Camp Livingston Louisiana

In September, 1940, Army officials announced plans to construct two additional training camps in Central Louisiana, one near Tioga, just north of Alexandria (eventually named Camp Livingston) and one near Forest Hill, about 18 miles southwest of Alexandria (eventually named Camp Claiborne). The need for still more training facilities led to plans announced in October, 1940, to construct a large training camp for an armored contingent of about 10,000 troops near Leesville in Vernon Parish. Camp Polk, which later became Fort Polk, became the largest armored force training camp in the U.S. By April, 1941, more than 32,000 troops were training in the camps around Alexandria.

These camps, plus the Alexandria (later renamed England) Air Base, Barksdale Field near Shreveport, other air bases at Baton Rouge and New Orleans and the New Orleans Coast Guard base provided both construction jobs and income from maintenance and service requirements. By October, 1940, about 8,000 workmen were employed in construction jobs at Camps Beauregard and Livingston. Employment at these camps peaked at 36,857 in January, 1941. In April, 1941, however, construction employees at these two camps, plus Camps Claiborne and Polk, still numbered 80,000. It is impossible to determine exactly how many of these workers were residents of the area, but the U.S. House of Representatives found in 1941 that 75 percent were nonresidents of Rapides Parish. The nonresident group found in the house study included residents of other parishes and residents of other states brought in by construction companies and unions to share in the work. The Louisiana State Employment Office, for example, had directed sugar workers into jobs at the camps. The workers were available for immediate placement at the end of the short 1940 harvest season and needed the money because of the poor crop. Army camp construction paid as much as $1 per hour for an eight-hour day, and many farm workers continued to hold these jobs as long as they lasted rather than return to the uncertain income of farm labor. Several officials sought to secure a lion’s share of the available jobs for Central Louisiana residents. Rapides Parish Assessor Trent James, for example, established an employment headquarters at his office in the courthouse to secure construction work for unemployed citizens throughout Central Louisiana.

Brig. Gen. Fleming commented in August, 1940, that placement of the training camps in Louisiana would mean “the expenditure of millions of dollars more in Louisiana for the subsistence of men,” and he proved to be correct. Army officials estimated in November, 1940, that the cost of operating Camp Livingston and Camp Claiborne would reach about $500,000 per day, and that they planned to use local suppliers for perishable and immediately expendable supplies ($12,000 per day for gasoline and $600 per day for stove wood, for example) whenever possible. Louisiana farmers also often found a ready market for their produce at the Army camps, even though they sometimes complained of Army purchasing procedures that seemed unnecessarily stringent or complex.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/tourism/lawwii/maneuvers/Studying_War.htm