COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The U.S. Army might have turned 250 over the weekend, but the Army’s presence in Colorado Springs is (of course) much younger.
Prior to the arrival of the Army, the Front Range city wasn’t known for its large military installations.
“Colorado Springs, at the time, was a tourist town. And in the 1930s, most of their tourists came from Europe,” said Daniel Roberts, curator at the Fourth Infantry Division and Fort Carson Museum. “A lot of their business dried up for fairly obvious reasons. And there were a number of politicians and retired military involved, and they could read the writing on the wall.”
As a result of the impending war in Europe, the city of Colorado Springs bought up land south of the city and set it aside for the government. That land is where Fort Carson now sits. The idea was born of the need for an economic transformation.
The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum offers a detailed account of what led to the land purchase:
In the summer of 1941, Democratic Senator Alva Adams, City Council, and the Chamber of Commerce lobbied Congress for the placement of a “large Army cantonment” on the former Cheyenne Ranch 6 miles south of the city. City Ordinance No. 1614 described the terms of the offer, granting the U.S. Government the right to purchase the property, “to be used as a United States Army Camp for the accomodation (sic) of approximately thirty thousand men and officers…the purchase price to be the sum of One ($1.00) Dollar.”
After the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Army exploded from a post-World War I small, frontier force into hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
In order to support the military expansion and wartime industrialization, a number of training bases were needed across the country.
“Before that, the Army wasn't interested. They didn't have a need,” said Roberts, curator at the Fort Carson Museum. “After the declaration of war, there was a need. And on review, Carson has a lot of great training terrain because it matches a lot of the terrain in Europe.”
According to the Fort Carson History page on the U.S. Army website, the city donated the land it had purchased to the War Department, and construction began immediately once contracts were signed.
The newly donated land was to be named Camp Carson, after the famed 1800s Army frontier scout, Gen. Christopher “Kit” Carson, who explored much of the West.
The camp headquarters was completed Jan. 31, 1942. The initial contract for $30 million is equivalent to a little over half a billion dollars in today’s money, according to Roberts.
The remainder of Camp Carson was to be built by June 1942, which was a monumental undertaking.
“As the deadline came closer, a kicker was added. The Army wanted a mule barn for the artillery mules and pack mules, as well as a 5000-bed POW camp,” said Roberts.
Roberts said this added another $11 million to the costs, bringing the total to $41 million, which is nearly a billion dollars in today’s money.
“Of course, the craziest part of all this isn't the numbers involved, but the timeline,” Roberts said. “Camp Carson was delivered on time, and with a $2.5 million refund–almost $50 million in today's money–was refunded back to the government. So on time, under budget. Something like that doesn't happen anymore.”
According to the Army website, over 100,000 soldiers trained at Camp Carson during World War II.
The POW camp was housed near present-day Gate 3 off South Academy and Highway 115, Roberts said.
Camp Carson housed about 9,000 German and Italian prisoners throughout the course of the war. They had their own newspaper, canteen, and theater, according to Roberts.
“They were taken regularly, taken out of the camp and working in jobs that we had left empty because of the war,” Roberts said. He said these POWs weren’t the “hardcore loyalists.” Those troops were held in Camp Hale near Leadville.
“These POWs alleviated the manpower shortage in Colorado by doing general farm work, canning tomatoes, cutting corn, and aiding in logging operations on Colorado's Western Slope,” according to the Army website.
After WWII, the military drawdown almost spelled doom for Camp Carson. Only about 600 troops remained, with another 300 patients at the hospital.
But the Korean War triggered a reassessment of military needs. According to Roberts, the top brass determined there was still a need for the type of terrain training that Fort Carson could provide.
In 1954, Camp Carson became Fort Carson, and it was given a permanent designation as a base with family housing and accommodations.
Today, Fort Carson serves as an intrinsic part of the Colorado Springs community and economy, with a total population of almost 90,000 soldiers, family members, contractors, civilian employees, and reservists.
For further reading on the history of Fort Carson and the Army in Colorado Springs, click here and here.
https://home.army.mil/carson/units-tenants/us-army-garrison-fort-carson/fort-carson-history
https://www.cspm.org/cos-150-story/camp-carson/
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