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WWII
Chronicles CAMP
HOWZE POW
Camp and Infantry TrainingCooke
County
NW of Gainesville
Photos courtesy Sarah Reveley and Mike Price |
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Established
in 1942 as an Infantry-training camp, Camp Howze once covered 59,000 acres of
Cooke County land that was acquired from local landowners shortly after Pearl
Harbor.
It was named to honor Major Robert E. Lee Howze, who had
won the Congressional Medal of Honor and had served during the Indian campaigns,
the Philippine Insurrection following the Spanish-American
War, and World War I.
The base was activated in August of 1942, and had a capacity of just under 40,000
men.
Several hundred thousand men received their training here over the
course of the war and the camp later became a Prisoner of War Camp for captured
German soldiers.
An estimated $20 million was spend on the camp during
it’s construction and use, providing hundreds of jobs for Cooke County residents.
After the war, the camp, like most others, was deactivated. The buildings
were sold as scrap and today only the cement foundations, chimneys and water toewers
remain.
In an interview with a former trainee, he recalled how demoralizing
it was to see German prisoners playing soccer while his unit was enduring a forced
march. “The war was over for them, but it hadn’t even started for us.”
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Photographers'
Notes:
Subject: Camp Howze -Gainesville
These
are the most visable remains of WWII
Camp Howze NW of Gainesville.
When the grass is low there are a great many small foundation supports stretching
across the countryside.
There are a number of small structures there
but the water towers stand out.
The camp was 59,000 acres (92+ sq mi).
From a story related by a friend whose parents owned a farm/ranch within
the camp boundries. The army came in one day and said we're buying your place
and bull dozing your buildings, you have x days to get out. They were allowed
to repurchase the property following the base closing if they wanted. Most had
relocated and could not afford to do so. Large chunks were made into two ranches.
- Mike
Price, September 27, 2007
"Turned
off for the roadside marker. It was quite eerie, and beautiful, because the foundations
looked like tombstones. I stopped and talked to a couple of men working on the
road, they said those foundations were everywhere." - Sarah
Reveley, October 31, 2007
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