
During its reopening in 2015 on Sept. 11, visitors experienced the results of those improvements firsthand, especially the increased floor space, which allowed for the display of more of the installation’s historical collection.
The History Center features exhibits as well as displays of artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia that tell the story of Fort McCoy since its founding in 1909. The center first was opened in 1999 in building 902 when the Fort McCoy observed its 90th anniversary.
Whether it’s Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy’s World War I gas mask, horseshoes from the early
camp stables, World War II-era uniforms, or items from the 1980 Cuban Refugee Resettlement mission, the History Center offers exhibits spanning from Fort McCoy’s earliest beginnings to the installation’s involvement in the Global War on Terrorism.
In recent years, the center also received new additions as well. In July 2022, Alan McCoy, grandson of Maj. Gen. Robert Bruce McCoy for whom Fort McCoy is named after had visited the installation with his family members, and with him he brought a century-old artifact he’d received in the form of a wood crate that included the words stamped on it: “CAMP EMERY UPTON” and “CAMP ROBINSON.”
The Commemorative Area overall consists of five World War II-era buildings set aside to help tell Fort McCoy’s unique story, said Public Affairs Specialist Melissa Dubois. These facilities are representative of the types found in the cantonment area when it was constructed in 1942.
Three of the buildings — an administrative facility, a dining facility, and a barracks — are set up to depict Soldier life during the 1940s. Display items include a World War II chapel, bunk beds, footlockers, mannequins, and potbelly stoves. Another building highlights four different modern military training venues, and a separate facility shows various training aids.
Among the favorite of the historical buildings for this tour group was the old dining facility. Many loved looking at the old menu cards and the old equipment used to make food for Soldiers more than 80 years ago.
Also, when this group walked into Equipment Park, lots of interest was made to the tanks and artillery pieces at the park. The Equipment Park is an outdoor display of historic and present-day equipment representative of the types used on the installation. The design of the park allows for display of 70 pieces of equipment, ranging from helicopters and howitzers to trucks and trailers.
Equipment Park had two new pieces of equipment added in 2026. In an effort that was four years in the making, an M7 “Priest” Self-Propelled Gun and an M114 155 mm Towed Howitzer were placed on equipment pads at Equipment Park on Jan. 28, 2026, in the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area.
According to Historian Ward E. Zischke with the 88th Readiness Division, these two pieces were part of the former Fort Snelling Military Museum Collection. “The M114 Towed Howitzer was on a display pad to the north of Building 507 at Fort Snelling and was in excellent shape. The M7 Priest was in the motor pool and was rusty,” Zischke said.
Visitors also hiked over to Veterans Memorial Plaza and stated they appreciated it. Construction on Veterans Memorial Plaza began in 2006, as did the work to create the five Soldier statues on the memorial representative of each of the major conflicts that Fort McCoy had been involved with to that point in time: i.e., World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the war on terrorism.
The formal dedication of Veterans Memorial Plaza was June 13, 2009 — the date of Fort McCoy’s 100th anniversary. Several descendants of the installation’s founder, Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy, attended this dedication. The dedication was the key event in a series of activities held during Fort McCoy’s year-long centennial observance.
Ever since its dedication, the Veterans Memorial Plaza has been the center of more than a dozen annual Armed Forces Day Open House events, dozens of official events, dozens of tours, and met by thousands of people throughout the years.
For more information about the Commemorative Area, contact the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office at 502-898-7777, by email at usarmy.mccoy.imcom-central.list.pao-admin@army.mil, or go online to see the Commemorative Area section in the Fort McCoy Guide at https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/issues/67840.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.”
The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
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.”