Site of World War II Camp Bowie

The camp overwhelmed the town beside it. By December 1940 its 13,500 construction workers outnumbered Brownwood's entire 1940 population, and by March 1941 the city counted 22,479 people; some estimates put the wartime population well above 50,000. When the boom began that September the town had only 200 vacant dwellings. Residents turned a skating rink into a dormitory, let patrons sleep in a movie theater after the last show and divided up their houses. The Handbook of Texas says the boom left Brownwood with better streets, sanitation and medical care, a municipal airport and new housing.

What the plaque says

Huge World War II training base, Camp Bowie was a home of the "Texas" 36th Division and trained many other units, including the "Dixie" 31st, 4th, and 13th Armored; and 113th Cavalry. It was also Seventh Headquarters of Special Troops, Fourth Army. Here, too, Gen. Walter Krueger was Commander of the VIII Corps Area Troops. The camp had a capacity of 45,000. Commanders were Col. K.L. Berry, Gen. C.V. Birkhead, Col. F.E. Bonney, Col. A.G. Brown, and Col. K.F. Hanst. Camp operated Sept. 1940 to 1946, when 45th Div. was deactivated. It was named for James Bowie, hero of the Alamo siege, 1836. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 13 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Prisoners of War at Camp Bowie — 1.7 mi
• Robert E. Howard — 1.8 mi
• Charlie Webb and John Wesley Hardin — 2.0 mi
• Daniel Baker College — 2.5 mi