File:Camp White pillboxes at Upper Table Rock (31665377738).jpg

Concrete pillboxes built to replicate Nazi bunkers rest on an old cattle farm now an area of critical environmental concern managed by the BLM in southwest Oregon, Sept. 26, 2018. BLM photo: Matt Christenson

A quiet oak savanna in southwest Oregon has a World War II story to tell. It was the summer of 1942 when thousands of young American troops started arriving in Oregon to prepare for battle. Only months prior, immediately after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into WWII, the U.S. Army broke ground on Camp White, a massively ambitious training ground for troops north of Medford. The national war effort was ramping up, and from the rationing at home to the drill sergeants yelling at new draftees, the task at hand was unified: Get America prepared for war as fast as possible. At Camp White, in the heart of the Rogue River Valley, it got loud very quick. Construction crews worked 24 hours a day until the base, consisting of 1,300 structures, was complete. Barracks, mess halls, a railroad, full electrical grid and sewer system were all built in six months. And then the troops arrived. The newly reinstated 91st Division went on 91-mile-long hikes. They fired bazookas, mortars and tanks. And they attacked concrete pillboxes built to replicate Nazi bunkers. Despite creating what was then Oregon’s second most populous city at 40,000 people, there are now only a few lasting structures proving Camp White ever existed. Sadly, there are even fewer first-hand memories. The pillboxes are still standing, though. They simultaneously represent a mostly forgotten military legacy and since 2013, an opportunity for historic preservation. After decades of private cattle farming, Camp White’s pillboxes now rest on public land.