Palacios Area Historical Association
"Camp Hulen 1925 - 1946"

Camp Palacios - Camp Hulen

Historical Marker

Camp Palacios was established in 1925 as the summer training camp for the 36th Infantry of the Texas National Guard. Located on the Turtle and Tres Palacios Bays, the land was donated by Palacios area citizens. Over 6,000 guardsmen arrived in July of 1926 for the first training session. Renamed for Major John A. Hulen (1871-1957) in 1930, the new camp supported the largest concentration of troops for field training in the United States military. In 1940 the War Department leased Camp Hulen; first to undergo anti-aircraft training of National Guard units from several states.

By 1941 the city of Palacios suffered a housing shortage that was alleviated by government housing near Camp Hulen. After extensive development the camp had facilities for 12,000 military personnel. Basic training continued until early 1944 when U.S. soldiers were removed. German prisoners of war, guarded by a small contingent of U.S. personnel, were housed at Camp Hulen from 1943 to 1945. In 1946, the War Department returned Camp Hulen to the National Guard, for whom it had become too small, buildings were slowly dismantled and sold.

In 1926 Camp Palacios was established two miles west of Palacios in southwestern Matagorda County on Turtle and Tres Palacios Bay as a summer encampment training site for the 36th Division made up of the Texas National Guard with some Oklahoma members. Some 6,500 men came to the first training session in the summer of 1926. It is said, everyone in Palacios was at the camp to watch as the twenty trains arrived carrying men of the renowned 36th Division; except owners of concessions who were busy building theatres and booths in front of Hotel Palacios. The camp was re-named Camp Hulen after its first commanding general, John Augustus Hulen in September, 1930. It reached its peak use as a United States Army training center during World War II.

Beginning in July 1926 Camp Palacios had a newspaper, the Camp Palacios T-Arrow Daily, published by the Palacios Beacon; its name was derived from the symbols for the two states that largely made up the Thirty-sixth Division: T for Texas and an arrowhead for Oklahoma. In 1930 the camp, where more than $500,000 was spent on housing for the division having been renamed Camp Hulen. By 1934 some 1,886 concrete tent floors, 110 kitchens and mess halls, 54 bathhouses, 129 latrines, a post office, division headquarters, post exchange, sewer and water system, pumping plant, recreational buildings, and picket lines for horses had been built for the trainees.

The officers of the 36th provided the men with an 825 - foot bathing pier and an excellent beach. In front of the pier on Bayshore was a 50x80 building which served as the Enlisted Men's Club. Palacios undertook the job of entertaining a party of guest three times the size of the city. Camp Hulen was the largest national guard camp in Texas at the time, and only two states - Pennsylvania and New York exceeded Texas in national guard strength.

Entertainment were held at the camp. Movie stars such as Rita Hayworth, Glenn Miller and other "Big Bands" arrived at the the little town of Palacios. A Military Ball was held each year at the Pavilion. The Pavilion was noted for having a great dance floor.

Efforts of the Army National Guard and some of the World War I pilots who wished to continue flying, the 111th Observation Squadron, under the 36th Division Aviation, was formed June 29, 1923. This squadron furnished the planes and pilots to spot and adjust artillery impact and for aerial photographic reconnaissance for mapping and observing enemy movements. At the north end of the camp, a flying field was established and the DeHavilland and Douglas aircraft operated from this field.

In 1940 the United States War Department took over the base as an Anti-Aircraft Replacement Training Center because the camp's location permitted impact areas for spent projectiles in the surrounding bays. The base provided for antiaircraft training for national guard units from across the country (the Thirty-sixth Division had moved to Camp Bowie in Brown County). By September, 1940, five out of every ten anti- aircraft artillery units called into federal service would train at Camp Hulen. The 203rd Missouri National Guard regiment, the 197th Coast Artillery of New Hampshire, and the 211th from Massachusetts were among the first units to arrive.

In November 1940 Gen. Harvey C. Allen took command of the camp and the antiaircraft artillery training center. In January 1941 the first draftees arrived, and the following month saw the first printed issue of the weekly Camp Hulen Searchlight, which had begun earlier as a simple mimeographed sheet. The paper ran until 1945; a few 1943 copies are housed at the Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Civil contractors and the Work Projects Administration constructed additions to the camp, which eventually included some 400 semipermanent buildings and 2,825 floored, framed, and screened tents, as well as a tent theater, fire station, bakery, weather station, library, dental clinic, post office, and 500-bed hospital. At its height the installation's troop capacity was 14,560. Associated with Camp Hulen were the Indianola Battalion Camp, the Wells Point rifle range and antiaircraft firing range, the Olivia projectile area, and the Civilian War Housing Project. Camp Hulen proper encompassed some 1,460 acres and adjoined the army air base to the north, which, despite the damage done the area by a September hurricane, saw construction begin in October 1942.

Housing for soldiers' families and other newcomers was limited in nearby Palacios, and the town, a fourth of which did not even have proper sewage facilities, was temporarily overloaded by the sudden rise in population. At one time the Texas Rangers were called in to help maintain order. In May 1942 Col. John K. Brown became camp commander, though Allen maintained command of the antiaircraft training center. Several other men commanded the camp before it was deactivated.

In January, 1944, the War Department informed the State of Texas that Camp Hulen would be converted to a prisoner of war camp. The Germans housed there were farmed out to help with agricultural work in the county. By December, 1944, most training and other programs were being discontinued. On May 31, 1946, the War Department declared Camp Hulen surplus and returned it to the Texas National Guard. Rather than use it for summer training, the guard slowly dismantled it for scrap. The army air base became the Palacios Municipal Airport in 1965. Developers hoping to construct an industrial park bought the land south of highway 35. A housing development company bought the land in 2005.

Read more about Camp Hulen in the "Historic Matagorda County - Volume I" article written by Ruby Penland starting on page 262 (on sale at the museum).