Camp MacArthur, World War I Training Camp

The Handbook of Texas says the camp proper covered 1,377 acres, inside a reserved tract of 10,699 acres, with 1,284 buildings, a base hospital and a tent camp, at an estimated cost of $5 million. Capacity was 45,074, though the average strength in any month never passed 28,000. Construction began July 20, 1917, and the first 18,000 troops arrived that September. The camp was ordered salvaged on January 3, 1919, with materials going to build United States-Mexican border stations, and it closed on March 7. The grounds then became part of the city of Waco.

What the plaque says

Camp MacArthur, World War I Training Camp Named for and dedicated by Lt. Gen Arthur MacArthur, U.S.A., veteran of Civil War, outstanding officer in Phillipines, 1898-1902, Father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Founded July 18, 1917, to train 32nd division, National Guard, in First World War. Capacity was 45,074--at time when Waco had a population of 32,000. First had troops from Michigan and Wisconsin; later, Arkansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas. The 32nd went to France in Feb. 1918. MacArthur became an infantry replacement and training camp and officers training school. Demobilized 11,000 in Dec. 1918. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 1.7 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 3.0 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 3.1 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 3.6 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.

More markers nearby

• Waco State Home — steps away
• Texas Christian University — 1.0 mi
• The Methodist Home — 1.3 mi
• Proctor Springs — 1.5 mi