CAMP PIKE - Arkansas Camp Has Major Role in the Great War

As Americans and the world celebrate the end of the Great War in Europe this November 11, 1918, Arkansas’s Camp Pike can look back on training more than 131,000 soldiers, many for service in France.

The war in Europe broke out in August of 1914. The Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, and Russia fought against the Central Powers of Germany and Austria. Many of smaller nations joined one side or another, creating a world war.

The United States was neutral until President Woodrow Wilson felt that German submarine attacks against unarmed ships required a declaration of war. Congress declared war against the Central Power in April of 1917, making the U.S. an associate of the Allied Powers.

When the U. S. entered the war, its standing army was about 213,000 soldiers, mostly state-based National Guardsmen on active duty on the Mexican border. The war effort would require a quick and massive enlargement of the army. In fact, by the end of the war, the U.S. would recruit, train, equip, and transport across the ocean 2.3 million men.

The War Department immediately planned for 16 new training camps, many of them in the south because the mild weather allowed year-round training. The central Arkansas area offered a supply of labor and materials, good railroad connections for moving troops and supplies, and plenty of water and good drainage.

The actual site was on the heights overlooking Little Rock, on the north side of the Arkansas River, seven miles from North Little Rock. The national government acquired 15,000 acres of land. The camp itself would occupy 3,000 acres, and the rest would be used for training exercises, or maneuvers.

The land was mostly timber, pastures and small farms. A few small communities were cleared out, leaving only scattered small cemeteries.

The new camp was named Camp Pike, in honor of General Zebulon Pike. Pike was an army officer and western explorer in the early 19th century. He named the mountain in Colorado, Pike’s Peak. A few men from his expedition were the first people of European descent to come down the Arkansas River from near its source through the future state of Arkansas.

The huge task of building Camp Pike began in July of 1917. Thousands of workers actually built a small city, with hundreds of miles of roads, barracks to house the soldiers, warehouses, and hospitals. The workers also built stables for thousands of horses and Army mules. One of the main roads to the camp would be renamed Remount Road. Two new railroad lines were also brought into the camp.

The construction of about 3,000 buildings at Camp Pike required 30 million feet of lumber, 70,000 windows, and 10,000 doors.

The first 21,773 volunteers and draftees arrived for training in September of 1917, barely two months after the start of construction. For the next year, men would come in at an average rate of 52,000 a month.

Most of the soldiers trained at Camp Pike were from Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. They got six to eight weeks of basic training in drill, the use of rifles, and moving in small units.

In the maneuver area, trenches like those on the battlefields in France were dug, and the trainees practiced attacking and defending a trench line. They also learned to protect themselves against poison gas. Veterans of the trench lines in Europe guided the training.

The 87th Infantry Division was organized and trained at Camp Pike. It moved to Europe in June of 1918.

Now that the war has ended, Camp Pike will become a demobilization center. That is, the army will send soldiers here to be processed out of the army and back into civilian life.