|
 Site of World War II Prisoner of War Camp
N 29° 19.338 W 096° 04.997
14R E 783266 N 3247227
The state historical marker for the Wharton World War II POW camp
Waymark Code: WM15YPD
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2022
Views: 2
This marker is located at the corner of Junior College Blvd. and E. Bowling Hwy/FM1301, in front of the Ladien Technology Center on the campus of the Wharton Junior College.
Marker Number: 4917
Marker Text:
Included in a land grant awarded in 1824 to Martin Allen, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists, this property has had a long and varied history. In the 1840s Allen's heirs sold most of his land to Albert Clinton Horton, Wharton County planter, Texas Revolution veteran, and the state's first Lieutenant Governor. Horton's heirs sold the property in 1930 to a group of investors who planned to develop the area into a county fairground, and several structures were built on the site. Fair organizers sold the land to the County in 1942.
During World War II, over 50,000 German Prisoners of War were interned in camps throughout Texas. Camp Swift in Bastrop County operated a number of branch camps along the Texas Coast, and in 1943 Camp Wharton was established at this site. The old county fair buildings were converted for use by the prisoners and U.S. Army, and the prisoners worked as farm laborers throughout Wharton and Colorado counties.
After the camp was closed at the end of the war, the site was offered to the newly created Wharton County Junior College District in 1946. Both fairgoers and students used the facilities here until 1967, when the entire grounds were purchased by the college.
(1991)
Marker is property of the State of Texas
|
Visit Instructions:
Please include a picture in your log. You and your GPS receiver do not need to be in the picture. We encourage additional information about your visit (comments about the surrounding area, how you ended up near the marker, etc.) in the log.
|