German POW sites in the US

[Brindlereo]

Any archeologist or diggers on here try and search these areas? I saw on history detectives that there were near 500,000 german POW's here in the US.

Here is link to list of sites

List of POW camps in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[BOB COLEMAN]

An interesting book on the subject is "Stalag Wisconsin," by Betty Cowley. The book, available at Amazon.com, is a history of nearly fourty POW camps located in Wisconsin during the war.
The prisoners were utilized in agricultural and factory work. The small town near where I lived had a minor unlisted camp with about a dozen German prisoners who worked on two local farms. They were housed at the local County Fair Grounds. The local sheriff's wife prepared morning and evening meals for them and also bag lunches they carried with them. As a large part of the local population at the time was of German descent, it was easy for the prisoners to converse with the locals. The biggest security problem experienced at all of these camps was keeping the local young girls away from the young men who were POW's. All the American young men were away in service. Numerous unreported pregnacies occured during this time. As the old saying goes, "where there is a will, there is a way."

[opus5150]

I remember riding my bicycle through Camp Myles Standish as a boy in the early 80's. There were still tar paper barracks standing at that time, although they are all gone now. My friends and I used to root around the foundations and trash pits that were left behind. We found mostly US uniform buttons, silverware, and old zippo lighters. In the POW areas, we found mainly buttons, but the most interesting piece was an ID holder with a German soldiers info and family pictures. It had definitely seen better days due to the moisture damage from the years of New England weather exposure.
We also would find spent smoke grenades, 7.62 brass as well as 5.56 rounds scattered throughout, lending me to believe that the base was used for weekend Guard activities well after the base closed in 1946.
The whole area has mostly been developed, with the old camp roads and structures demolished for the industrial park now standing in its place. Some of the original base buildings still remain however, such as the main admin houses, a power generating facility, and various smaller outbuildings. The tunnels, buildings, and paths that we used to play in are all just happy memories, but thanks for bringing them up with this post after so long!

[albatrosdva]

Here in North Carolina I live about an hour away from a minor POW camp which was in Asheville. It was inside a mall which is still a mall so there is nothing to be found but some interesting stories. One thing I have always wanted is a German POW uniform from NC. If anyone EVER finds one of these let me know. It will probably go straight to the state museum. North Carolina was the only Confederate state that had a good quartermaster department in the Civil War. In 1865 when all the other state's soldiers were going without uniforms and shoes North Carolina had a surplus of 10,000 uniforms. However it was up to the state to provide the uniforms so NC could not just give the extras to other states (also NC uniforms were a different color, tarheel blue). These uniforms sat in warehouses until the 1940s when they were issued to German POWs. I believe they even still used the NC buttons.

[Brindlereo]

That would be a cool piece, spanning 80 years of history.

[People's Army]

Comrades,
I have a Book" Nazi's in the pinywoods" about German POW's in Texas.

It is an interesting read.