Camp Ellis: Forgotten WWII City
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- The tiny village of Ipava became, for a moment, one of the largest cities in Illinois.
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"we have to CHOOSE to remember history"
I love that statement, even though I hated this subject in school, the older I get, the more I love it.
I guess this is why I became an audio archivist.
I choose to forget history because it is the same old s*** over and over again humans suck and history sucks I don't need to hear this crap because I know how it goes
Democrats are Rewriting History every day...Riots?...What Riot?s
I spent plenty of time when I was a kid with friends exploring the 'remains' of Camp Ellis. I found cups and plates from a Camp hospital (so marked) and enjoyed imagining the hustle and bustle of this huge Camp 'back in the day.' Our parents and grandparents all were familiar with Camp Ellis and lots of locals either served or otherwise worked there. Camp Ellis was a strong source of local pride and remains so. I recall hearing stories of CE long after it closed and was dismantled. Some 75 years later, a couple of concrete water silos, firing ranges, and an out-building or two are all that's left there now. Passers-by on the highway would never know what once magnificently stood there.
I too have traveled the country roads all around the Camp Ellis area. Just as you described, there are only a couple of concrete silos and such left among the farmland. The large white farm house just off the highway was once the headquarters for the commander of Camp Ellis. A member of the farm family living there now said that there was an old telephone in one of the closets that was a "hot line" to Washington, D.C. left over from WWII days (so I was told).
My husband's parents and grandparents farmed near Table Grove and frequently hosted soldiers for Sunday dinners. They remained friends after the war with a few soldiers, and families would visit years later. Although my husband's parents and grandparents and the soldiers are gone, my husband and I recently visited the son and daughter of one Georgia soldier. It had been 55 years since they last had met.
SO many young people would have a much more enjoyable time learning History of it was taught like your videos.
Kudos to you Sir 👏
I agree! In fact, when I was in High School (some time back in hallowed antiquity) I had one absolutely amazing and passionate history teacher. It was that teacher who instilled in me a passion for history that is still going strong nearly 5 decades later.
THG is always interesting and I've learned a lot from watching his channel. Many of his topics lead me down a rabbit hole in a search for more information.
Learn every day is pretty much my mantra.
Word. The digital age has it’s drawbacks for sure, but one of the most amazing things about our current situation is the availability of lessons exactly like this which have been presented by the very best of teachers. I’m so thankful for people like THG, Mathologer, Organic Chemistry Tutor, and all the other amazingly gifted educators who choose to share their knowledge (for free!!) in such an accessible and engaging way!
@@jonpopelka As you said: "Word!"
We had a history teacher in high school one year that would teach by having each student read a paragraph out loud from our history book. He would recline back in his chair, his eyes closed, his arms crossed over his rather large belly and his glasses placed at the end of his nose, almost as if he were asleep. By the time the reading had reached the back of the classroom where I sat you were so bored you almost fell asleep yourself, often though you had been daydreaming or not paying attention and had no idea where we were in the book. Any student that hadn't been paying attention or had lost track of where we were would have him spring back to life and yell out "DETENTION !" ...
I served a lot of detention that year.
No thanks to him I did develop a great interest in history, of wanting to know what had happened, after I completed my schooling.
Check out Michael Medved's history programs. They are on the same level (and he doesn't let his politics get into the history programs, unlike most talk show hosts who are political commentators). He and THG have a very special delivery that works just perfectly for historical storytelling.
My father trained there in '43-'44 to be a combat engineer building those bridges. He was sent to the SW Pacific in June of '44, where he (natch) was assigned to the 148th Infantry as a machine gunner in Co. D. While the training at Camp Ellis proved not too helpful in Bougainville and Luzon, he did meet my mom while posted at Ellis.
That part of Illinois was also forgotten by the State government in Springfield. The roads in Western Illinois were in terrible shape. It wasn't until the 1970s that some road repairs and improvements happened The overwhelming portion of roads and funding went to Chicago. Some of the people who lived in Western Illinois suggested severing Chicago from Illinois and making it a state so that the rest of Illinois could actually benefit from the taxes they had paid to the state.
That’s due to Chicago crooked politics 100+ years old! You guys were ripped off by organized crime!
Not unusual, there are a lot of people in upstate NY and western MA who are sick of supporting NYC and Boston.
Feel the same way about Portland Oregon.
@@dancanavan2812 True that the liberals drove that city into the ground! If everybody would do right by the Bible like our founding fathers did, then you would have perfect justice all the way around but they need to get back to that! because this Fentanyl coming across the border is deliberately killing at least 100,000 people every year!
I see young kids in their 20s on this stuff and they’re gonna be dead in a couple years, they’re half dead already! they’re deliberately getting these kids killed there’s no way that they have money for the stuff!
It’s by design they want to be global and get rid of the constitution!
Ready or not here comes Jesus, the Bible tells how the world is going to end & it’s gonna be right because of the thousands of Prophecies that were accurate already!
Isaiah 45:19 You can’t look for God in times of chaos so you gotta start looking for him now that includes everybody!
Santa Fe and Albuquerque and Las Cruces dominate the finances of New Mexico. Cities and people with money get special treatment. The rest of us do without.
Awesome story History Guy- My grandparents lived in Ipava for most of their lives. My great-grandfathers farm eas taken by the Army to build the Camp. The Army wouldn’t let the farmers harvest the crops still in the fields or salvage any of the structures on their properties; they just burned them to the ground to clear the land. It almost killed him but he started over, farming on the other side of U.S. Highway 136 from the Camp. He became successful just to spite them. Thanks for presenting some of the history of Forgotonnia.
A dear friend of mine and I toured this area on a couple of occasions. Lots of WW2 history in Central Illinois - including what was a large munitions plant near Illiopolis. I was happy to learn that the two quonset huts at the Lincoln Illinois airport are from Camp Ellis. Thank you for these stories!
I lived my whole life near that part of Illinois, 56 years. La Salle, Bureau, Putnam counties which can't be that far from where Camp Ellis was and I never heard about this place, not in school or the historical sections of the news paper from here. I wonder why it was not felt important to the people from around here. Thank you for teaching me a bit of history, I will not forget.
Did some work at Camp Ellis in the winter of 2012. I found that there is a transient population that approaches the WWII population. I still have pictures of the empty corn fields inundated with masses of Snow Geese.
As long there are special historians as yourself, history will always be remembered! My admiration History Guy!!!
Great story. Being a history nut myself little known facts like this are completely awesome to me. My induction to history is a funny little story itself. At one point when I was younger my dad and I lived in our pickup for a time. To get a little kid with ADHD/OCD to sleep dad would read to me. He had found a discarded history book that was elementary level. He would embellish the stories with more details and different voices for the people represented. I was lulled to sleep listening to the Colonial war, the taxation argument, the beginning of a unknown and very young nation, all the while dad adding in insignificant but memorable details. Imagine my surprise later on finding out just how boring actual school history books are. Thankfully I found your channel and am never disappointed with little snippets of "History that deserves to be remembered." As my dad has often said "history can teach us one lesson if we can understand it's value." Thank you for sharing these with us.
I was born in Canton, Il. in 1959, hence a resident of Forgotonia. My extended family at one time had land in western Illinois near Ipava and Ellisville. and we used to go out to the woods there to hunt and pick mushrooms in the spring. I have ancestors buried in Ellisville, in addition to Canton. Western Illinois is, indeed, its own country and I miss it.
"Enemies Are Human" is a book written by Reinhold Pabel. I found a copy on Ebay and highly recommend it. One small correction. Although Reinhold was indeed a POW at Camp Ellis, his actual escape was from a small facility in Washington, IL. He tells of this in his book, which would make a good subject for a future History Guy segment. I lived near Camp Ellis during high school and more recently, I lived just a few blocks from the former POW camp in Washington.
A local retired teacher and historian Mary Kerr wrote a pair of books (WWII Camp Ellis: Homefront & POWs) (Washington's Homefront) about Washington and our part in WWII, including the satellite camp Camp Washington. We housed 243 POWs in Washington, and they were used to help work the fields and in the Libby's canning plant in town. The POWs were paid ten cents per hour for their work, and some took upwards of $500 at the end.
I worked on a farm just across the Spoon River by Bernadotte after high school and took a few trips up the hill to see the Camp Ellis remnants. I remember seeing workers digging for unexploded ordinance even in the early 2003, or so that’s what I was told. I’m from Washington and remember the connection of the POWS being a subject. Mrs. Kerr’s book mentioned above is going on my list. I didn’t have her as a teacher, but remember her from grade school. Small world, great video!
Humans are enemies
My family grew up around Ipava, and the Canton Illinois area. My grandma worked in a canning factory with the German POW’s from Camp Ellis. Thank you for a wonderful episode that hit close to my childhood home !!!!
I grew up about 22 miles from Ipava, knew all about Forgottonia, and heard a lot of stories about Camp Ellis. My grandfather helped build the streets there and my grandmother was a cook there. I got to know one of the POW guards from the camp who told me a few more stories about it. My father, still a young boy at the time and living miles from any town, remembered when an escaped prisoner looked in their living room window, then quickly disappeared on a cold, snowy night. The next day they discovered that he had spent the night in their barn, eating a few raw eggs. A number of prisoners did escape but realizing that they were about as far from Germany as they could get, shortly turned themselves back in.
I grew up on a farm 5 miles south of Ipava. It is wonderful to hear you tell the history of the area.
Thank you for doing Camp Ellis. We live 45 minutes from there and have wandered accessable areas. including the water plant pump building in Bernadotte and the Pump house for the purification plant which still exist.. well done!
History Guy, my father in law trained at Camp Ellis as a radio operator but the war ended before he could be deployed. He was recalled during the Berlin airlift and served as a radio operator somewhere in Europe. My wife has a photograph of him saying goodbye to her mother and sister (my wife who was a toddler at the time and my sister in law) at the Peoria airport. Amen to your statement that we MUST CHOOSE to remember history! Thank you for your efforts to do so. I love your presentations...they are both fascinating and heart warming.
I lived in Forgottonia back in the day. I recall a couple of people who were afraid we may succeed. Never did get the foreign aid.
That should read "secede", not succeed. Unless you think the region has succeeded at being forgotten....
@@goodun2974 Actually, there were some people who thought it just may be successful. Therefore they were afraid of success. I wrote what I was thinking. We had already succeeded in being forgotten.
I wonder whether Forgottonia was the inspiration for the Peter Sellars movie, The Mouse That Roared.
@@dinascharnhorst6590 The 1955 book, The Mouse That Roared, by Leonard Wibberley, preceded the movie, and it originally appeared as a 1954 serial in The Saturday Evening Post. The (fictional) Forgottonia secession movement came about in the 1970s, so it may be the case that The Duchy of Grand Fenwick's impromptu war against the United States (which it won, accidentally) serves as the model for the Fogottonia story, but not the other way round.
@@TheTiffanyAching I read "The Mouse that Roared" many years ago, and that's what I thought of when we heard the story of Fogottonia. Then there was the "Mouse on the Moon", in which the Duchy of Grand Fenwick decided to get into the space race, and shocked everyone by winning.
I appreciate this story, and I _especially_ love the point made at the end! I would add that the study of history (obscure or not) is NEVER “boring” when it’s presented in a manner that’s engaging, unbiased, and above all, relatable! Any teacher can present facts, but the ability to present facts in context and to help someone understand how&why knowledge of history is always necessary, applicable, and relevant…that’s a rare and precious gift! (A longwinded way of describing ‘wisdom’, I guess)
What an amazing and interesting story. I love history and have read extensively about WW2 however, I cannot remember ever reading about Camp Ellis or the town of Ipava. I researched Ipava on Wikipedia and found that only two notable people hail from Ipava, Jack Fisk, actor, director, and married to Sissy Spacek, and Frank Lovell who was a politician in the American Socialist Workers Party or in other words he was a Communist. I guess everyone has to be from somewhere. Thanks for the history lesson.
Literally have lived in Illinois my whole life, this is the first time I have ever heard of Camp Ellis. Thank you for always having great content.
I'm retired military from Illinois and had never heard of Camp Ellis
My mom grew up in Ipava during WW2 she has so many stories about The Camp. Also mom told me she never remembered seeing German prisoners but in fact saw many Italian soldiers. Mom and her friends would sneak out to the prison perimeter and see the prisoners through the fence. The prisoners would call her and her friends "Bambino" or "ragazzina" which meant "child" or "little girl"
Mr. History Guy,
Once again you’ve hit pay dirt with another wee bit of “almost forgotten history”.
Thanks to you and your staff (probably your family and friends) for making mostly unremarkable events and places in time live again as though they’re hot exclusives for today’s six-o’clock national news. Superior work. Exceptional effort.
Amen! "We have to choose to remember history." Excellent piece of history.
I have watched many of your historical stories worth remembering but only just found "Camp Ellis". My wife and I just returned from a trip to outback Queensland, Australia.
We visited the site of a WW11, US Air Force Base in Charleville, 500 miles west of Brisbane. Up to 3500 US troops were stationed there, repairing and training on bombers that were to be sent up north, to fight the Japanese. Like Camp Ellis there is little remaining of the camp, apart from a few concrete footings, a huge hanger (one of five during the war), and an "explosives bunker" that actually held Norden bomb sites to use in training.
The secrecy around the base was so effective that almost no photos or documents exist, but like all troops stationed away from home a few fell for the locals girls and married them after the war.
Your "contacts" and viewers might have more information than the locals in Charleville can find. Thanks for your History. Dave D. Sydney
I got to spend a weekend with friends driving ww2 vehicles through camp Ellis. The cow pasture we camped in was beautiful.
I grew up along the northern frontier of Forgottonia, and still live nearby. I remember my parents driving us past the site of Camp Ellis when I was a child fifty years ago. I had an uncle train there during the war. I really appreciate this video.
If I were a history teacher, I would use these videos for teaching students. It would make classes much more fascinating.
What an absolutely ..... amazing presentation. Amazing. Remained me of the , also amazing, story of the escape route designed in The Appalachian Mountains of Greenbrier County, West Virginia for our politicians. So many remarkable historical "secrets" still "lying around" our fantastic country, just waiting for us to give them a voice. Remarkable. Thank you.
Over 1 million of us have Chosen to Remember History.
Best Wishes from Montana M.H.
Thank you so much for remembering Camp Ellis. My Mother worked in the base exchange and said the prisoners were the nicest people you would ever want to meet
If only there was some guy out there that would remind us of History and keep it fresh in our minds...
I served in Germany 50 years ago as a Bridge Building "Combat Engineer". Much to my surprise? I found out that it fist formed up at Camp Ellis. A place where one of my great uncles farmed for a time. I need to get over there.
This channel is such a non-stop stream of quality history documentaries. Thanks!
You make a very valid and timely statement about remembering history or it is forgotten. It seems like not remembering history has led to us repeat mistakes over and over again. But then again i have been a history lover fora a long time. 😍 Thank you for your time.
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m glad the camp is given a stage. As a resident of Forgotonia, I always love to hear about it!
Thank you for remembering Forgottonia! I grew up not too far from Ipava and Bernadotte (had relatives there) in the aforementioned Galesburg.
I grew up in Macomb, IL about 20 miles from Ipava. Macomb is in McDonough County, dry for alcohol on Sundays. We used to drive to Ipava (yes, in highschool) and buy beer. Spent many nights drinking with buddies in the remains of Camp Ellis.
Very powerful words, Lance. Haven't we forgotten events of the late 1930s? History repeated itself in 2014, and now again in 2022. When will we ever learn? 😔
The West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, mostly completed before the end of WW2, was about 510 acres and was intended to serve about 18 thousand patientS, originally. It was expected that it would chiefly have patients from the invasion of Japan. But that did not occur. The US had a massive hospital system by the end of the war, A large portion was not fully used.
Love it! I grew up in Kearns, AKA Camp Kearns, an old WWII Army / Army Air Corps base. My older sister's remember when the elementary school was built across the street from our home, that the construction workers unearthed a trove of old army helmets. Tunnels allegedly still exist to this day, as well as the rail system that carried many a soldier to and from Camp Kearns. The history of Camp Kearns states the sign by the entrance to the gate read: "Welcome to Camp Kearns, where we supply your daily requirement of dust". Or something close to that. Camp Kearns was a great place to grow up in the 50's, 60's and 70's!
Love the comment "We have to choose to remember History"! Such a very true and bold statement.
I live 82 miles from Ipava and had never heard this story. So interesting! Thanks History Guy for sharing!
I live in Macomb, which is in McDonough County, not too far from Fulton County (where the VERY FEW remains of Camp Eliis still exist AND where they also have Camp Ellis Days). As a matter of fact, I work with a few ladies that drive in from Ipava to work in Macomb. A lot of people who bought the old buildings turned them into garages (and some match the old style Sears prefabricated homes). I personally know people who have one of those old Camp Ellis buildings that serve as a garage.
I'm always quite astounded at what I do not now about our lost history...I'm an avid follower...I so wish I was able to visit these forgotten places...Thank you for bringing them to me as you deliver much comfort and enlightenment 💖
Camp Ellis' story sounds quite similar to that of Camp Atterbury in Indiana. As a young National Guardsman I would often come upon the foundations of farmhouses in the training areas and have seen what is left of the Post Hospital (now home to the Job Corps). At the start of my career, the WW2 barracks were still being used, but now a number of the old buildings are replaced for the camp's new role. The Italian prisoner's chapel is still around , though.
I truly appreciate this episode especially your thoughts and comments at the end.
WOW! Just wow! I lived one county over and studied as much history as possible about the land between the Mississippi & Illinois rivers. My family and friends are from Fulton county at various times. I have a friend old enough who close enough to see the camp from a second floor window in thw winter, i assume. I have been to Ipava many times. I have hiked on the camp grounds. Until an hour ago, I never heard about the camp. Something right in my face while looking for obscure details. Thank you so much. I will call my friend tonight for his recollection of the camp.
One of the buildings at the grade school I went to was from Camp Ellis. The school it self is gone, the Camp Ellis building still stands and is in use.
What an amazing piece of history! Thank you for remembering it and bringing it to light for the rest of us.
Thanks for doing an episode on Camp Ellis. It was in my home county in Illinois. I have heard about it through the years, but the camp was long gone before my family moved to Fulton County in the 1960s. I knew about the POW camp being there, but not that it trained and housed so many other people. As a tribute to the camp, one of my friends built an old early 1950s Chevy 1/2 ton pickup truck and had “Camp Ellis Raceway” painted on the doors. It seems that some backroads racing was done in the vicinity of the old camp after it closed in in the 1950s.
Not far from Camp Ellis is the Dickson Mounds state museum which is on the site of a Mississippian Indian city. When the first white settlers came to the County in the early 1820s there were several hundred Potawatomi Indians living in the county for at least part of the year.
At one time Fulton County stretched from west of the Illinois River all the way to the shores of Lake Michigan and what would become the Chicago metro area.
Glad you did this story. Now I know a lot more about the history of my home county!
Excellent episode! And, in keeping with the History Guy's closing line, it's nice to read how people have indeed 'chosen to remember history' by sharing their own history experiences. Thanks very much for posting and be safe 🙏
I grew up fishing at a place on the coast of Maine named Camp Ellis. It's just south of Old Orchard Beach. Never wondered about the origin of the name but now you've got me curious. Good to see you again. If you ever want ideas for subjects to cover I have a couple for you.
Me too
As a teenager I was in Old Orchard Beach at the amusement park area on the day it had a big fire in 1970 or 71 I think. My little sister had ridden on the antique wooden carousel, and then we walked out to the end of a long pier to visit a marine aquarium, and when we came out 1/2 hour later the carousel was on fire with flames reaching 100' in the air. As we drove away we could see smoke and flame for a mile or more. Apparently there have been a number of fires there. I tried researching it a bit a while ago and accidentally came upon a site that wasn't what it purported to be and instead It put photos of what appeared to be a nude Kim Kardashian into the phone along with some malware that froze up the phone and was difficult to remove.
Dang sorry for your problems with the malware. I was born in 1972 so I wouldn't recall that fire, but my sister might I'll ask her. Palace Playland just opened for I think they said their 106th season, something like that. I'm wondering if the carousel burnt down completely in that fire because I know back far as I can remember they have had a wooden carousel there that is quite old and as of a few years ago is the same one. I used to have acquaintance with Ernie Brousseau who was the O.O.B. town historian but unfortunately he has passed. Idk who it is now but I could try to find out if you want more history.
@@austinknowlton1783 , they must have reproduced the old wooden carousel because it definitely burnt to ashes in that fire. I remember my father telling us to keep calm and trying to stop us from running to get off the pier, which was rather long and by the time we got to the end of the pier and onto shore, the flames from the burning carousel were starting to lick at the wooden pier.
The amusing anecdote about declaration of war and immediate surrender was the plot of the movie, 'The Mouse That Roared". It was a little gem of a comedy, that film.
History Guy, Thank you so much for this extremely informative video. My grandfather George Joseph Gaughan trained at Camp Ellis where the unit he was assigned to learned to build Bailey bridges.He served with Company D of the 1306th Engineers General Services Regiment. I have his Regiment book and found it extremely interesting following these mens journey building their first bridge at Croon, France, 2nd at Vandiers, the Moselle bridge a floating Bride at Berncatle the piers for the Rhine bridge all helping to move Pattons Third Army across Europe.
The very ending gave me chills
Good episode! I didn't know about that camp. Thank you for your continuing work. I do believe you are getting better and better at these videos.
It’s impressive how many different intros he’s got access to.
Is The History Gal vamping up her arsenal of editing skills?
Appreciate you, Lance, always enjoy your content
Don't forget "Camp Stoneman was a United States Army facility located in Pittsburg, California. It served as a major troop staging area for and under the command of the San Francisco Port of Embarkation (SFPOE).[1] The camp operated during World War II and the Korean War.
The camp opened May 28, 1942 as a staging point for units deploying to the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.[2] The camp was named after George Stoneman, a cavalry commander during the American Civil War and Governor of California. It was decommissioned as a military post in 1954." - Wikapedia
My Dad who went through this Camp before and took out there when we moved to the SF Bay area back in 1963. Most of the buildings were gone, but you could still see the footer for all the original buildings. Now it is house and stors.
As others have noted, there are *_lots_* of these camps, now long abandoned, all over the country. There were so many recently abandoned ones in the 1950s, that PSAs were broadcast all over the nation warning children about the dangers of blasting caps. I'm sure some folks here will recall those. As for the neglected town's plan to declare war, surrender, and then accept federal aid, that's the plot for a once popular satire in the '50s - The Mouse That Roared 😂
Nuh-Uh? I'm going back to reread The Spoon River Anthology with this new perspective of the characters.
is new
Through your Videos History raises up and lives again. Thank You.
Wonderful episode! I will have to visit this forgotten Illinois site. Thank you.
I've been to the site. There isn't much there anymore, but the museum in Ipava is excellent.
I have a wooden box that was built by a POW at Camp Ellis. My grandfather (from Havana Illinois) worked there at some point.
Sounds to me like if you don’t have a better respecting, memorable home for it in the future maybe that little museum would enjoy it. You could always put it on long-term loan worry if they did not stay in operation they would find your family and get it back to them.
I had heard of an Army base named Elis, but had no clue about any of this. Thank You for the history lesson.
After Camp Ellis was shut down, many of the buildings were bought by locals and moved to other places. If you know what you are looking for, you can find them, such as on First Street near Wabash Street in Carthage, IL.
I remember going here about 10 years ago, randomly remembered it, looked this up, probably going back in spring, hour away from me. Great video!
Wasn't sure I'd be interested in this one, but as always, it was told so well and had such interesting details, that I enjoyed it very much!
Thank you THG. We did a few road projects near Bernadette. There's not much evidence left of the airport or dorms.
Pirates? This story has more twists and turns than many of the pirate stories which I've been able to remember, and another point of interest to visit to boot!
5 minute drive from me, pretty neat history. The rifle range wall is very cool
Google maps still has a outline of the landing strip, but when you click over to satellite view, rows of crops appear. Thank you History Guy!
Great Nugget of history now not forgotten 💪❤️
I choose to remember history. In 8th grade, my history teacher allowed me to teach WW2 history for a week. To this day I read as much about it as I can. My Dad was sent to the pacific. I still have an old fluid cigarette lighter with his buddy's names scratched in to it.
A VIDEO ABOUT THE JAMESTOWN FORTS IN R.I. PLEASE!!
We have an AMAZING complex in Jamestown, RI along the coast that used to house the 15" or 16" naval guns and the men needed to operate them during WWII. We used to run through the hidden corridors of the double walled design of the structure at night in high school and play flashlight tag.
The RI term "bunking school" came from kids going to the bunkers to F around instead of school. Great place to go and party 25 years ago.
Now? A great place to go for a hike.
Do you have any photos you'd be willing to share? THG@TheHistoryGuy.net
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel we will be going down there this weekend and I'll take a bunch and send them to you! The complex is about 1/4 mile long and interconnected. One of the best preserved examples in N.E. I believe. Expect photos Sunday!
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I will take some photos of the artillery emplacements, the ammo elevators and overhead gantry system and try to get into the corridors between the walls for some photos. The front "face" of the complex is shear cliff rock and not easily accessible if at all unfortunately.
I believe it's proper name is Fort Weatherall
Dang ! I immediately thought of Fort Ellis in Montana. Rocky and Bullwinkle governed a forgotten country in between USA and Canada.
History is important to remember for many reasons.
OMG... I have ridden my motorcycle through Ipava at least 8 times on vacation trips, going back and forth between Las Vegas and South Bend. I LOVE this kind of history stuff (one reason I never put a wheel on an Interstate if I can help it), and I never had an inkling that Camp Ellis was there. Guess I need to pay more attention - and watch THG more often....
About 10 years ago I was doing an archaeological survey near Camp Ellis. A farmer stopped us and told us to be careful, there were still unexploded ordnance. We were very careful after that.
Camp Ellis sounds very similar to my hometown (well, very close to my hometown) military base; Camp Atterbury and the nearby Bakalar Air Force Base. My grandpa, who only lived a couple miles away, was stationed at the airfield in the late 50s and early 60s. My mom, his daughter, helped write a book about Atterbury that explored the history of the base called The Atterbury File. The land was bought up much in the same way as Camp Ellis, but at least this was unused swampland. Unlike Camp Ellis, it's still being used today. I'd love to see you make a video on it in the future.
Wow, I seldom hear anyone mention Bakalar AFB anymore. My father was in the 434th Troop Carrier Wing at Bakalar in the early 60s, when it was flying C-119s.
After Bakalar closed and the 434th transitioned to A-37 Dragonflies and later A-10s I used to see them fly over Brown County on their way to the Atterbury range. I visited the Atteberry gunnery range as an AFROTC cadet from Indiana University and watched the A-10s tear up the place.
To circle back around to the THG video, my father grew up in the Galesburg area, enlisted in the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, and return to Galesburg and Peoria after World War II. I’ve heard him mention Camp Ellis many times, but I never really had a mental picture of the place since I grew up in Indiana. I wish I could talk to him now about what I saw in the video.
It never stops amazing me where you find these things and do such a wonderful job telling us. You’re energy is outstanding. Thank you!
History guy great as always! A couple other ideas I would love to see you explore.
The Knox County fairgrounds which they say was a assembly point for Civil War soldiers in this part of Illinois next to Galesburg.
Another fascinating story I feel would be the Purington paver brick company in East Galesburg Illinois. One of the stories I hear is the huge government order for bricks that they filled to build the panama canal. People had an a lot of good ideas in the comments. I lived nine years of my life blocks away from the Washington POW camp just off the Square in Washington Illinois. I believe they rebuild train wheels axles and bearings now on that site. Former major league baseball lovers out there our new Central Illinois MLB Hall of Famer Jim Thome lives 1 mile up the hill from Ellisville during deer hunting season on a large track of land that he has a home and work out building on. I only became aware of camp Ellis last year when I was cleaning out and selling the land and contents of our 92 Year Family place outside Bartonville Illinois. I found a brittle old newspaper that my dad had kept with a headline I believe about World War II. But just to enjoy the paper more I read the ads and the stories therin. There was a tragic story that was headlined “two soldiers from camp Ellis killed near Bartonville on a motorcycle”. I didn’t know of Camp Ellis which made me Google it and that’s how I for the first time in my life found out about it. You gave me much more information that I could find. Sorry to be so wordy but thank you.
History Guy, would you please consider doing an episode about Camp Croft in Spartanburg, S.C.? This WWll camp trained men featured in the Band of Brothers, Henry Kissinger, and many other famous names in WWll Army history.
Currently, it’s a beautiful state park, and you can see all the berms and obstacles that the soldiers trained on; now overgrown with large pine trees.
As I write this, there is an army of people there, searching with ground penetrating sonar, for undiscovered ordinance.
In the very early ‘80s, my wife and little boys and I camped there.
At the park office, I remember seeing grenades, cartridges, and other artifacts on display there. These were artifacts that were found by campers and park staff.
This old camp should not be forgotten for it’s contribution to our freedom.
I even have a personal story with a man who had a significant impact on the building of the camp.
Thank you so much for this. I live only a ew miles from this area. And my dad, who was a farmer, had a German POW work for him. My grandmother worked in the Camp as a cook.
Thanks for helping us to remember this story History Guy!
We have a Camp Wheeler that used to be here that you could do a whole segment on! Completely gone now, except for some artifacts in the woods and swamp...
I'd love to see you guys tackle a video on Camp Hearne, known as the "Lone Star Stalag" I read a great book about it once and I think it would be a neat vid!
You are so right. It's funny, but since I graduated from college, I've felt like I was starved for history and read or watched everything I could find. camp Ellis and the soldier it was named after were new to me and I was so glad to find this. I watch all your videos I can find. And I am reminded of the quote 'those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it'. This is so true on many levels.
I like you very, very much Mr. History Guy. You are a kind and lovely man who really knows his history.
Thank you, sir. I never knew this. Any of it. I've lived all over the US, especially IL. You have my reverence.
Certainly one of your best ones.
cooks bakers and candlestick makers... Semper Fi - Awesome Video!
There was something similiar, but smaller near me: Camp Murphy. The federal government picked the (mostly unused) property in Feb 1942, acquired about 10,000 acres (mostly eminent domain but some of it was state-owned due to factors like defaulted taxes), and had a camp with a capacity of about 5,000 ready for a dedication in July 1942. Something like 20,000 servicemen cycled through as camp staff or as instructors or students (supported by hundreds of civilian workers) in the Southern Signal Corps School (primarily learning radar, especially radar maintenance) before closing in Nov 1944. A few years later 99% of the camp buildings were surplussed off to a variety of new owners. In 1947, rather than give or sell the land back to the 100 or so prewar owners, the federal government sold the land to the State of Florida. It is now Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
The intro is the premise of "The Mouse That Roared"
Fantastic story! Thank you!
I scrolled your videos and didn’t see anything about Camp Shanks, in southeastern NY. A huge camp, I believe more than one million soldiers embarked from Piermont NY. (WWII)The pier is still there on the Hudson river and is a popular walking destination. Almost a mile long!
Thanks for what you do. I enjoy your take on teaching history.
One of the Camp Ellis buildings is located at the Heritage in Flight Museum in Lincoln, IL at the Logan County Airport.