In 1941, even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Fort Worth was taking on the appearance of a city at war.
In January the federal government announced that it would build in Fort Worth a plant for Consolidated Aircraft Corporation to manufacture B-24 Liberator bombers.
But before the bomber plant could be built, a railroad spur track would have to be laid so that rail cars could haul in first material to build the plant and then parts to build the bombers. In May the U.S. Army reached an agreement with the Texas & Pacific railroad to lay the “bomber spur” from its main track in southwest Fort Worth to the plant site at Lake Worth.
Also in May the Star-Telegram reported that four anchorages were being added to the four existing anchorages at the seaplane base on Lake Worth. Fort Worth had established the base in 1940 so that PBY patrol bomber seaplanes built by Consolidated in San Diego could land, refuel, and overnight here as they were being flown to England and France for service in the war.
In June President Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to fund a military “landing field” adjacent to the bomber plant. The Army would use the field to train the pilots who would fly the plant’s B-24s. The airfield was initially named “Tarrant Field.” On July 29 it was renamed “Fort Worth Army Air Field” (later “Carswell Air Force Base”).
The foregoing flurry of activity took place on the west side of town. Meanwhile on the east side of town . . .
On June 11 the city council approved leasing to the federal government—for $1 a year—six acres in Sycamore Park on which the Army would build a “recreation camp.” The camp would include one hundred tents to house five hundred soldiers: individual soldiers on furlough or units of soldiers convoyed to Fort Worth for recreation.
R. D. Evans of the parks and recreation department estimated that 200,000 soldiers were stationed within a one hundred-mile radius of Fort Worth.
The Army would also build recreation camps in Brownwood, Houston, and Oklahoma City.
Major Robert M. Patterson was the first commander of “Camp Sycamore.” In August he and parks superintendent Harry J. Adams inspected the camp site. Patterson called the site “almost ideal.”
Patterson said the camp would provide soldiers with transportation, lodging, and access to recreational facilities in the park, including the city swimming pool.
He said the camp would not serve meals or include a post exchange because the Army did not want to compete with the city’s businesses. The Army would arrange for soldiers to buy their meals at local eating establishments.
Patterson said the atmosphere of the camp would be relaxed, more “R&R” than “spit and polish.”
He said, “If the program gets the popular and civic backing it deserves, Fort Worth will find that the soldiers are a fine lot of fellows to have around.”
Major Patterson and parks superintendent Adams at the site of the camp. Behind them is the low-water crossing over Sycamore Creek. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
Work on the camp began in September. The camp was built by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Eagle Mountain Lake under direction of the National Park Service.
By October the first tent had been built. Each tent housed six soldiers. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
Tents had raised wooden floors and wooden lower walls, screened upper walls, and canvas tent roofs. The tents could be “winterized” by lowering canvas flaps to cover the screened walls.
In October the Star-Telegram published a photo spread of the camp.
This view is to the east. Just below the tents can be seen the narrow interurban bridge over Sycamore Creek. In the distance are Poly High School in the middle background and TWU and Poly Elementary School in the left background. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
This path between two rows of tents had not yet been graveled. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
Lieutenant Chris Solberg, adjutant and executive officer of the recreation camp, inspected a cot in one of the tents. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
The camp also included tents for officers, a hospital tent, a recreation tent, and a bathhouse/latrine tent. This photo shows the recreation tent under construction. The camp was staffed by two commissioned officers, four noncommissioned officers, and eight enlisted men. (Star-Telegram photo from University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.)
On December 5 the Star-Telegram reported that “Camp Sycamore” was nearing completion as Captain James H. Carter replaced Major Patterson as commander.
Two days later Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Three weeks after Pearl Harbor, America began its first full year of war. Cowtowners, like people across America, did their part on the home front as they adjusted to living with shortages, rationing (automobiles, tires, gasoline, fuel oil, coal, firewood, nylon, sugar, silk, shoes, meat, dairy products, coffee, jams, jellies, lard, shortening), saving fat, and contributing to drives to collect scrap rubber and scrap metal.
Five weeks after Pearl Harbor, “Camp Sycamore” was completed enough to house 250 soldiers. The camp opened in time to accommodate soldiers in town to attend the United Service Organizations (USO) dance in the Crystal Ballroom of the Hotel Texas. The dance featured the hotel’s floor show, including a magician, a singer, and a “line of girls.” The post band of Camp Wolters provided music for dancing.
The USO held a dance for soldiers at its center at the hotel once a month. Dance partners for the soldiers were girls who displayed badges to show that they were at least eighteen years old and had been approved by the Jewish Institute Welfare Board, Catholic Charities, YWCA, YMCA, or USO.
The USO also had a center for traveling soldiers at the Bowen bus depot on Main Street.
An event in March 1942 shows how soldiers were welcomed in Fort Worth. Soldiers from Camp Wolters came to town to play a baseball game against the Rogers Hornsby baseball school team at LaGrave Field. The USO provided the Wolters soldiers with baseball shoes, and Wolf and Klar jewelers provided them with uniforms. The soldiers were given meals at the Hotel Texas, Wayfair Inn, and Milam Cafeteria and cots at “Camp Sycamore.”
But after less than a year of operation, “Camp Sycamore” closed. In August 1942 Chris Solberg, by then a captain, said “personnel, equipment and material” could “be used to better advantage elsewhere.” By then soldiers who had danced at the Hotel Texas and had fallen asleep to the lullaby of Sycamore Creek babbling nearby were spending their furloughs in recreation camps in settings far less peaceful than Sycamore Park: the Middle East or Europe or north Africa.
(Thanks to Dan Washmon for the tip.)
I am glad to know this. I spent a bit of my youth at the Y, riding horses in the late 60’s here . Interesting!
… The C.C.C. camp you referred to “near eagle mountain lake” is that about 1/4 mile south west of ten mile bridge, the water system and pool looks to be from that era…
… There is an absolutely beautiful double sided fireplace that looks like it used to have a building around it, with 8 or 10 empty slabs around the property…
… It is such a cool site to explore, feels almost like a sacred place, a monument to the past…