Site of Camp Howze
Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(One mile west) In operation from 1942 to 1946, Camp Howze served as an infantry training facility during World War II. It was named for General Robert Lee Howze (1864-1926), a native Texan whose distinguished career in the United States Army began with his graduation from West Point and included service in France, Puerto Rico, Germany, a South Dakota Indian War and the Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902. Clifford McMahon of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce first contacted federal authorities with the idea of establishing a military installation here. Attracted by the community's active endorsement of the plan, the government activated Camp Howze on August 17, 1942, under the command of Colonel John P. Wheeler. In addition to infantry training, the base was also the site of a German prisoner of war camp and an air support command base, now part of the Gainesville Municipal Airport. Services provided for the soldiers included camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, service clubs and a base newspaper, the "Camp Howze Howitzer." The economic and social impact of Camp Howze on Gainesville was significant and was instrumental in the town's rapid growth and development. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the anxious months after Pearl Harbor, the little North Texas town of Gainesville transformed almost overnight into a training ground for war. Activated in August 1942 and named for Texas-born General Robert Lee Howze, Camp Howze drilled infantry for the fight in Europe while also holding German prisoners of war and supporting air operations. Camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, and a base newspaper — the Camp Howze Howitzer — sustained the soldiers, and the installation reshaped Gainesville's economy and growth.
Why it matters
Camp Howze is a reminder of how completely World War II mobilized the American home front, turning ordinary farm towns into engines of the war effort.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Army had to turn millions of civilians into soldiers in a very short time. That meant building training camps on a huge scale, fast. Places with open land, mild weather, rail connections, and willing local leaders were in demand, and Texas had all of them.
Gainesville, in Cooke County just south of the Red River, was a modest North Texas town of farms and ranches. Like many communities that had struggled through the Depression, it saw both patriotic duty and economic opportunity in the war. Its leaders went after a military installation actively instead of waiting to be chosen.
Camp Howze was activated in August 1942, and life in and around Gainesville changed. Thousands of soldiers arrived, along with the construction, supply, and service work needed to support them. Across the country, small towns near big new bases went through the same sudden transformation.
The camp also became part of another wartime story. As Allied forces captured large numbers of German soldiers, many were shipped to the United States and held in camps across the country. Texas, with its space and its military bases, held a great many of them, and Camp Howze was one of the places where they were held.
People & events
The camp's name honored General Robert Lee Howze, a native Texan born in 1864 who graduated from West Point and served for decades in the Army. His service covered a remarkable sweep of American military history. He fought in an Indian war in South Dakota, served in the Philippine Insurrection of 1899–1902, and was posted in Puerto Rico, France, and Germany. Naming a Texas training camp for him tied the new soldiers to a long line of service.
The idea for the camp started locally. Clifford McMahon of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce first approached federal authorities about putting a military post near town. The community got behind the plan, and its strong support helped persuade the government. On August 17, 1942, Camp Howze was activated under Colonel John P. Wheeler.
From then until it closed in 1946, the camp trained infantry, the foot soldiers who did the hardest fighting of the war. It also held German prisoners of war and served as an air support command base, a role whose traces survive in the Gainesville Municipal Airport.
The camp worked to make life bearable for young men far from home. Soldiers could visit camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, and service clubs, and they could read the base newspaper, the Camp Howze Howitzer. For many, the camp was their last taste of American home life before going overseas.
Its place in the American story
Camp Howze is a clear example of how World War II mobilized the whole country, not only its big cities and factories. The Army's huge expansion depended on training camps, many of them built in rural areas almost overnight. Each one turned civilians into soldiers, and each one reshaped the town next to it.
The camp's origin also shows how the home front worked. Local boosters like Gainesville's Chamber of Commerce competed to bring war installations to their communities, combining patriotism with a hope for recovery after the Depression. The money and people the camp brought helped drive Gainesville's rapid growth, and that pattern of war spending remaking local economies was repeated across the South and West.
The prisoner-of-war camp ties Gainesville to a lesser-known part of the war. Hundreds of thousands of enemy prisoners were held on American soil, many of them in Texas, and their presence brought the war into small towns in surprising ways.
Finally, General Howze's career links the camp to an earlier America. His service, from the Indian wars of the West through the Philippines to Europe, follows the country's rise from a frontier nation to a world power. The soldiers trained in his name were carrying that story into its biggest chapter.
If you visit
The marker points to the camp site about a mile to the west. Most wartime camps like this were dismantled after the war, so don't expect a preserved base. Treat the marker as a window instead, and as you look across the landscape, imagine the barracks, drill fields, and thousands of young soldiers who passed through in 1942–1946.
The Gainesville Municipal Airport is one living link to the camp, since the old air support base became part of it. Driving past gives you a sense of how the wartime land was reused by the town in peacetime.
Gainesville is an easy stop on the main route between the Dallas–Fort Worth area and Oklahoma, which makes this marker a good break on a North Texas road trip. Take some time in town as well. The growth the camp brought is part of the reason Gainesville looks the way it does today.
If you travel with older relatives or children, this is a natural place to talk about family members who served in World War II, or to wonder what it was like to be eighteen and training on these Texas fields before shipping out to war.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · General Robert Lee Howze
- · Clifford McMahon
- · Colonel John P. Wheeler
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
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