Camp Croft
The construction and operation of
Camp Croft brought major changes to the Spartanburg and
Glendale area. The camp itself was only about two miles
from Glendale. Camp Croft was only one of several hundred
military facilities built all over the United States at
the beginning of World War II.
The size of the camp was huge and it was built in what
seems like a miraculous time compared to modern projects.
The ground breaking ceremony was held on Dec. 5, 1940 and
construction began right away. There were about 167 acres
in the basic camp area and about 20,000 acres in the total
facility. Enormous quantities of construction materials
were needed in the construction. By January, 1941, there
were over 12,000 employees at work on the base. In
February, 1941 part of the camp was ready for use and on
March 7th the first trainees arrived. The initial was
construction was completed in May 1941. Over 674 buildings
had been completed.
Soldiers from the Camp, in their rare time off, sometimes
visited the Glendale Community. The photo and story of one
such visit is shown at Sgt. Robert
P. Emerson. (Thanks to Mr. Ron Crowley for making
this picture available.)
From 1941 to the end of the war, over 200,000 men were
trained at Camp Croft. After the War, the camp was closed.
The Spartanburg County Foundation purchased the troop
housing area and the state purchased the 7,000+ acres that
became Croft State natural Area. The rest of the property
was purchased, at fair market value, by returning veterans
and other people.
There are many famous men who trained at Camp Croft. One
such person was Henry Kissinger who was Secretary of
State in the Nixon Administration. There is another person
with a connection to Camp Croft who has been highlighted
with a recent book and television series. The book is
“Band of Brothers” published by Simon & Schuster and
written by Stephen Ambrose. The tv series has the same
title and was directed by David Frankel andTom Hanks for
HBO. The book and tv series follow the story of Company E
(Easy Company) of the 2nd Battalion of the 506 th
Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne
Division.
The prominent figure in both the book and the tv series is
Richard (Dick) Winters. Click on the following link to
read more about Dick Winters, his connection to Camp Croft
and his army career. Winters took his basic training at
Camp Croft and also returned a second time to help train
new recruits.
There is an interesting web site that was used as a
reference source for some of the above information. It is:
(http://www.schistory.net/campcroft/index.html).
It has a large amount of material relating to all phases
of Camp Croft and the men who trained there.
(The Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg has an
excellent book about the effect Camp Wadsworth in
World War I and Camp Croft in World War II had on the
Spartanburg area. It is titled “When the Soldiers Came to
Town”. It is prepared and edited by edited by Susan
Turpin, Carolyn Creal, Ron Crawley and James Crocker.
There is also a great deal of information on Camp Croft in
the Vernon Foster Book, “Spartanburg-Facts, Reminisences,
Folklore”, described elsewhere on this web site.)
Post Cards of Camp Croft
There were many commercial post cards published
about Camp Croft for use by the soldiers being trained there.
These post cards give a photographic record of the base.
A sample of some of these cards can be seen by clicking
on the link below.
This web site has been started as a
public service to share the story of Glendale.
See more information about Mary and her Glendale
connection at Mary McKinney Teaster.
