Camp Douglas: Wyoming’s World War II Prisoner of War Base Camp
By Rebecca Hein
Camp Douglas: Wyoming’s World War II Prisoner of War Base Camp, by Lee Ann Siebken. Glendo, Wyoming: High Plains Press, 2024, 180 pages. $19.95 paperback.
Italian and German prisoners of war were detained at Camp Douglas, on the outskirts of Douglas, Wyoming, a World War II POW camp operating from 1943 to 1946. Most of the POWs weren’t kept in camp all the time, but were hired out to work on farms, ranches and in timber operations.
Many became friends with their employers. All sorts of odd stories crop up in this part of the tale. For example, when American citizens were struggling with meager food supplies due to wartime rationing, their POW helpers carried generous lunches provided by the Army. The POWs often shared their food with the Americans. Many POWs became friends with the latter and stayed in touch after the war ended and they were repatriated.
Military police escorted the POWs to the places they were to work: Worland, Wyoming and Greeley, Colorado, as well as in various Wyoming counties such as Fremont, Goshen, Platte, Laramie, Sheridan, Washakie and Converse. The government paid the POWs for their work.
A small proportion of this was in scrip that the prisoners could spend at the camp canteen, but most of it was paid into the camp bank and disbursed to the men once they were repatriated. This practice was followed at all the Camp Douglas branch camps, which included Basin, Beaver Creek, Centennial, Clearmont, Deaver, Dubois, Esterbrook, Huntley, Lingle, Lovell, Pine Bluffs, Powell, Riverton, Wheatland and Worland. There was also a base camp at Fort Francis E. Warren in Cheyenne.
After a short interval of supervision, it became obvious that military police weren’t needed because, as the prisoners themselves said, “we never had it so good,” and were not motivated to run away. This was true across the board: at farms, ranches and timber operations.
Before being hired at the latter, prisoners attended a training school at Ryan Park near Saratoga, Wyoming. Experienced woodcutters from the lumber company, R. R. Crow Lumber, paid by the Army at their regular rate, conducted a continuing education class for POWs on how to cut, skid and deck timber. POWs also learned how to handle tools and horses, how to fell timber and to limb and score a tree.
(Skidding is the first operation after logging: The felled trees are transported from the felling site to a temporary dumping site. In logging, a decking is a flat area where harvested trees and logs are collected and staged for transport to a processing mill or holding yard. Scoring is a process by which logs are rated for usefulness.)
After the 3,000 German POWs arrived, conflict arose between the Nazis and the other Germans. The Nazis harassed their brother prisoners, even stealing into their quarters at night and assaulting them. They also published a propaganda-laden newspaper.
The camp staff had to resort to a 250-man guard patrol, special fences and German Shepherds. Finally, after the war ended, the Nazis were sent to Alva, Oklahoma. Eventually the U.S. government sent them home.
The other parts of this excellent history feature individuals involved in the camp, including some prisoners; a section about murals painted at the camp and the artists; and cooperation between Douglas and the camp.
This book is well done and therefore worth reading.
[Rebecca Hein is an assistant editor at WyoHistory.org.]
Read