Site of Camp Howze

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. One mile west of where you're sitting right now, there used to be something that put Gainesville, Texas, on the map in a whole new way. Camp Howze.

And the story of how it got there is worth a few miles of your attention. It was 1942, World War II was grinding forward, and a man named Clifford McMahon, with the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, picked up a phone and contacted federal authorities. He had an idea: put a military installation right here.

Now, that kind of pitch could go a hundred different ways, but Gainesville didn't just nod along. The community gave an active endorsement of the plan, and the government took notice. On August 17, 1942, Camp Howze was activated, under the command of Colonel John P.

Wheeler. And just like that, this stretch of North Texas was in the business of training infantry for the war. The camp was named for General Robert Lee Howze, born in 1864, died in 1926, a native Texan who graduated from West Point and then spent a career seeing just about every corner of the world the Army could send a man.

He served in France, Puerto Rico, Germany, a South Dakota Indian War, and the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 to 1902. A distinguished career, the marker calls it, and that word distinguished is doing some real work there. Back at Camp Howze, infantry training was the main event, but it wasn't the only act.

The base also held a German prisoner of war camp. It had an air support command base, part of which lives on today as the Gainesville Municipal Airport. And for the soldiers stationed there, life had its amenities: camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, service clubs.

And a base newspaper they called the Camp Howze Howitzer. That name right there tells you the whole personality of the place in three words. Camp Howze ran from 1942 to 1946.

Four years. And in that span, the economic and social impact on Gainesville was significant enough that the marker says it was instrumental in the town's rapid growth and development. One man's phone call to federal authorities.

A community that showed up behind the idea. A general's name on the gate. And a piece of Texas that spent four years helping train the soldiers of a world war.

The camp is gone now, but one mile west, the ground remembers.

What the marker says

(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)