WWII in the Colorado River Valley

As Germany invaded Poland, Japan ravaged Korea and Manchuria, and Ethiopia fell to Mussolini’s armies, the United States remained neutral. But for how long?

American military strategists knew that war was coming. And they also knew that the United States was woefully unprepared. And so, priority was given to finding suitable locations for construction of training centers.  

Site selection committees outlined key requirements. Potential locations would need to have access to major transportation corridors. They would also need to be located in sparsely populated areas to ensure security as well as inland in the event of coastal invasion and be able to provide conditions like those that would most likely be encountered in theaters of war.  

Based on these criteria the diverse landscapes of northwest Arizona, the Colorado River Valley, and California’s Mojave Desert were ideally suited for the training of soldiers and airmen as well as tank and artillery units. Training centers and bases established in these vast open lands stitched together by a railroad that provided a direct connection between Los Angeles and Chicago, and US 66 and US 466, prepared troops for combat in the harshest of conditions.

One of the first training centers to be established was the Kingman Army Airfield east of Kingman, Arizona along Route 66 and the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. While the base was being built on ranch lands leased from the Neal family by construction crews relocated from the Davis Dam project a headquarters was established in Kingman’s Harvey House.

The first cadets were housed in tent camps. And the former Transcontinental Air Transport field and terminal that had been established by Charles Lindbergh in the 1920s was pressed into service.  

By late summer 1942, phase one of Kingman Army Airfield as a flexible gunnery school was complete. It included barracks, hangers, machine shops, a gunnery range and runways suitable for the heavy bombers such as the B-17.

In the years that followed, expansion of the base transformed it into one of the largest training centers for gun crews on the legendary Flying Fortress and aircraft. Navigators were also trained at the base.

To support the Kingman Army Airfield operations several auxiliary airfields were built in the area. A few such as at Antares Point and Red Lake were built for emergency landings. Other auxiliary airfields were miniature versions of the main base in Kingman.

In Yucca at the Yucca Army Airfield, cadets practiced takeoffs, and emergency landings. As the military was segregated black troops being trained for aircraft and base service roles were housed in Yucca.

After the war this base was sold as surplus. It was purchased by the Ford Motor Company that transformed it into a testing facility for cars and trucks.

Further west Site Six was built on the shores of Lake Havasu at what had been a remote fishing camp. Built in early 1943, Site Six evolved from a simple emergency landing strip into a rest and recreation center where cadets and troops could fish, swim, or hike.

After the war the lease was suspended, the property reverted to its owner, and a fly in resort of sorts was developed. In the early 1960s, Robert McCulloch acquired the site and built a facility for the testing of outboard motors. It was here in 1962 that Read The River, an episode of the popular television program Route 66, was filmed. Today this historic site is known as the island in Lakes Havasu City.  

While aviators, and ground and gunnery crews, learned the skills needed for a modern air war, skies, troops trained in armored and mechanized warfare as they prepared for battle in North Africa. To accomplish this General George S. Patton was tasked with creating a military training center in the Mojave Desert. The Desert Training Center (DTC), later designated the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (C-AMA), was a sprawling military training complex that covered millions of acres of desert. It was the largest military training facility in the world.

Camps, airfields and crude bases were established in the desert near Needles, Goffs, Amboy, Ludlow, Essex, and 29 Palms. One of these was Camp Ibis, about 8 miles northeast of Needles. It was here that armored divisions such as the 4th, 9th, and 11th trained on tank maneuvers and live-fire ranges. Scars in the desert are mute testimony to the era.  

West of Needles near the Route 66 desert oasis of Essex, Camp Essex and its companion Camp Clipper were established. The 93rd Infantry Division, an all-Black unit serving during an era of segregation, trained here before deploying overseas. And in May 1944, Camp Essex was transformed into a POW camp for Italian soldiers.

Adjacent to the camp lay Camp Essex Army Airfield, a 4,000-foot north-south strip used to support operations and logistics. It also served as emergency landing strip for Kingman Army Airfield and the airfield near Bouse, Arizona. The tangible contours of runways and taxiways remain.

Needles and Barstow figured prominently in the history of the Desert Training Center. The Needles Station Hospital in Needles was built in 1942 to provide care for wounded or ill soldiers. And General Patton maintained a headquarters in the El Garces.

During WWII towns like Kingman, Yucca, and Needles swelled with activity as soldiers, airmen, and civilian support bolstered local economies and forever transforming these communities’ identities.

Today, the Mojave and Colorado River Valley deserts preserve physical traces of America’s wartime training from tank tracks, building remnants, reservoirs, and airfield outlines. In the quiet stillness beneath desert skies, those vestiges whisper of a chapter in history and in the Route 66 story.

To learn more about Colorado River Valley history as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, the Jim Hinckley’s America YouTube channel has a number of video shorts from WWII sites.