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.
