Toledo Bend is nearby, now there's some good fishing!! Also, I go to Ft. Polk occasionally on business, and when I do, I pass through the site of Camp Claiborne, which was another training facility for the Army in the area during WWII.
It is now abandoned, but if you go back there, you can still travel most of the old post roads and see the foundations of a lot of the old buildings. It's a nice place to see.
Toledo Bend is nearby, now there's some good fishing!! Also, I go to Ft. Polk occasionally on business, and when I do, I pass through the site of Camp Claiborne, which was another training facility for the Army in the area during WWII.
It is now abandoned, but if you go back there, you can still travel most of the old post roads and see the foundations of a lot of the old buildings. It's a nice place to see.
LC
my grandfather was a carpenter for the war buildup during WWII, before he was drafted at age 35. He was part of the crews that built Claiborne, Polk and Beauregard. Funny, how Claiborne went away; although, none of them were ever meant to be permanent encampments. I have been to many old WWII camps around teh country and they all feel the same, as they pretty much used the same plans for all the different buildings. The coolest are the old service clubs.
my grandfather was a carpenter for the war buildup during WWII, before he was drafted at age 35. He was part of the crews that built Claiborne, Polk and Beauregard. Funny, how Claiborne went away; although, none of them were ever meant to be permanent encampments. I have been to many old WWII camps around teh country and they all feel the same, as they pretty much used the same plans for all the different buildings. The coolest are the old service clubs.
It looks like the Forest Service is trying to make some improvements to the place. They are putting in more signage there, last time I passed through they had put up a sign indicating that the camp was the birthplace of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
Not sure what all they have planned there, the only buildings left are concrete bunkers and guardhouses. All of the wooden buildings are gone. I did find the remains of what must have been an auditorium or theater last time I went, you could tell by the sloping floor / foundation.
Still an interesting place to explore, but there are signs in some areas warning of unexploded ordnance.
Still an interesting place to explore, but there are signs in some areas warning of unexploded ordnance.
LC
That area is blocked off due o a single unaccounted for round from years ago. They don't know where it was, or where it went, so the whole area is losed for public use.
Just take US 165 up through Kinder, Oberlin, Oakdale, Forest Hill, and just past McNary.
LA 112 is the road to take, just on the left a few miles out of McNary.
One thing, LDWF agents are there at times to enforce hunting regs and to make sure no one is going back there and doing anything illegal. When I went last time we had an agent drive up on us, he seemed to think we might be drug dealers or something by the way he acted, until we proved to him we were just there to shoot targets and check things out.
When I was a kid living in East Texas and visiting family in Baton Rouge we would drive through Ft Claiborne, but we never knew the name of it. Thanks for the info. I'm going to be looking into that now.