Site of Camp Howze

Camp Howze was big enough to change a county. The Handbook of Texas says the Army bought a 59,000-acre tract from local landowners starting in December 1941. The camp held 39,963 men at capacity and trained several hundred thousand over four years, including the 84th, 86th and 103d divisions. It also held German prisoners of war. The federal government spent about $20 million there, which fed the local economy and gave hundreds of civilians jobs. In 1946 the Army declared it surplus and leveled it, though the Handbook says some foundations and storage towers could still be seen later.

What the plaque says

Site of Camp Howze (One mile west) In operation from 1942 to 1946, Camp Howze served as an infantry training facility during World War II. It was named for General Robert Lee Howze (1864-1926), a native Texan whose distinguished career in the United States Army began with his graduation from West Point and included service in France, Puerto Rico, Germany, a South Dakota Indian War and the Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902. Clifford McMahon of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce first contacted federal authorities with the idea of establishing a military installation here. Attracted by the community's active endorsement of the plan, the government activated Camp Howze on August 17, 1942, under the command of Colonel John P. Wheeler. In addition to infantry training, the base was also the site of a German prisoner of war camp and an air support command base, now part of the Gainesville Municipal Airport. Services provided for the soldiers included camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, service clubs and a base newspaper, the "Camp Howze Howitzer." The economic and social impact of Camp Howze on Gainesville was significant and was instrumental in the town's rapid growth and development. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 4.2 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 21 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• Butterfield Overland Stage Line — 3.4 mi
• Booker T. Washington School — 3.6 mi
• James Menees Lindsay — 3.9 mi
• Moffett Park — 3.9 mi