Fort McCoy is named for Robert Bruce McCoy. He was born Sept. 5, 1867, in Kenosha, Wis. The son of a Civil War captain, McCoy was a prominent local resident who served as a lawyer, district attorney, county judge and mayor of Sparta, Wis.
In 1920, he was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for governor of Wisconsin. McCoy’s military career began in May 1895. He reached the rank of major general during his 31 years of distinguished service, which included duty in the Spanish-American War, the police action in Mexico, and in World War I.
The idea of using the land east of Sparta as an artillery range was conceived by McCoy.
He had the foresight to recognize that future conflicts were inevitable, weapons would be improved upon, and training had to be emphasized.
Upon returning from the Spanish-American War, he envisioned an artillery camp, suitable for training Soldiers, situated in the low pastures and wooded hills surrounding Sparta. He started by buying small tracts of land, which he rented for grazing to finance additional land purchases. Eventually, he acquired 4,000 acres.
Maj. Samuel Allen, commander of the 7th Field Artillery, Fort Snelling, Minn., also admired the terrain of the Sparta area for its training value. In September 1905, Robert B. McCoy invited Allen’s unit, along with an Army board of reviewing officers, to put the land to the test during 16 days of training on his family’s ranch.
In 1906, William Howard Taft, then Secretary of War, advocated the building of four large maneuver camps across the nation to be used jointly by the regular Army and National Guard. Part of the package included a $150,000 appropriation to buy land near the state military reservation at Camp Douglas, Wis.
When local landowners heard this news, however, land prices skyrocketed from about $3 an acre to $30 an acre. Because of this, the McCoy property between Sparta and Tunnel City came under closer scrutiny. The increase, coupled with the recommendations from Maj. Allen and the board of reviewing officers, led to the purchase of the McCoy property and additional land for a total of more than 14,000 acres.
Negotiations were concluded, and the Sparta Maneuver Tract became a reality in 1909 on what is known today as “South Post.”
The total parcel was divided approximately in half by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Situated north of the tracks was a maneuver camp named Camp Emory Upton. An artillery camp known as Camp Robinson went up to the south of the tracks.
Temporary galvanized buildings were constructed in the summer of 1909, and training began. The railroad provided an unloading side track near the artillery camp and ran a spur into the maneuver camp.
Camp Robinson prepared to receive its first Soldiers under the command of Capt. William M. Cruikshank, Regular Army, the first official installation commander. The first unit to arrive was a medical unit from Fort Russell, Wyo.
In 1910, $40,000 in additional improvements was authorized.
Construction was aimed at making the site permanent. Events during 1910 also helped firm the camp’s reputation as an excellent field artillery site, with batteries from Fort Snelling; Fort Sheridan, Ill.; Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; and several National Guard units training here.
In 1911, a concrete ammunition storehouse was constructed at a cost of $8,000. The camp was named Camp Bruce E. McCoy in honor of Robert B. McCoy’s father, who had served in the Civil War and for years owned the old Lafayette mill property, the land on which the maneuver camp was located.
With the establishment of the reservation, the question of roads leading to it was an important consideration. Through the efforts of then-Col. Robert B. McCoy, the Angelo town board laid out a road, which considerably shortened the distance from the camp to the city. The road was completed in 1912.
Improvements and additions were made between 1910 and 1919 that included rifle ranges, office buildings and storehouses. Until 1919, the camp was a favorite of the artillery, and was at one time described as the largest, most modern and most beautiful in the nation.
It continued to grow through World War I with the construction of barracks, mess halls, stables and warehouses. Field artillery units trained at the camp during World War I through 1918. Training stopped from 1919 to 1923, and the reservation was designated the Sparta Ordnance Depot.
The primary function of the camp personnel and facilities was to handle, store and ship explosive material. Thousands of tons of powder and Pyrex cotton (gun cotton) — a highly explosive substance made of cotton treated with nitric and sulfuric acids — were shipped to the reservation for storage in magazines.
To accommodate the more than 40 million pounds of high explosives stored at the reservation, numerous portable magazines were erected all over the camp and into the range areas to the south and east. From 1923 to 1925, the U.S. Department of Agriculture acted as custodial agent for the camp as activity centered on dismantling the wartime barracks and the deactivation of the Ordnance Depot. The powder was processed at the depot and sold as dynamite to the commercial market, as well as issued to farmers in many different states for use in clearing their land.
Lumber salvaged from the dismantled barracks was used to box and ship surplus powder to other government-owned depots. Some 800,000 pounds of explosives were shipped by contractors who performed the work.
Maj. Gen. Robert Bruce McCoy, 58, died Jan. 5, 1926, from pernicious anemia. On Nov. 19, 1926, the War Department issued General Order No. 22 to rename the Sparta Military Reservation as Camp McCoy “in honor of Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy, Wisconsin National Guard, who commendably represented the War Department in the task of establishing this reservation.” This action followed the efforts made by a delegation of Wisconsin Legionnaires during the August 1926 nation convention at Philadelphia.
The War Department once again regained control of the camp as it settled down to improving buildings and roads. Construction started in the area now known as Old Camp or South Post. These buildings primarily were barracks, mess halls, storage facilities and open-sided stables. Summer artillery training was conducted from 1926 to 1933 by Regular Army, Reserve Officers Training Corps, and Officers Reserve Corps units from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
A Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) also was established at Camp McCoy. CMTCs were authorized by the National Defense Act of 1920 as an extra measure in preparing for the nation’s military readiness. The camps provided an introduction to military training for young men of high school or college age to prepare them for Reserve or National Guard duty.
From 1933-35, Camp McCoy was designated as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) supply base, administering the supply of clothing, subsistence and equipment for Wisconsin CCC camps. The CCC was a New Deal program during the Great Depression that was designed to provide jobs at $30 a month, plus uniforms, lodging and food. The program was supervised by the Army, and the quasi-military nature of the organization led to Army careers for many young men.
Nationwide, the CCC spent nearly $3 billion putting some 3 million youths and war veterans through conservation school and health programs. CCC operations continued at the camp until 1939. A Discharge and Reception Center was established at Camp McCoy, and enrollees were out-processed here until the center was closed in the fall of that year. After this period, the camp was put on standby status with only a quartermaster detachment and civilian maintenance personnel left behind as caretakers.
From 1935-1941, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) made significant contributions to the nation’s defense efforts.
Within the state of Wisconsin this program provided much-needed Depression-era economic support to the communities in the Monroe County area. The WPA cooperated with the U.S. War Department in a $22,000 building program at Camp McCoy that included the construction of six wood buildings. The WPA also constructed the Camp McCoy stone entrance gates in December 1940. The gates were built in response to construction of State Highway 21, which began in 1940 and was completed in 1941.
The gate road, however, had existed since Camp McCoy first opened for military training in 1909. The South Post Stone Gates (State Highway 16 and 21) are the only remaining structures constructed by the WPA at Fort McCoy.
The lull was only temporary as another world conflict that would involve the United States was looming on the horizon. Camp McCoy was the center of military interest when it was selected as the site for the Second Army Maneuvers. In August 1940 all National Guard and Regular Army troops in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia concentrated at Camp McCoy for intensive training.
The maneuver area covered 1,000 square miles in four counties, including Monroe County. Approximately 65,000 enlisted men and officers were assembled under the command of Lt. Gen. Stanley H. Ford. The maneuvers marked the largest troop concentration in the Midwest since World War I, as well as the first time the Second Army had been concentrated in one area.
By now, the camp was at full utilization and needed to grow. More than 45,000 acres were added between 1938 and 1942.
Unlike any other acquisition of sub-marginal farm land by the federal government, the Camp McCoy project envisioned the use of the land for military purposes as well as fishing, hunting and forest production. With this additional land, total acreage increased to more than 60,000 acres.
In February 1942, the War Department announced the building of a cantonment area referred to as the “New Camp,” which still serves as the installation’s cantonment area today. Congress allotted funding for the construction of facilities large enough to house, train and support 35,000 troops. Inaugurated on Aug. 30, 1942, some 8,000 local workers participated in this building project which took nine months to complete.
The triangular shape of the cantonment area, or “triad,” was designed to allow troop units to live and train efficiently under one headquarters.
More than 1,500 buildings were constructed at an estimated total cost of $30 million. The temporary wood buildings were required to last five years.
The former CCC discharge and reception center located on South Post was converted into a prisoner of war (POW) and relocation camp. The facility consisted of 35 buildings and a 20-acre enclosure. The FBI relocated 293 enemy-alien internees (5 Italians, 106 Germans, and 182 Japanese) to Camp McCoy. The camp was the largest holding facility for Japanese POWs (2,700) in the Continental United States and also housed nearly 3,000 German and 500 Korean POWs until POW operations were ceased in 1946. Camp McCoy is unique in American history as having housed both relocated Japanese-Americans from the West Coast as well as European and Japanese POWs captured during World War II.
The first unit to train at the “new camp” after its inauguration was the 100th Infantry Battalion, comprised of Hawaii National Guardsmen who were Americans of Japanese ancestry or Nisei.
The 100th served with distinction in Italy, suffering severe casualties while establishing one of the most-outstanding battle records of any unit in World War II. More than 9,000 Purple Hearts were awarded to members of the 100th Infantry Battalion. The 100th’s lead in training here was followed shortly afterward by the 2nd and 76th Infantry Divisions.
The nation’s first ordnance regiment, the 301st, came to Camp McCoy after basic training in North Carolina. The mission of the 301st Ordnance Regiment was to design and repair trucks, tanks, tractors and other motorized war equipment on the battlefield. The 301st was the first unit of its kind ever formed in the U.S. Army, and was comprised almost totally of former automobile dealers, mechanics, salesmen and clerks whose businesses closed after war was declared.
The Camp McCoy 1,800-bed station hospital was one of 15 induction and basic training centers for Army nurses. Altogether 27,330 nurses underwent training throughout the Army, with Camp McCoy serving as one of the largest sites. A four-week basic course included 144 hours on military courtesy, discipline, correspondence, security, self-protection (e.g. gas-mask training), physical fitness, drill, sanitation, insect control, and care of chemical casualties.
A Limited Service School was established to train physically disabled Soldiers in several specialist fields. Group calisthenics for patients in the Camp McCoy Station Hospital was part of the “reconditioning program.”
During its operation 1,000 Soldiers graduated from the school each week. Camp McCoy also had the largest Army Service Company in the United States, consisting of 90 percent limited service Soldiers.
In 1945, the post’s mission was changed to that of a reception and discharge center for Soldiers returning from overseas. Men from Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Michigan and Montana were processed and discharged. The Reception Section handled 5,400 Soldiers a week, while the Separation Section handled 800 a week. When the center closed in 1946, nearly 250,000 Soldiers had been processed.
Training nearly stopped in 1946, except for the 1,800 troops of Task Force Frost experimental winter maneuvers. The purpose of this operation was to obtain additional information about the performance of equipment under cold-wet conditions and in heavy winter snow. They trained here until late spring of 1947.
For a time during early to mid-1947, the post was an induction center, with men from throughout the Midwest processing here before heading for training centers across the country.
In June 1947, the camp was put on inactive status. Reserve and National Guard units still used it as a summer training camp during the next few years.
The camp was reactivated in September 1950, shortly after the conflict in Korea started. The camp served as a major training center for the Fifth Army area, preparing Soldiers for battle in Korea. The peak strength reached after the activation was about 19,000. Earlier in that same year the post was considered as a possible site for a proposed U.S. Air Academy.
In October 1951, the camp again became a reassignment and separation center. Before the center closed its doors in January 1953, more than 15,000 men were separated from service, and another 18,000 men had been reassigned to other posts.
In 1952, Camp McCoy came to the aid of the civilian community during the polio epidemic. More than 100 civilian patients were treated at the station hospital.
Those busy days were short-lived. In November 1952, the Army announced it would curtail operations at Camp McCoy for economic reasons. Soldiers stationed here were reassigned, and on Feb. 1, 1953, the post again was deactivated. However, Camp McCoy continued to be used as a site where Reserve and National Guard units conducted their annual training during the summer months.
In 1955, the Wisconsin State Patrol established a training academy, including housing, at Camp McCoy.
Camp McCoy made headlines in the winter of 1959 when the post was considered as a possible site for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) base. The Army opposed the idea and resisted Air Force efforts to have the ICBM launch site located here, reasoning that the Army may need all of Camp McCoy, which was still deactivated, at some later date.
At the peak of the Cold War, very little was known about the effects of radiation, especially in a cold-weather environment. Beginning in 1961 and continuing until 1974, the Army Nuclear Defense Laboratory, Army Chemical Center, Maryland, conducted tests at Camp McCoy to determine which decontamination techniques would work most effectively in a cold-weather environment in the event of a nuclear attack.
During the decontamination tests at Camp McCoy, technicians operated a radiation simulation plant to coat sand with a radioactive isotope tracer, Lanthanum 140.
This material was designed to simulate radioactive fallout dust. The isotope used was selected so that no residual contamination would remain. All tests were closely monitored. There was, and remains, no health risk to personnel on the installation.
The coated sand was spread on specially selected Camp McCoy buildings, parking lots, and streets, and then removed by different means such as vacuum sweeping, grading and mechanical sweeping.
In 1962, the state of Wisconsin was granted a right-of-way easement over 400 acres of Camp McCoy property in order to build Interstate 90. The borrow and fill removed from three locations parallel to the Interstate resulted in the three man-made lakes now known as Big Sandy, Sandy and West Sandy. These lakes are now popular fishing and recreational areas.
From 1966 to 1968, Camp McCoy was home to a Job Corps Training Center. This center was operated for the federal government through contract with RCA Service Company and in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. Job Corps sites were located at military facilities and non-military sites all over the United States.
The Job Corps Program began during the “Great Society” era and was intended to provide regional vocational training centers for young men from low-income families.
The men participating represented nearly every ethnic group and generally came from families that were poverty stricken or came from broken homes. While at these centers the intent was to provide training in vocational, technical and social skills. A total of 1,700 men attended the Job Corps Program, which had a staff of 630 personnel at Camp McCoy.
More than $2 million was spent renovating 167 buildings in the 1100 to 1400 blocks of the cantonment area and installing natural gas pipelines. An additional $750,000 went to constructing a field house with swimming pool (now the Rumpel Fitness Center), warehouse, and gate house.
The Job Corps Center at Camp McCoy spent $11.6 million during its operation, which ended in 1969.
Eventually many of the Job Corps centers, including the one at Camp McCoy, were discontinued because of a lack of federal funding due to the budget demands of the Vietnam War.
During a visit in July 1970, then-Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird stated, “As we phase out the regular forces, this will put a greater responsibility on the Reserve and National Guard forces.
A camp like Camp McCoy will have an increasing role to play in the training of the Reserve and National Guard forces.”
Camp McCoy took on a greater regional role within the upper Midwest by supporting a variety of federal agencies. A number of new organizations were established on post.
The camp was reactivated and permanent party staffing established to accomplish its mission of supporting Reserve and National Guard training.
Extensive damage to the Camp McCoy main telephone exchange occurred as a result of three early-morning bombings July 27, 1970. The 2,000-line telephone exchange was bombed from under the floor.
The explosion left only 100 of the lines operating.
Explosions also hit the power substation and reservoir but damage was slight. The blast at the electrical substation caused damage to equipment creating a 90-minute blackout on post.
A federal grand jury indicted three Soldiers on charges they stole explosives and bombed the three facilities at Camp McCoy.
On Arbor Day 1971, Camp McCoy’s one-millionth tree was planted on the east side of post headquarters marking the 10-year anniversary of the Army Forestry Program.
In August 1972, 16 foreign officers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) observed training at Camp McCoy.
Camp McCoy was designated a FORSCOM installation with the formation of U.S. Army Forces Command July 1, 1973. With Department of the Army General Order No. 45, the camp officially was renamed Fort McCoy on Sept. 30, 1974.
This designation recognized Fort McCoy’s status as a year-round Army training facility.
This designation underscored the vital and enduring nature of the installation’s role in our nation’s military readiness.
In May 1980, Fort McCoy was designated as a Resettlement Center for Cuban refugees who came to the United States when Fidel Castro allowed them to leave Cuba as part of the “Freedom Flotilla.”
Many of these refugees were hopeful they would find sponsors in the United States. The settlement center utilized all installation buildings on the east side of the cantonment area, as well as buildings in the 2700 and 2800 block areas. Approximately 15,000 Cubans were
housed here through September. During this mission, support personnel included hundreds of Soldiers, federal civilians and contractor personnel.
Troop training activity continued to grow throughout the 1980s, as did the number of ermanently assigned civilian and military personnel. In addition to the Army, units from the Air Force, Navy and Marines routinely began to conduct training on post.
Fort McCoy’s role as a cold-weather training site also took on added importance in the 1980s. Members of the 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade participated in Alpine Warrior exercises on post with as many as 4,500 Marines from Camp LeJeune, N.C., and Norfolk, Va., training in all aspects of cold-weather contingency operations.
Fort McCoy’s off-post support mission also grew significantly throughout the 1980s.
Today, Fort McCoy has one of the largest off-post support missions of any Army installation, with services being provided to federal agencies throughout the upper Midwest.
Fort McCoy’s unique distinctive unit crest, the Triad, was approved by the Institute of Heraldry in 1984.
Its three-sided design symbolizes the very essence of Fort McCoy’s mission: support of active, reserve-component and civilian organizations. The installation’s commitment to the environment is represented by two silhouetted pine trees. The triangular shape depicts the design of the post’s cantonment area.
In 1985, the installation for the first time supported the training of more than 100,000 personnel, which equates to more than one million training days. Fort McCoy has supported training for more than 100,000 personnel on an annual basis nearly every year since that time.
During this decade, some of the largest reserve-component training exercises in the history of the Army occurred at Fort McCoy. With the closing of Fort Sheridan and Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., Fort McCoy has become more visible as the only major installation located in the north-central United States.
As a training installation, Fort McCoy has much to offer the personnel who use the post and its facilities each year. To date, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) actions have served the post well by redefining and expanding Fort McCoy’s support role and visibility throughout the Army.
Fort McCoy’s role as a major mobilization site was evident during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. A total of 74 units from nine states, accounting for more than 18,000 Soldiers, as well as 3,400 items of equipment, deployed and redeployed through the installation. Fort McCoy was responsible for processing and training 8 percent of the total reserve-component force called to active duty in support of the Gulf War.
In June 1991, Fort McCoy received one of the largest reserve-component demobilization equipment repair missions in the Army. The mission, called Operation Desert Fix, gave the installation responsibility for the inventory, inspection, repair and return of more than 5,800 pieces of equipment that belonged to 121 different units.
The 1990s began with the first major new construction since 1942.
Since 1990, more than $230 million worth of new facilities have been built. Recent construction projects include the NCO Academy, General Purpose Warehouse, housing on South Post and the 88th Regional Support Command.
Annually, approximately $17.8 million is expended on facility maintenance and repair projects.
Significant renovation to the more than 1,000 remaining 1942 temporary World War II wood facilities continues. Approximately 400 of the original wood buildings have been demolished due to the Department of the Army Facilities Reduction Program.
Fort McCoy has supported many national defense missions, including Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle. More than 84,000 military personnel from 49 states and two territories mobilized or demobilized at Fort McCoy since Sept. 11, 2001.
More recently, Fort McCoy has responded to a global pandemic and kept its mission going supporting the warfighter and more.
As Fort McCoy continues into its second century of service to the nation, its role remains as that first envisioned by Maj. Gen. McCoy — to serve as a premier training and mobilization site for America’s Armed forces.
From those early training encampments on the McCoy ranch to today’s operations in support of worldwide contingency operations, Fort McCoy continues to play a vital role in the defense and security of our nation.
(Prepared by Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office personnel both past and present.)
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