Camp Crowder traveling museum exhibit in the works
A new traveling museum exhibit focused on the history of Camp Crowder during World War II is in the works thanks to a grant that the Newton County Tourism Council received from Missouri Humanities.
The planned exhibit will bring Camp Crowder to life through personal accounts of the men and women who were there while exploring the impact the camp had on Neosho and its overall part in American history.
As the United States begins a yearlong celebration of its 250th anniversary and with Neosho Arts Council’s recent efforts to preserve a mural that was painted at Camp Crowder during World War II, the tourism council felt this was the perfect time to help present the camp’s history and impact on the area.
The Newton County Tourism Council, Newton County Historical Park and Museum, and Neosho Arts Council have joined forces to see this exhibit come to life. Funding was provided by the Semiquincentennial Grant awarded by Missouri Humanities. The grant was designed to fund projects that tell America’s story through the lens of Missouri as part of the America250 Celebration.
“Having been in education most of my life, I want this exhibit to educate, to teach the rich history of Camp Crowder,” said Steve Roark, president of the Newton County Tourism Council.
Through the exhibit viewers will be able to immerse themselves in the stories and history of the camp while gaining a greater appreciation of the hardships and benefits that came along with its construction. The exhibit will travel to a variety of locations allowing a wider audience to experience the content.
“There are so many new people moving to Neosho and Newton County who may have no idea there was a World War II training camp – and prisoner of war camp – right here in Neosho,” said Wes Franklin, president of the Newton County Historical Park and Museum Board of Directors. “Or maybe they have lived here for years, or even their whole life, and have heard of Camp Crowder, but don’t know much about it. I hope this exhibit will serve to help educate every one of all stripes, both newcomers and longtime residents.”
The exhibit will touch on how local families were forced from their farms as the Army began construction of the camp and changed the landscape of Newton County forever. It will also highlight the shift in economic opportunities for the area from primarily agriculture work to jobs in support of the war effort.
“The establishment of Camp Crowder in 1941 triggered an economic boom and population surge in Neosho, bringing thousands of soldiers and creating numerous jobs,” Scott Hall, Executive Director of the Newton County Historical Park and Museum, said. “This required massive infrastructure development, including new roads and utilities, benefiting the region long-term.”
“Camp Crowder’s impact on Neosho was both huge and lasting,” Franklin added. “Highway 59 on the south end of Neosho is a divided highway that was built specially for military traffic. The city’s current water treatment plant was also constructed to accommodate Camp Crowder, and much of its water utility infrastructure was built because of Crowder, as was the street system in what is now the city’s industrial park, as well as at Crowder College, which sits at the heart of the old Camp Crowder.”
During the peak of construction over 20,500 people were employed to expand area infrastructure and build the camp.
Camp Crowder served as a U.S. Army Signal Corps training facility where soldiers received training in a variety of communication specialties involving radio, radar and telephone operation, and maintenance.
According to Franklin the camp served the Midwest region and that “essentially meant training in anything having to do with communications, as well as basic field operations,” all occurred at Camp Crowder. The Signal Corps was crucial because it provided essential communication capabilities to the military, allowing for rapid transmission of information on the battlefield, coordinating troop movements, and facilitating strategic decision-making, which was vital for successful military operations.
At its peak, Camp Crowder covered over 42,000 acres and housed up to 47,000 soldiers. “At the time the war ended there were 45,000 troops either permanently or temporarily stationed at Camp Crowder. That was nine times the prewar civilian population of Neosho,” Franklin noted.
The reaction to this sudden population increase by the local community will also be highlighted in the exhibit. Wives and families of soldiers training and stationed at the camp were calling Neosho their temporary home.
“A lot of people rented out bedrooms to accommodate the sudden surge in population associated with the Camp,” Franklin noted. Hotels were filled, cabins were rented out, and farm buildings were being remodeled to meet the demand for places to stay. The community also faced cultural difficulties as soldiers from across the nation started to arrive. A strain was also put on the school district as enrollment of students soared.
Life at Camp Crowder went beyond training and included recreational activities such as art, music, and theatre. With help from the Neosho Arts Council the exhibit will feature a special look at the fine arts within the camp.
As part of the Signal Corp, Camp Crowder was one of only two band training sections in the nation. Soldier musicians trained at the camp before being assigned to one of the nearly 500 Army bands around the world at that time. Various musical and theatrical groups from the camp would travel the area performing shows for bond drives, recruitment, and for morale boosting events such as U.S.O. Club dances.
The desire to express oneself creatively lead to various murals and other works of art being created. Murals depicting the vital and at times dangerous work of the Signal Corp were found in mess halls, chapels, and recreational rooms across the camp.
“While we have photos of several murals at the camp there is currently no evidence that any of them survived the closing of Crowder, except for one,” explained Sarah Serio, president of Neosho Arts Council. Last year the council discovered a partially completed mural painted at the camp during World War II. This recent discovery has led the arts council on a mission to preserve the work of art for future display in Neosho.
“There were a great number of artists, musicians, and actors all training and stationed at Camp Crowder. By showcasing their work in the exhibit we will be creating a new connection between the viewer and the soldier that will reach through time in a way that only the fine arts can connect us,” Serio said.
One such connection is through laughter, in the form of a comic strip. Mort Walk, the artist behind the “Beetle Bailey” comic, was one of more than 212,000 troops trained at Camp Crowder during World War II. Walker set his comic strip, which was first published in 1950, in the fictionalized Camp Swampy which was directly inspired by his time at Camp Crowder.
In an interview by Franklin for the Neosho Daily News (November 14, 2010), Walker reported, “We woke up one morning and we were in a lake. As far as you could see was water. That’s where Camp Swampy came from.” Camp Crowder was experiencing widespread flooding, Walker and fellow soldiers were assigned to sandbag details, working in water up to their knees, instead of their regular training for the day.
The camp also housed members of the Women’s Army Corps, American Red Cross personnel, medical corps soldiers, the nation’s first Officer Candidate Preparatory School, over 2,000 Prisoners of War (POWs), and had thousands of civilian employees. All of these areas have a story to tell within the exhibit.
Viewers will also see how the camp continued to impact the area after its closing post-World War II.
In 1956 about 2,000 acres of the former Camp Crowder were sectioned off and transferred to the United States Air Force. That same year, Air Force Plant No. 65, which was a Rocketdyne run site, employing around 1,250 workers, opened. The facility manufactured and tested rocket engines used in the Mercury and Gemini space programs and eventually the Apollo program’s Saturn V engine which brought man to the moon.
“The heart of the original Camp Crowder became the main campus of Crowder College, which was established in 1963. Without Camp Crowder, and all the infrastructure already being present as it was, I am not sure if there would have been a Crowder College,” Franklin said. “Certainly not in name, of course, but I don’t know if there would have been a community college in Neosho and Newton County at all.”
A portion of the original camp is still in operation for military training as Missouri National Guard Camp Crowder.
“It’s sad, in a way, that a place that once buzzed with human activity, at any given time having a population almost that of Joplin today, is now almost silent except for the tweets of the birds, the rustle of squirrels, and the sound of the wind gently blowing through the trees.” Franklin said. He hopes this exhibit will remind viewers of what Camp Crowder was, where it was, and why it was.