Recently I have been working in the town of Douglas, Wyoming near the site of an old World War II Prisoner of War Camp. Sherry Mullinex, of Douglas was nice enough to allow me to tour the old Officers Club and tell me a little history of the the camp. The original camp was nearly one square mile and resembled a small town. The entire camp with streets, hospital and over 100 buildings was built in less than ninety days.

Nearly two thousand Italian prisoners captured in North Africa were originally housed in the camp until the surrender of Italy in 1944. At that time over three thousand German prisoners were then brought in until the end of the war. Most of the prisoners were well behaved but the hard-core SS continually tried to convince the other prisoners that it was their duty to escape and several attempts were made. One group escaped and was found hiding in a haystack at a ranch about sixty miles from Douglas. When found one of the escapees asked the sheriff what country they had gotten to. The sheriff replied that they had made it about ten miles from the county line. The counties in Wyoming are actually larger than many European countries.

The Officer’s Club has many murals painted by the Italian prisoners and have survived the years intact. They are actually painted on the wallboard so it is amazing they are in such good condition. The Italian artists perception of the west were mostly influenced by the early Westerns of the 1920's and 1930's.

The building is currently owned by the Oddfellows.. The roof has started to leak at one end of the building and the Oddfellows do not have the funds for repairs. The State of Wyoming cannot get involved due to the private ownership issue. I posted on this topic several years ago but

the links I referenced had expired so I decided to start a new one for the pictures.

Chris

This is the original blueprint layout.Sorry I was not able to get a better picture

The skull is over the doorway to the pool room.

Most of the murals are signed and an attempt was made to find the artists but they have been unsucessful so far.

John Fallon, 36th Engineer sent this to me. He received the following email from one of his friends, who also included two photos of from that area.

==============

I was out at Ft. Irwin NTC recently to visit Painted Rocks. Painted Rocks is an area that units that train at Ft. Irwin can paint their unit crest. I saw a lot of engineer units, including the one I'm sending you, the other pic is just for perspective. Later, Hallett

Attached Files

  painted_rocks_ft.erwin_010.JPG (Size: 105.65 KB / Downloads: 0)
  painted_rocks_ft.erwin_016.JPG (Size: 104.78 KB / Downloads: 0)

Sgtleo (TopSgt)

At the American Cemetery in Normandy, there is a famous statue called "The Spirit of American Youth Rising"

The sculptor is Don De Lue from New Jersey. He has a couple of monuments at Gettysburg including the Louisiana State Monument

She has been called the Angel of Death, but is probably St. Barbara, the patron St. of Artillerists. Notice the flaming orb in her hand.

Notice how the forms are similar: both are reaching upward to represent the spirit arising over difficulty. In the Gettysburg statue she is actually hovering over a dead soldier, the Normandy statue probably implies soldiers arising from their bodies.

Here's to all you guys who survived; and to the kids who never came back