Camp Maxey

The plaque tells how the camp was won; the Handbook of Texas names what it replaced. Before the war the area held small farming communities, among them Cato, Rich Hill, Ford's Academy, Hinkley and Page's Chapel, where families grew cotton and truck crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers through the hard Depression years. The government bought out landowners, in some cases by condemnation, though many residents were renters. Families dispersed to Paris or farther away. When Pat Mayse Lake was built in 1965 to 1967, it flooded part of the base's northern edge.

What the plaque says

Camp Maxey Recognizing in 1940 that hosting peacetime draftees might revive the county's economy, the city of Paris sent a request for the army to build a training camp here. The local American Legion acquired land options. Delegations from the Chamber of Commerce of Lamar County received initial support, but Congressman Lyndon Johnson moved the planned camp to his district at Bastrop. In response U. S. Senator Tom Connally and army officials ensured a camp for Paris, confirmed in July 1941. The 70,000 acre site was being surveyed when the U. S. entered World War II in December. Camp Maxey, named for C. S. A. General and U. S. Senator Sam Bell Maxey from paris, was activated on July 15, 1942. Its main entrance was "Gate 5" marked by stone portals at this site. Two infantry divisions, the 102nd "Ozark" and 99th "Checkerboard," trained here with the 250th Field Artillery and other army units. A regional hospital and a prisoner of war camp hosting 7,000 Germans were part of the reservation. Local women formed the "Maxey Command" to host dances for the total of 194,800 soldiers stationed here. Area residents housed thousands of dependents and filled 10,300 civilian jobs on base. The camp was closed when the P. O. W. stockade was vacated in early 1946. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 8.9 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 9.5 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 9.8 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.
• Fort Towson Historic Site — 23 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul Baptist Church — 8.1 mi
• Old Cemetery of Paris — 8.2 mi
• Paris — 8.3 mi
• Lamar County, C. S. A. — 8.3 mi