Fort Wolters

Fort Wolters is best known for helicopters. The Handbook of Texas says the base reopened in 1951 under the Air Force, became the Army's Primary Helicopter Center in September 1956 and took the name Fort Wolters in June 1963. Marine pilots trained there from 1968 and Air Force pilots from 1970. By 1970 the post covered 8,500 acres and used about 1,200 helicopters, and by January 1, 1973, 40,000 students had finished the twenty-week course. Deactivation orders came in 1975, after which land passed to the city, businessmen, Weatherford College and Lake Mineral Wells State Park.

What the plaque says

Fort Wolters Located in the counties of Palo Pinto and Parker, Fort Wolters' history dates back to the days of "Old" Camp Wolters, created in 1925 as a National Guard training area under the guidance of General Jacob F. Wolters. On October 13, 1940, the U. S. Army activated Camp Wolters as an infantry replacement center, with the support of Mineral Wells community leaders. Additional lands were bought or donated to the army by local residents to expand the camp to over 7,500 acres. In less than four months, more than 100 buildings were constructed. The original buildings of "Old" Camp Wolters were converted into a P.O.W. camp for German prisoners from North Africa. The prison camp was closed on August 15, 1946, as the last prisoners were returned to their homeland. At its peak, Camp Wolters was home to more than 30,000 soldiers per training cycle. Among the notable war heroes that passed through the camp were Lt. Jack Knight and Audie Murphy, both of whom were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. After World War II Fort Wolters was deactivated as an army training facility and reactivated in 1951 as Wolters Air Force Base. In 1956, it was designated Camp Wolters Army Base, and was used for helicopter flight training with more than 1,000 helicopters stationed at three different heliports. The base was expanded to cover nearly 722,000 acres of land for flight training purposes. In 1963 it was designated Fort Wolters. The fort also became the site of a Nike missile installation until it reverted once again to the National Guard after the Vietnam War. Fort Wolters was officially closed for military service on February 1, 1973. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway — 0.8 mi
  A Cross Timbers park on the old Camp Wolters grounds, built around a 1922 water-supply lake for a spa town, with Penitentiary Hollow's rock climbing and a 20-mile trailway.
• Chandor Gardens — 15 mi
  A portrait painter's English-and-Chinese garden rooms, blasted and planted from a bare 3.5-acre hillside in Weatherford beginning in 1936, abandoned after 1978 and reopened by the city in 2002.

More markers nearby

• Old Camp Wolters — 1.3 mi
• Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway — 1.7 mi
• Jack Llewellyn Knight — 3.1 mi
• Mineral Wells — 3.4 mi