Indiantown Gap Military Reservation
East Hanover Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Authorized in 1929, first land bought in 1931, and first used by the National Guard in 1932. In 1940 it was leased to the Federal government as an Army cantonment. Total area now more than 16,000 acres.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
By the late 1920s Pennsylvania was searching for a permanent home to train its National Guard, and the rolling country below the Blue Mountain at Indiantown Gap offered the room. Authorized in 1929 and first purchased in 1931, the reservation grew quickly, and when the nation began rearming in 1940 the state leased the ground to the federal government as an Army cantonment. From a modest Guard camp it swelled past 16,000 acres, becoming one of the great mustering and training grounds of the mid-Atlantic.
Why it matters
Indiantown Gap embodies how state militia posts were absorbed into the vast machinery of national defense on the eve of America's global wars.
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Related events
- · Establishment of Indiantown Gap Military Reservation
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Indiantown Gap Military Reservation
East Hanover Township, PA · est. 1947
The land at Indiantown Gap was chosen in the late 1920s as a permanent training ground for the Pennsylvania National Guard, with the first acreage bought in 1931 and troops drilling there by 1932. As war loomed in Europe, the reservation was leased to the federal government in 1940 as an Army cantonment and expanded rapidly past 16,000 acres. What began as a state camp became a major staging and training installation feeding the nation's growing army.
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