Old Camp Wolters

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Old Camp Wolters has to say, and friend, this is a place with more lives than a barn cat. Camp Wolters was established in 1925, and right from the start it carried a name worth knowing. It was named for Brigadier General Jacob F.

Wolters, commander of the 56th Brigade for the National Guard. From the beginning, the camp was designated a summer training site for horse-mounted cavalry units. The city of Mineral Wells donated fifty acres of land to get things going, and later thousands of acres were leased to give the place room to breathe.

By 1927, one thousand officers and men were encamped here. One thousand horses too. You picture that for a moment.

The dust alone must have been something. Then 1933 rolls around, and a Civilian Conservation Corps company sets up at the National Guard barracks, making improvements at the camp and to the city park. That's the kind of quiet chapter that easy gets overlooked in a bigger story.

And the bigger story was coming. In 1940, Camp Wolters was selected as a major training base for the National Military Draft. Then came World War II, and this place transformed into an important infantry replacement training center sitting on 7,500 acres of leased land, with a troop capacity that reached a peak of 24,973.

Among the units that trained here was the internationally famous F Troop of World War II, one of the mounted units that came through these grounds. German prisoners of war were also housed at the camp. Two worlds sharing the same patch of Palo Pinto County dirt.

After the war's end, the army deactivated the camp. The original Old Camp Wolters site was returned to the National Guard and used for local purposes until 1965. From cavalry horses to a peak of nearly twenty-five thousand troops, from a CCC company to German prisoners of war, this ground held a whole lot of American history.

And it started with fifty acres and a name.

What the marker says

Established in 1925, Camp Wolters was named for Brigadier General Jacob F. Wolters, commander of the 56th Brigade for the National Guard, and designated a summer training site for horse-mounted cavalry units. The city of Mineral Wells donated fifty acres of land, and later thousands of acres were leased for the camp. By 1927 one thousand officers and men and the same number of horses were encamped here. In 1933 a Civilian Conservation Corps company set up camp at the National Guard barracks and made improvements at the camp and to the city park. In 1940 Camp Wolters was selected as a major training base for the National Military Draft. During World War II, the camp became an important infantry replacement training center on 7,500 acres of leased land with a troop capacity that reached a peak of 24,973. The internationally famous "F" Troop of World War II was one of the mounted units that trained here. German prisoners of war also were housed at the camp. After the war's end, the camp was deactivated by the army. The original Old Camp Wolters site was returned to the National Guard and used for local purposes until 1965. (1997)