Site of World War II Prisoner of War Camp

Princeton's camp changed uses twice. A county-history page says the migratory labor camp dedicated in 1941 became a prisoner of war camp in February 1945 and held prisoners for less than a year. Farmers trucked them to their fields as they had the migrant workers. Beyond farm work the prisoners did stonemasonry in downtown Princeton and helped build a park and war shrine honoring the county's servicemen. The war ended in August 1945, but the prisoners were not released until the following January. Migrant workers then used the site again.

What the plaque says

Site of World War II Prisoner of War Camp Here in 1941, with the Hon. Sam Rayburn, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in attendance, a migratory labor camp was dedicated. With the coming of World War II later in the decade, however, federal officials converted the site for use as a camp to hold German prisoners of war. While here, the German soldiers worked on Princeton area farms, providing valuable labor assistance. For many years following the prisoners release in 1946, this site again served as a camp for migrant workers. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 6.4 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 18 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 25 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.

More markers nearby

• Pleasant Grove Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• Altoga Cemetery — 4.5 mi
• Woodlawn Cemetery — 5.3 mi
• Old Settlers Park — 5.5 mi