Camp Fremont: Stanford's World War I Battlefield

RSVP requested by January 13, 2016

As America entered World War I in 1917, Stanford University leased three-fourths of its Palo Alto land to allow the creation of an Army training camp, Camp Fremont, headquartered in present-day Menlo Park. The camp brought the war and its controversies home. Stanford adapted to the proximity of 28,000 soldiers, and the foothills acquired a trench ground and artillery range where dugouts and unexploded ordnance occasionally still emerge decades later. Peace broke out before most Camp Fremont troops saw battle, but the skills they acquired helped transform the West.

Barbara Wilcox, MLA ’15 and the author of World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay: The Story of Camp Fremont (History Press, 2016), will give a presentation on Camp Fremont and its legacy. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the program.