Camp Adair was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

division training facility established north of Corvallis,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, operating from 1942 to 1946. During its peak period of use, the camp was home to approximately 40,000 persons — enough to have constituted the second largest city in the state of Oregon. The camp was largely scrapped as government surplus following termination of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, with a portion of the site reconstituted as "Adair Air Force Station" in 1957. Part of the former Camp Adair is now contained within the E. E. Wilson Wildlife Area, operated by the

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting an ...

(ODFW), with other parts of the camp now incorporated into the city of Adair Village.

History

Background

Planning for a United States Army

cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a military quarters. In Bangladesh, India and other parts of South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British India, colonial-era). In military of the United States, United Stat ...

in Oregon preceded the surprise bombing of the American fleet at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Six months earlier in June, with

already raging in Europe and the ranks of the American military swelling, several potential sites for Army camps in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Oregon had been surveyed. Several locations in the vicinity of Eugene were ultimately rejected and a piece of land several miles north of Corvallis chosen, owing in large measure to the ready availability at a reasonable price of a large contiguous mass of relatively flat farmland with rolling hills, suitable for the Army's training needs. The site was tentatively tapped for development as a cantonment in August 1941, pending the authorization of construction funds.

Establishment

The Shelby L. Stanton, ''Order of Battle: U.S. Army World War II.'' Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1984; pg. 256. site was rapidly constructed in just six months following the Pearl Harbor attack."WWII History Lives on at Camp Adair," ''Corvallis Gazette-Times,'' August 12, 2014; pg. A3. Further expansion followed, with the camp ultimately providing temporary quarters for 2,133 officers and 37,081 enlisted personnel. Camp Adair included about 1800 buildings, of which 500 were

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

, and maintained a hospital, a bakery, a post office, a bank, 13

post exchange An exchange is a type of retail store found on United States military installations worldwide. Originally akin to trading posts, they now resemble contemporary department stores or strip malls. Exact terminology varies by armed service; some exa ...

stores, 5 movie theaters, and 11 chapels, among other structures. The explosion of population at the locale was so great during the wartime years that had the site of Camp Adair been incorporated, it would have constituted the second largest city in the state of Oregon. The size of the Army camp dwarfed the population of neighboring Corvallis, which stood at just under 8,400 in 1940. Although the site was formally dedicated as "Camp Adair" on September 6, 1943, it was occupied by troops for many months prior to that date under the name "Corvallis Cantonment." The camp was named for Henry Rodney Adair, who was a native of Astoria and a member of a prominent Oregon pioneer family.Lewis A. McArthur and Lewis L. McArthur, ''

Oregon Geographic Names ''Oregon Geographic Names'' is a compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon, published by the Oregon Historical Society. The book was originally published in 1928. It was compiled and edited by Lewis A. Mc ...

.'' Seventh Edition. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003; pg. 140. After graduating from

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, Adair became a cavalry lieutenant; he was killed in northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

on June 21, 1916, at the Battle of Carrizal during the

Pancho Villa Expedition The Pancho Villa Expedition—now known officially in the United States as the Mexican Expedition, but originally referred to as the "Punitive Expedition, U.S. Army"—was a military operation conducted by the United States Army against the p ...

End of use as training facility

By the end of July 1944 the 91st Infantry Division had been deployed and Camp Adair was abandoned as an Army training facility."Camp Adair: The Story of Camp Adair, Oregon,"
Benton County Historical Society, www.bentoncountymuseum.org/ The base hospital was enlarged to a capacity of 3600 patients and turned over to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

for treatment of sailors and marines wounded in the Pacific theater. The base was also repurposed as a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

and was used from August 1944 until July 1946 as a detention center for

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and

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POWs.

Termination

After the end of the war, most of the hurriedly constructed wartime structures at Camp Adair were declared government surplus and were sold at auction to demolition contractors, who dismantled the buildings and sold the lumber, windows, and other components for reuse elsewhere. Other buildings were transported intact to other sites and converted to civilian use. In 1957, Camp Adair became Adair Air Force Station and SAGE Support Facility, anticipating the construction of a

CIM-10 Bomarc The Boeing CIM-10 BOMARC (Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center) (IM-99 Weapon System prior to September 1962) was a supersonic ramjet powered long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of Nort ...

launch facility. Construction of the launch facility was not completed due to drastic reduction in the Bomarc program, but the infrastructure that was completed remains at the site. The SAGE facility operated until September 1969 and the station was soon closed.

Chicano-Indian Study Center of Oregon

In 1971, Chicano and Native activists proposed that the vacant base be used for a new Chicano Indian Study Center of Oregon (CISCO), to provide high school and college-level courses, vocational training, child care, and health care. In 1972, after their requests for the site met deaf ears, the CISCO leaders led a group of 200 people from Portland through the Chemawa Indian School to Camp Adair, where they occupied one of the buildings. They eventually acquired ten buildings and solicited funding from private, federal, and state sources to refurbish the campus. The center included an alcohol and drug treatment center that used traditional Native spiritual practices, particularly a daily sweat lodge ceremony. In 1974, CISCO began work on an oral history and library project. The study center closed on March 31, 1977.

Legacy

In 2010 the city council of Adair Village appropriated more than $100,000 to move two surviving barracks structures to a location near City Hall for adaptation as a historic center. A nonprofit organization called Adair Living History was established at that time and began raising the estimated $850,000 needed to complete renovations of the barracks and other improvements to the new historic site. As of the summer of 2014, plans called for one of the two buildings to be used as a museum of Camp Adair's history and the other to serve as a community center for use of residents of the small town.

References

External links

Henry Adair and Camp Adair
from Salem Online History
Camp Adair history
from ODFW visitor guide to E. E. Wilson Wildlife Area
Historic images of Camp Adair from Salem Public Library
{{Authority control Adair Buildings and structures in Benton County, Oregon Military installations in Oregon Closed installations of the United States Army 1942 establishments in Oregon World War II prisoner of war camps in the United States 1946 disestablishments in Oregon Military installations established in 1942 Military installations closed in 1946