Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Camp Laurel
Camp Meade’s explosive growth led to the construction
of overflow camps. The government settled on the site
of the Laurel Race Track, located approximately eight
miles from Camp Meade. The Army originally wanted
to purchase the property, but the owners demurred.
Ultimately in December 1917 the government and the
owners of the race track and Maryland State Fair–The
TriCounty Agricultural Society–agreed to an alternative
arrangement. The State Fair ground, site of the Laurel
Race Track, was loaned to the Army “for as long as
needed” and Camp Laurel was born. The government
ultimately connected the two facilities with a new road,
now Route 198, Laurel-Fort Meade Road.
As part of the agreement, racing at Laurel Park was
not to be affected and it continued, uninterrupted, except
for when the Spanish Flu epidemic forced it and many
other recreational locations to close. At the fairgrounds,
soldiers lived in tents; officers lived in the club house.
Soldiers fixed up the grounds for the State Fair. Some
troops were even housed a mile away in the former cotton
mill in Laurel at the far end of Main Street. Thousands
of soldiers passed through Camp Laurel from various
engineering units, primarily the 23rd, 66th, and 50th
Engineers. They came from all over: Missouri, New York,
Texas, California, Indiana and Illinois. They included
immigrants from Germany who responded to calls in
our nation’s German-language newspapers for barge
operators and boatmen.
While many recruits had never been away from
home, some, especially officers, were experienced
professionals. The Army and Laurel were new and often
strange experiences. Nonetheless, the visiting soldiers
were largely embraced by the community, who cheered
them in parades, welcomed them into their homes, and
entertained them. The July 4th celebration of 1918 was
evidently particularly memorable. Soldiers participated in
the town’s 4th of July Parade and then the action moved
over to Laurel Park. The festivities included a U.S. Army
airplane exhibition, a boxing match, and motorcycle races.
Athletics that day included running high jump, shotput
and races where both community members and soldiers
WORLD WAR I YEARS
By Karen Lubieniecki and Charles Hessler
competed together–all for the benefit of the Red Cross.
The soldiers nonetheless found time to drink and
carouse a bit. The Baltimore Sun on June 9, 1918, reported
that two Camp Laurel soldiers were arrested in Baltimore
for drinking beer.
The City of Laurel also benefited from the mobilization.
Minutes of meetings with city officials reveal the city
government and military officials negotiating over electric
rates for the new camp. Merchants benefitted from the
soldiers. In March of 1919, the Laurel Leader reported
that members of Company I of the 23rd Engineers “took
picks, shovels and truck to repair and clean our streets”–
pecifically Main Street.
Many of the soldiers wrote home about their war
experiences–and the strange new world they were
encountering. Jay Lyons from Abilene, Texas, was one of
them. As part of the 66th Engineers he was stationed at
Camp Laurel from May 13 to June 28, 1918.
On going to a dance, Lyons wrote:
Just got back from Laurel. They are giving a dance for
the soldiers in the 66th and excused everybody until 11 pm
tonight. Of course, to get out of camp I went over but as I
didn’t know the step it didn’t do me much good and came on
back...
On working on the state fair grounds:
...as I told you the camp is inside of the state fair grounds and
they are making us clean it up for the fair this year, and there
is plenty of work to do.
On shopping in Laurel:
They don’t ever allow us to go to Laurel only every Sunday
and after you go you cant see anything but soldiers, for it is
a town just like Thurber. Just one store of a kind and nothing
open on Sunday except drug stores and everything is high as
the devil.
(letter excerpts courtesy of John Bowen)
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(Left) WWI barracks at Camp Meade c.1917.
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