VIEW LOOKING EAST AT FOUNDATIONS AND PAYMASTER VAULT                                                                                                       

                                                                       By Thomas L. Howell

For those of you reading this paper, it is written from the stand point of explaining what happened to the local residents of Fremont County Idaho and West Yellowstone Montana. When the U.S. Army started this project in 1941 and pulled out the spring of 1942, they said nothing, and I mean nothing to the local residents about what the camp was intended to be, nor why they mysteriously pulled the plug on the 20 million dollar project. No reasons were given as to the pull out. All workmen were told that it was no longer needed, they collected their last paychecks and went home. It has remained a local source of speculation for the past 63 years.

This paper is in the archives for the 10th Mountain Division at the Denver Public Library. If any interested readers has any further information on this site, or if you were associated with its construction, please contact me at the address or email given at the end of this paper.

PROLOGUE

    Since the 1940's, generations of locals and tourists in the Island Park, Idaho area have driven by the old concrete footings and what appears to be two concrete vaults that have kept a silent vigil across from what was known for years as Valley View Truck Stop over looking Henry’s Lake. Questions were always asked wondering what the building were and what was the demise of the site. Answers from the locals would usually be “ it was an old Army Base during World War II that was being built for winter training and then shut down without reason”.

     If a person thinks about it, you begin to wonder, what really happened? Had the project been completed, what would have been the size of the camp and which Army Unit would have been stationed there? How would an Army base changed and impacted Island Park and the surrounding towns and areas? And lastly, what was the real reasoning behind the shut down and pull out?            

Though the camp was located in Idaho overlooking Henry’s Lake, it was known as the Army Winter Training Camp, West Yellowstone, Montana, which was the closest town and airport.  

STORY

   As World War II began to unfold. On November 30, 1939, the USSR invaded Finland with a force of a million men supported by tanks, aircraft, and naval forces. In Vermont, a group of men, Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole (founder of the National Ski Patrol System), Alec Bright of Boston and Roger Langley, began watching news reels of the day.   Particular attention was paid to how the vastly outnumbered Finnish Army did a phenomenal job of pushing back the invading Russians. Soldiers in white camouflage uniforms and mounted on skis contributed much to the early victories over the invading Soviets. A perfect example of men fighting in a winter environment in which they were entirely at home and for which they were trained. The Finns finally surrendered in March of 1940. By then millions of Americans had seen ski troops in action on the big screen.  

   This small group of men headed by Dole, began a dedicated effort to convince the Army and the War Department that winter skilled and trained troops were an absolute necessity. Their initial meetings were met with total indifference.  

    With war on the horizon, behind the scenes, the Army, in a worse case scenario, did envision a global conflict. That a possible invasion of North America by Hitler, should he succeed in Europe - probably via the old invasion route, the St. Lawrence River Valley between the Untied States and Canada. After talking with little success to lower officers, the group of men finally secured a meeting with General George C. Marshall who at that time made a decision that the whole matter should be looked into.  

     The whole subject of training and equipment was then explored. The Army thought that their “Alaskan Equipment” could be used, but a Quartermaster search revealed that, no such equipment existed any longer. The Army’s book on Alaska, in fact, was dated 1914. It became immediately obvious that a complete new start had to be made.

     In mid 1940, Minot Dole writes to General Marshall stressing the importance of obtaining the correct equipment for mountain troops, and then offers to use the National Ski Patrol as the recruiting mechanism for finding experienced skiers to help train troops in ski patrol work. Winter maneuvers had been practiced on a small scale by a few troops stationed in Alaska and Fort Snelling, Minnesota using existing “general issue” equipment. 

    November of 1940, the War Department issues a directive forming ski patrol units at the bases including Fort Lewis, Washington and Lake Placid, New York with the National Ski Patrol advisors reporting back on problems with equipment and camping techniques. More intense training is held by the 3rd Division’s 15th Regiment at Fort Lewis on nearby Mount Rainer.  

     In April of 1941, the Army orders Colonels Nelson Walker and Charles Hurdis to investigate sites capable of housing a division of 15,000 men and suitable for year-round training of mountain troops. Robert Monohan of the U.S. Forestry Service accompanies them. They needed a site with mountains, a truck highway and railroad, and one and one half million gallons of water a day. Their first choice is a site near West Yellowstone, Montana on the edge of Yellowstone National Park.  

            The following are two articles from the Teton Peaks Chronicle out of St. Anthony, Idaho.

                          ARMY STARTS SURVEY FOR 100,000 ACRE TRAINING BASE                                                                                August 14, 1941

                Benedict confers with Engineers, Says Henry’s Lake Site Ideal.                                               

West Yellowstone,  Aug. 8, 1941, Army engineers and civilian specialists check in here Friday to start surveys for what their commander said would be a 100,000 acre training base development “if and when Congress appropriates the funds.”  An office will be opened here, and the engineers will carry on their surveys in the Henry’s Lake section, according to Colonel Edward M. George, zone construction officer, the ranking officer. The group stopped Friday at the Madison Hotel in West Yellowstone.

    Others in the party besides Colonel George and Captain Merwin Smith, former assistant construction quartermaster plant in Salt Lake City, both from the Army headquarters at Ogden, were: H. H. Henningson, Omaha, Neb., consultant engineer, A.R. Jurden special engineer of the Union Pacific at Salt Lake City; George H. Shanley, architectural engineer, Great Falls, Mont., and J. VanTeylinger, architectural engineer, Great Falls.

    The four civilian engineers will work under Captain Smith in the West Yellowstone office, Colonel George said.  Surveys will start immediately, the officer added. “This development will cover approximately 100,000 acres in the Henry’s Lake section of Idaho, and the proposed training base can accommodate 30,000 men” he said.

     He emphasized, “The situation is now in the advanced planning stage, but work cannot start until Congress has make funds available and the authorization is given by the War Department.” The Henry’s Lake section offers severe weather conditions ideal for training of U.S. troops for Alaskan service in the opinion of M.S. Benedict, Targhee National Forest Supervisor who conferred here six weeks ago with Army engineers from the San Francisco Presidio.

     The engineers inspected the terrain, and we furnished them with the weather data,” he said. “In my opinion, the Henry’s Lake section is a perfect location. The weather is severe with sub-zero temperatures for most of the winter.   The area has about 4 feet of snow and the many slopes in that area are ideal for training ski troops. There is mountainous country, too, which could be used for toughening the soldiers. High velocity winds sweep across the area on occasions during the winter, and of course, there has been considerable difficulty in keeping the highway open for traffic”.

     Benedict said “ the War Department operations would be mostly within the environment of the Targhee Forest land which would be available without cost. He express belief that a railroad development mentioned by the War Department engineers would extend over the seven miles from Big Springs.                                        

                                STATE OF IDAHO PREPARES TO ASSIST ARMY CAMP

                                                              October 2, 1941

   Building of a 35,000 man Army ski camp by Henry’s Lake appeared certain Wednesday as the state and federal government architects rushed plans for the base which will cost an estimated $20,000,000. Chase A. Clark revealed the State Transportation Department has already ordered snow-clearing equipment to keep roads open to the proposed Army camp. The snowplow will be larger than any currently owned by the Highway Department. The Governor also revealed that huge telephone switchboards are also being in installed to handle communications when the camp goes into operation.  

   School facilities are also being planned for the influx of Army children. An application has already been approved for a multi-room log school to be built this winter for 75 children. Additional facilities are being planned for another 1000 children. The school will be built and operated with federal funds. The Governor said Idaho has agreed to build additional roads needed for the base.  Highway construction costs would be considerable. 

    Although the base has not been approved, Clark said the amount of preliminary work undertaken by the Army assures that it was certain to be constructed.  Weather data  of the proposed base shows that it would be one of the coldest in the northwest. The snowfall is very heavy and conditions are ideal training of ski troops. It would be constructed near West Yellowstone on state and federal lands.

   SEND PLOW NORTH. A huge new rotary plow ordered by the highway department will be stationed in the winter on the road from Ashton to West Yellowstone, State Highway Director Johnson said Thursday. Plans to keep the highway open were finalized after the U.S. Army announced the construction of a 35,000-man ski-training base at Henry’s Lake. The highway will be the main transportation route to the base. Last year the highway was kept open with a smaller rotary plow owned by the State of Idaho. However, the winter snows were light and the equipment was able to do the job. During a hard winter, snow may pile as deep as 12 feet on the highway. Constant operation of the huge plow on the highway will be necessary to keep the road clear of snow, Johnson said”.  

   Construction began with the General Contract being let out to Shanley, VanTeylingen and Henningson Architects and Engineers of Omaha, Nebraska, and Great Falls, Montana. Tents were erected all over the area to house the laborers that were hired from Eastern Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Captain Merwin Smith who had come up from Fort Douglas, Utah oversaw the project for the Army with a Mr. Smythe serving as on-site geologist. Officers and dignitaries stayed at West Yellowstone. Travel was either by flying into West Yellowstone, or traveling by train or auto up from Fort Douglas, near Salt Lake City, Utah.                                                                     

   Howard and Lucy Young and their family ran Young’s Valley View Ranch across the road from the construction site. None of Young’s original building exists today, but sat south of where the main building of Henry’s Lake Station now sits. Their business consisted of a restaurant, hand operated gas pumps, and about 12 cabins which were rented out to tourists or whoever desired their services. Young’s did quite well that year catering to and feeding the work crews of the Army Base.  Feeding 125 men at one setting was not uncommon.  

               TOP OF LARGE UNDERGROUND ROOM

   Construction began on a large log building, which enclosed one of the existing paymaster vaults, possibly a matching building was to take in the other vault. A large buried concrete building approximately 40’ x 60’ with a stairway leading down into it would have served as storage for high explosive devices such as primers, detention cord, and explosive projectiles and ordinance. Several other storage buildings of a lesser strength were also built.   Materials were hauled over from the railroad siding at Big Springs.  

 Lee Jacobson, who managed the nearby Flying R Ranch for 35 years, remembers a well type structure that had a stairwell that went down in the ground at least three stories deep. Jean Young remembers maybe two or three military trucks among the many civilian trucks used by the Contractor. The Military felt so sure of the project, that when William Enget and his wife were starting to build a home on the east side of the flat, they were advised not to proceed, that the Army would be taking over the entire area within a matter of months.                         

   Construction ceased when the deep snows arrived and the crews went home for the rest of the winter. The buildings were boarded up, locked and no one stayed on as caretaker. The following spring of 1942 proved to be quite different.   Crews did arrive and worked on the project for a couple of months. Then the word came, not to build, but to tear everything down that had been constructed. The salvageable materials were hauled off, and the materials not worth saving were burned and pushed into a trench and buried.  

The Wineger’s grandfather made that comment that “mule regalia” was also present.

According to Jean Young Howell, all building were disassembled at that time down to the footings that we now see.   Locals remember inquiring about buying the buildings or material, but in typical Government fashion, were refused.

                       INTERIOR OF UNDERGROUND ROOM, NOT KNOWN WHAT ROOM WAS FOR !

                                    STORAGE OF MUNITIONS, OR WAS IT THE FURNACE ROOM ?

  The cancellation of the project caught everyone by surprise. No real good reasons were given to the local populace. The most popular reason at the time was that the Base was no longer needed and that the Army was pulling out.   We can assume that the Army at that time following Pearl Harbor was operating with some degree of secrecy. 

            So what really did happen?    What was the real reason for the pullout?  

   While construction was underway, several things were missed in the original assessment of the site. The officers who had selected the site failed to note that nearby Henry’s and Red Rock Lakes were a refuge and breeding ground for one of the last remaining populations of the near extinct Trumpeter Swan. After being hunted to near extinction, by 1935 only 70 adult trumpeter swans were know to exist in the lower 48 states. By early 1941 David Condon, who served as Chief Naturalist of Yellowstone National Park had finished his research and manuscript on the swans in the Park. In August of 1941 the US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that at that time there was a population of 140 adults and 69 cygnets. These were thought to be the only wild trumpeters in existence.  

   The Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge had been created in 1935 giving Dr. Ward M. Sharp the directive to protect the remaining breeding population of the swan. The establishment of a large Army Base in the Henry’s Lake area would surely sit in the middle of the migration route of the large birds between Red Rocks and Yellowstone Park. Construction of the base had actually started before David Condon and Dr. Sharp were able to stand united and rally support against the project to safeguard the birds at Red Rocks Refuge which was only a few miles to the west of Henry’s Lake.  

 “The swans also had an important ally in the person of Frederic Adrian Delano, a strong conservationist who also happened to be the uncle of President Roosevelt.”  FDR had appointed his uncle as Chairman of the National Resources Planning Commission in 1933, a position that he held for ten years. By 1941 Delano was 77 years old but still was playing an important part overseeing conservation measures in Yellowstone Park. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, informed Secretary of War Harold Stimson of the “violent criticism brewing among wildlife interests and nature lovers, and appealed for the abandonment of the site. “To install a training camp in the vicinity of Henry’s Lake, with artillery practice as one of its principal activities” he wrote, “ is certain to endanger the future existence of these splendid birds. From a wildlife stand point, no more objectionable selection could have been made in the entire Rocky Mountain region." Secretary of War Stimson at first refused to give up the site, but the opposition of naturalists and bird lovers at length caused him to yield. The Army abandoned the Base near West Yellowstone.  

  So what would have happened if the Army had stayed? The construction and abandonment of the Henry’s Lake Army Base surely must have been about a one year set back in the Army’s plans to establish a permanent home for a Division of men specializing in winter and mountain warfare. 

   The Army assessed two more sites, one near Aspen Colorado, proved too small, and another near Wheeler, Colorado some eighteen miles from the nearest railroad was too remote. The base that they finally settled on was named Camp Hale located near Pando, Colorado.  

  The 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment along with the 86th and 85th from Fort Lewis, Washington were assigned to Camp Hale to eventually form what history now knows as the 10th Mountain Division. This Division and its various elements trained at Camp Hale until their deployment to Italy in November of 1944. One can only study that what ended up at Camp Hale, would have happened at Henry’s Lake. Camp Hale ended up having 1,022 temporary structures including barracks, administrative buildings, shops, stables, a veterinary center, hospital, and a field house. One bad side effect that Camp Hale had to contend with was the air pollution generated by the burning of five thousand tons of coal per year to heat the buildings.            

   Henry’s Lake would have been a post for training and testing men and weapons in severe winter conditions.   Training maneuvers for skiing, rock climbing, target practice and working with as many as 5,000 mules and 200 dogs would have been common place. Heavy artillery practice with big guns on the east edge of the flat would have hurled their projectiles across Henry’s Lake into the base of the Mount Sawtelle, and Red Rock Pass. 

  Trucks, amphibious vehicles, and other equipment were to be tested. The 87th Regiment during 1942 while at Fort Lewis did the “top secret” testing of the Studebaker “weasel” on the snow fields of the Columbia Glacier in British Columbia. As to the impact that the Base would have had on the local economy, and the environment, the reader can draw their own conclusions. One could imagine what several thousand troops out on weekend leave would have impacted West Yellowstone and the surrounding Island Park area. 

   One missed opportunity for Island Park, would have been the establishment of a large school. A rail spur extending from Big Springs across Henry’s Lake Flat to Henry’s Lake Station would have been built. Colorado also benefited by the veterans who after spending time in the Colorado’s mountains, returned to establish the large ski resorts of Vail and Aspen.           

   So what became of Camp Hale in Colorado? The 10th Mountain Division was deactivated after World War II.   Buildings at the camp had started to be torn down in 1946, and by 1952 only several of the original buildings were left. Of the many camps constructed during World War II the Army cited that the need no longer existed and the high maintenance costs of keeping up a limited use camp. The 10th Mountain Division after being deactivated and reactivated several times is now located at Fort Drum, New York.    

Sources                        

“Adventures in Skiing”    Charles Minot Dole

“The Last Ridge”     McKay Jenkins     Random House     New York

“The Teton Peaks Chronicle”    Aug. 14, 1941     St, Anthony, Idaho

“The Teton Peaks Chronicle”   Oct. 2, 1941       St. Anthony, Idaho

www.camphale.org      Camp Hale, Colorado    internet

www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/va/2001/hale.htm    National Register of Historic Places    

www.10thmtndivassoc.org   10th Mountain Division Association, Inc.     

Center of Military History – United States Army     The Corps of Engineers” Construction in the United States

The Trumpeter Swan, It’s History, Habits, and Population in the United States. Banko. W.E. 1960

Memories of Jean Young Howell

Memories of Lee Jacobson

Ruth Shea, Executive Director – The Trumpeter Swan Society -   Maple Plain, MN

About author Thomas Howell

Ever since being a kid in the 1960’s, in Fremont County, I remember my father telling me about the old building site, I have always been intrigued with military history and have studied my uncles’ service during World War II. Now with the advent of the Internet, research has been expanded, enabling a person to reach well beyond their grasp into the past.       

Thomas served with the National Ski Patrol at Bear Gulch Ski Basin from 1971 to 1976.   Had the opportunity to ski at Sunset Lodge ski hill with the patrolman that reported safety concerns that led to the hill’s closure.    For the past 15 years serving with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Unit, rescuing many a lost snowmobiler in the mountains where the troops would have trained.    

Written in 2004

Thomas Howell
4275 E. 1400 N.
Ashton, Idaho 83420
snakeriver4x4@fairpoint.net