Camp Huntsville, completed here in 1942, was one of the first prisoner of war camps built in the U.S. during World War II. Designed to house 3,000 POWs, it had more than 400 buildings as well as eight branch camps. The first POWs, part of Germany's Afrika Korps, arrived in spring 1943, and by fall the population peaked at 4840. Late in the war, the camp became a branch of Camp Hearne in Robertson County. In September 1945, Camp Huntsville sent its German POWs to Camp Hearne in preparation for the arrival of Japanese POWs at this site. The camp closed on January 5, 1946, and the government transferred more than 800 acres, including buildings, to Sam Houston State Teachers College for use as a country campus.