Camp Ellis odd facts

Camp Ellis Odd Facts

Just odd facts:

Built 1942 Occupied Jan 1943 Closed October 1945 Land sold 1955
Trained 456 Units of 58 types for a total of 125,000 people
Employed 500 civilians
Phones had 150 operators 35 switchboards and 1000 lines
Streets East / West labeled A to U North South labeled 1 to 47
Railroad delivered 100 car loads a day
Chapels 2 plus one Hospital and one POW
PX sold 105 million cigarettes 4 million beers and 3.7 million sodas
Movie Theaters 6 showed to 11,000 people each night
Water The camp used 700,000 gallons a day
Landing Strip 150 x 5280 feet, built in 23 hours, 7 planes and 11 pilots, 40 to 50 flights a day
Victory Garden 200 Acres 1942 produced 1/2 million pounds of produce
Soldiers trained to use .30 caliber rifle, pistol, bazooka, grenade launcher, .30 and .50 caliber machine guns
Hospital had 1500 beds, 500 Nurses, covered 140 acres with 125 buildings 25 x 150 feet, Longest corridor 3000 ft., POW had 125 bed wing
Bridge 210 ft. moved from Chilicothe. Units would build, drive a jeep across and take it down
184 Softball teams and 224 Basketball teams in leagues
Units had 13 weeks basic and 13 weeks specialist training
National Barn Dance broadcast from Camp Ellis July 27, 1945
Lewistown welcomed blacks but Peoria, Galesburg and Macomb had separate facilities. Blacks also went to Keokuk
January 1945 the hospital was all that was active
Shotfall report estimates that 4,090 tons of bullets (lead) was fired