Great Louisiana Maneuvers' Blue Army Headquarters

The officer running Blue's headquarters was Dwight D. Eisenhower, then a colonel and chief of staff to Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Third Army. Krueger and Eisenhower reached Lake Charles in August 1941 to begin the maneuvers. Within days of the exercise ending, at the close of September 1941, Eisenhower was promoted to brigadier general. For Kinder, the war games meant a small school campus doing duty as the working home of a future Supreme Allied Commander's staff, and a high school's home economics cottage serving as a general's office.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Coushatta Powwow and Koasati Heritage Day — 4.7 mi
  The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana's annual powwow and its free Koasati Heritage Day, held at the tribe's resort in Kinder.
• Louisiana Oil and Gas Park — 20 mi
  The roadside park at Jennings where Louisiana's oil industry began in 1901, with a replica derrick, a pioneers' plaque and Gator Chateau.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 25 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Sam Houston Jones State Park — 27 mi
  A 1,087-acre park on the West Fork of the Calcasieu with longleaf pine, cypress-tupelo swamp, five trails, cabins and kayak rentals.

More markers nearby

• Kinder, Louisiana — steps away
• The Coushatta People — 2.8 mi
• St. Paul Baptist Church — 4.6 mi
• Elton Bible Conference — 9.2 mi