Branch Camps
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Map courtesy of author Cheryl O'Brien, World War II POW Camps of Wyoming.
During WWII, there were nineteen Prisoner of War Camps scattered throughout Wyoming. The two major camps were located at Camp Douglas in Douglas, Wyoming, and at Fort Francis E. Warren in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Seventeen smaller branch camps were established in Basin, Centennial, Clearmont, Deaver, Dubois, Esterbrook, Huntley, Lingle, Lovell, Pine Bluffs, Riverton, Ryan Park, Torrington, Veteran, Wheatland, and Worland. These branch camps provided paid POW labor for the Wyoming agriculture, farm, and timber industries and were an important part that directly impacted the Wyoming economy during and immediately following WWII.
Scroll down to learn more about each branch camp.
Basin
As early as April 1944, the CCC Camp in Basin, Wyoming, was suggested as a branch camp site to house German POW laborers for the summer sugar beet harvest. Due to necessary camp modifications, the first group of 160 German POWs did not arrive from the Scottsbluff, Nebraska, POW camp until the early summer. They worked until November 1944, when the POWs returned to the Scottsbluff POW Camp. A second group of 246 German POWs were sent to Basin from Camp Douglas in the early summer of 1945. The second group of German POWs worked until July and then returned in September as laborers for the sugar beet harvest.
Centennial
The Centennial POW Camp was located at Mullen Creek and opened in July 1945, as a timber camp. German POWs provided paid labor for the Wyoming Timber Company and cut over 2,000,000 feet of timber by mid-November 1945.
Clearmont
The Clearmont POW Camp was established in the summer of 1945, to house German POWs participating in the sugar beet harvest. The first group of 250 German POWs arrived from the Scottsbluff POW Camp in the summer of 1945, with an additional 200 German POWs from Camp Douglas in the fall of 1945. The POWs participated in the sugar beet harvest until November 1945.
Deaver
The Deaver POW Camp was established in June 1944, to house 120 German POWs from the Scottsbluff POW Camp. The total number of German POWs increased to 676 by the summer of 1945. The Deaver POW camp was not a continuous operating POW camp but operated on a seasonal basis for the sugar beet thinning and harvest seasons.
Dubois
Camp Dubois operated from July 1944 to January 1946. German POWs worked for the Wyoming Tie and Timber Company. The POW camp was established at Du Noir, with German POWs providing labor in the timber industry.
For more information on the Dubois Branch Camp, see the Resources page.
Esterbrook
The Esterbrook Camp was opened in 1943, and was the first POW Branch Camp to have both Italian and German POWs providing labor for the timber industry. The seventy five Italian, and later German POWs, were from Camp Douglas and provided labor for Laramie Peak. German POWs took over for the Italian’s after Italian POW repatriation following Italy’s surrender to the Allies in 1943.
Huntley
The Huntley POW camp was a mobile POW camp that opened in September 1945. The Camp housed up to 150 German POWs from the Scottsbluff POW Camp. The German POWs provided labor for the sugar beet and potato industry in the Huntley area.
Lingle
The Lingle POW Camp opened in the spring of 1945. A total of 300 German POWs were assigned to the Lingle POW Camp. They provided farm labor for the surrounding area during the 1945 agriculture and farm season.
Lovell
The Lovell POW Camp opened in May 1945, and housed 100 German POWs from the Deaver POW Camp. The POWs worked as laborers remodeling the Lovell Armory and Cavalry Barn, which were later used to house additional POWs for the sugar beet harvest. The first 200 agriculture POWs arrived at the Lovell POW Camp in June 1945, and provided labor for the sugar beet thinning and harvest seasons. The POWs did not leave the Lovell POW Camp until November 1945.
Pine Bluffs
The Pine Bluff POW Camp was opened in the fall of 1945, with 160 German POWs, from the Scottsbluff POW Camp. The POWs provided labor for the sugar beet and potato harvest seasons. The POWs occupied the Pine Bluffs POW Camp until November 1945.
Powell
Camp Powell was opened in October 1945, when a group forty four German POWs arrived from Camp Douglas. The German POWs worked as laborers during the beet harvest. The POWs were housed in the American Legion Community Log Building. Today, the building is the site of the Homesteader Museum in Powell. The camp was closed in November 1945, after the German POWs were transported to the Deaver POW Camp.
Riverton
In 1945, the State Armory building in Riverton was remodel to accommodate 100 German POWs from Camp Douglas for the sugar beet thinning and harvest seasons. The POWs returned to Camp Douglas in November 1945.
Ryan Park
The Ryan Park Prisoner of War Camp was located in Carbon County and opened in October 1943. Ryan Park was a former Civilian Conservation Corps Camp (CCC Camp) during the 1930s, and was opened as a branch POW Camp, where POWs worked to harvest timber from the Medicine Bow National Forest. Today, Ryan Park is a National Forest Campground. To see photographs of artifacts that were made by the POWs during their internment at Ryan Park go to the Camp Artifacts tab.
Torrington
German POWs were used as labor in the Torrington area for the 1944 and 1945 farming seasons. A total of 487 German POWs were brought in from the Scottsbluff POW Camp. In October 1944, two POWs escaped from the Torrington POW Camp and were later recaptured a few miles away believing they were escaping into Mexico. The vast amount of territory and expansiveness of the United States was hard for the POWs to comprehend coming from Europe.
Veteran
The Veteran POW Camp was opened in April 1944, and was continually housed by German POWs until the camps closure in November 1945. A total of over 300 POWs were housed at the Veteran POW Camp and served as farm and agriculture labor for the Veteran area. The Veteran POW Camp was very unique because of the outspokenness of the POWs in opposition to Germany’s participation in WWII.
Wheatland
The Wheatland POW Camp was opened in June 1944, with 100 POWs from Camp Douglas. The POWs worked as laborers in the agriculture and farming industry for six weeks and then were sent to the Scottsbluff POW Camp. In 1945, 250 POWs were sent from Camp Douglas to participate in the sugar beet harvest.
Worland
The POW Camp at Worland opened in April 1944, and was housed on the former CCC Camp site. A group of 100 German POWs arrived from the Scottsbluff POW Camp and provided farm and agriculture labor for the 1944 season. In 1945, 300 POWs arrived from Camp Douglas for the farm and agriculture season.
Source:
Bangerter, Lowell A. “German Prisoners of War in Wyoming.” Journal of German-American Studies XIV, no. 2 (June 1979).