Fort McClellan

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The Fort McClellan Military Reservation is a former U.S. Army installation located in the Choccolocco Mountains in Calhoun County, northeast of Anniston.

The rugged area was first used by the War Department as a National Guard artillery training site in 1912, at the invitation of Representative Henry Clayton Jr. Army War College officials made a recommendation to acquire the land for continued use, and the purchase of 18,952 acres was finalized on March 17, 1917 for $247,000 ($13/acre). The United States formally declared war in Germany the following month and Camp McCellan, named in honor of Union Major General George McClellan, was established on July 18 to serve as a mobilization and training camp.

Recruits arrived at the camp via the Southern Railway line just to the west, originally disembarking at Remount Depot and later making use of a spur line into the northwestern part of the camp property. Around 1,500 wood-framed buildings were constructed to serve as mess halls, bath houses, offices, storage depots, and a base hospital. Personnel slept in wood-floored tents divided into 26 training areas. The first recruits arrived in August and by October more than 27,000 trainees for the 29th Infantry Division under Major General Charles G. Morton had assembled at the camp. Other units who used the camp during World War I included the 1st Separate Negro Company of Maryland, the 6th Division, the 157th Depot Brigade, the 11th and 12th Training Battalions, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Development Regiments

The camps placed on "caretaker status" after the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. Most of its facilities were shut down, leaving special training facilities for the Army's 9th Corps Area in use. In 1926 Congress approved funding to construct permanent facilities at Camp McClellan, including a headquarters, officers' residences, barracks and a hospital. The camp was elevated to "Fort McClellan" by the War Department on July 1, 1929. One regiment of 1,500 took up a year-round post at the Fort, with as many as 6,400 civilian trainees arriving each summer.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration was allocated $1,785,000 to construct roads, an airfield, and a radio transmission tower at the fort. Architects employed by the WPA adopted a Spanish Colonial Revival style for the new buildings. The Army's 22nd Infantry Regiment served as Post Garrison, primarily hosting training activities for Reserve Officer Training Corps units and the Alabama Army National Guard's 32nd Infantry Division. The post also coordinated the work of 45 Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama and neighboring states.

The anticipated entry of the United States into World War II led to significant expansion and upgrades. Congress appropriated $6.5 million for new construction to accommodate up to 50,000 troops. The work included roads, sewage facilities, warehouses, munitions bunkers, hospital expansion, and a 12,000-seat amphitheater. At the same time, the reservation was expanded to 42,286 acres and a separate 22,168-acre parcel was acquired west of the city and north of the Anniston Ordnance Depot, and initially called the Morrisville Maneuvering Area.

In October 1940 the 27th Infantry Division of the New York National Guard was activated and assigned to Fort McClellan before being deployed to the Pacific Theater in following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of the next year. After they departed, the fort's mission transitioned to basic training, providing an 8-week course after which trainees would continue their combat or specialist training elsewhere. The program increased to 9 weeks with some urban and foxhole combat simulations, in 1943. Among the units trained was the 92nd Infantry Division of African-American troops which was deployed to Italy.

The fort's population peaked at 42,126 enlisted personnel and 2,170 officers, including two detachments of the Women's Army Corps (WAC). Over the course of the war, nearly 500,000 troops trained at Fort McClellan. In addition to troops, the army built a Prison Internment Camp, housing prisoners from the war in Europe. A small German Italian Memorial Cemetery at the fort holds the remains of 29 of those prisoners who died in captivity.

After the war, Fort McClellan continued to train soldiers for occupation duty. It was redesignated as a Recruit Training Center in November 1946 and was placed on inactive status on June 30, 1947 with only a small maintenance staff on site. With lobbying from Alabama's congressional representatives, the army activated the fort as a National Guard training station in early 1950.

The outbreak of the Korean War in June of that year added a Chemical Corps replacement training center to the installation's mission.

The Women's Army Corps School was founded at Fort McClellan on September 25, 1952. The fort became the home of the U.S. Women's Army Corps Center (WACC) two years later.

Special facilities for a Chemical Corps School opened between 1952 and 1954. In September 1953 the school hosted "Operation Top Hat", a secret testing program in which troops were exposed to various chemical agents and experimental decontamination methods. The program continued after the war and was renamed the U.S. Army Chemical Center and School after the U.S. Army Combat Development Command Chemical Biological-Radiological Agency was relocated there in 1962. The 100-bed Noble Army Hospital was dedicated at Fort McClellan on May 4 of that same year. The 13 ½-acre Lake Yahou, used for fishing, was created at Fort McClellan by damming Remount Creek in 1968.

During the Vietnam War an Advanced Individual Training Infantry Brigade was activated at Fort McClellan, adding a third major mission to the installation. The unit was deactivated in April 1970. The Army Chemical School, which was used to train both US and allied military personnel, was relocated to Maryland's Edgewood Arsenal in 1973, but then returned to Fort McClellan in 1979.

Meanwhile, on June 11, 1975 the Army moved its Military Police School from Fort Gordon, Georgia to Fort McClellan. Major General Mary Clarke, assigned to Fort McClellan as commanding officer, participated in the ceremony retiring the flag of the Women's Army Corps and the integration of women's units on October 20, 1978.

In 1986 Fort McClellan was temporarily utilized as a satellite academy for the U.S. Border Patrol. That same year a $14.9 million Chemical Defense Training Facility (CDTF) was constructed at the installation, providing training to chemical specialists assigned to every unit.

Closure and redevelopment

In 1991 and 1993 Fort McClellan was designated for closure by the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, but the recommendation was overruled through the influence of U.S. Representative Glen Browder. The third recommendation, made in 1995, was not reversed. An official closing ceremony was held on May 20, 1999.

The Army Chemical School (ACS) and Military Police School both moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The Department of Defense Polygraph Institute moved separately to Fort Jackson in South Carolina. The WAC Museum, renamed the U.S. Army Women's Museum, reopened at Fort Lee, Virginia. The official process of unexploded ordnance clean-up continued to 2014.

Portions of the former army fort remained in use. The Alabama National Guard took over the Clarke Ranges Complex as home of the 167th Theater Sustainment Command. The William F. Nichols United States Army Reserve Center, headquarters of the 490th Chemical Battalion and the 145th and 403rd Transportation Detachments opened there in July 2013. The Army & Air Force Exchange Service continued to operate its Fort McClellan AAFES until 2022. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security operates the Center for Domestic Preparedness at the former Chemical School and Noble Army Hospital.

In 2003 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the 9,016-acre Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge encompassing undeveloped land on the Fort McClellan Military Reservation. As suggested by the name, the preserve protects the largest extant stands of mountain longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) in the southeast.

In 1999 the Fort McClellan Joint Powers Authority was created jointly by the City of Anniston and Calhoun County to steer the redevelopment and re-use of the former installation. After passaged of Act of Alabama 2009-337 expanding the powers of such commissions, a new McClellan Development Authority was incorporated as a non-profit public corporation. The authority oversaw the development of McClellan, a master-planned, mixed-use community on 10,000 acres of former fort property. Auburn University, Gadsden State Community College, and Jacksonville State University all have programs in the McClellan community.

In 2006 many of the 1930s-era structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A 90-acre parcel including a complex of concrete buildings nicknamed the "starship barracks" was sold to Landon Ash's Xtreme Concepts Inc. in . In 2023 that property was put back on the market by Pine Valley One of Chicago, Illinois, which held a tax lien on it. In 2024 comedian and actor Katt Williams purchased the barracks with the intent of opening a film production studio.

Public health concerns

The historical use of heavy artillery, chemical agents and other hazardous materials at Fort McClellan and the Anniston Army Depot have caused concerns related to exposure by personnel stationed there, to residents of the surrounding area, and to users of the redeveloped site. Additional environmental concerns have been raised relating to the use of hazardous materials in construction of some fort facilities, and by the proximity of Fort McClellan to a PCB manufacturing plant operated by the Monsanto Corporation.

Commanders

  • Major General Charles Morton, 1917
  • Brigadier General Tierman Horn, 1918
  • Brigadier General Melville Jarvis, 1918–1919
  • Brigadier General William Bryden, 1919
  • Brigadier General Edwin Winans Jr, 1923–1924
  • Colonel Lochlin Caffrey, 1928
  • Colonel Fredrick Smith, 1930–1934
  • Colonel George Baltzell, 1934–1936
  • Colonel John Lang, 1936–1938
  • Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Gunner, 1938
  • Lieutenant Colonel Simon Buckner Jr, 1938–1939
  • Colonel Albert Peake Jr, 1939–1940
  • Colonel John L. Jenkins, 1941–1944
  • Brigadier General William Brougher, 1946
  • Brigadier General Neal Johnson, 1947
  • Brigadier General Theodore R. Wessels, 1950–1952
  • Brigadier General Harry Sherman, 1952–1953
  • Colonel Michael Holloran, 1953–1954
  • Colonel William Moore, 1954–1958
  • Colonel Lon Smith, 1958–1962
  • Colonel Edwin Cahill, 1962–1963
  • Colonel Sidney Spring, 1963–1965
  • Colonel Macom Hipp, 1965–1968
  • Colonel William McKean, 1968–1972
  • Colonel George Hines, 1972
  • Colonel Josiah Wallace Jr, 1972–1973
  • Brigadier General Albert Escola, 1973–1974
  • Major General Joseph Kingston, 1974–1976
  • Major General Elmer Ochs, 1976–1978
  • Major General Mary Clarke, 1978–1980
  • Major General John Granger, 1980–1982
  • Major General Alan Nord, 1982–1985
  • Major General Gerald Watson, 1985–1989
  • Major General Charles Hines, 1989–1992
  • Major General Robert Orton, 1992–1994
  • Major General Alfonso Lenhardt, 1994–1996
  • Major General Ralph Wooten, 1996–1999
  • Colonel David Treuting, 1999–2000

References

External links

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