During World War II, more than 50,000 German prisoners of war were interned in more than 70 Texas prisoner of war camps, with base camps at military installations across the state and branch camps in their surrounding areas. In 1944, about 140 German prisoners detailed from a base camp at Huntsville were housed in a U.S. Army tent camp near this site on land owned by the Lutcher Moore Lumber Company. The camp was built with construction materials and labor provided by the Orange County Farm Labor Committee of the U.S. Agricultural Extension Service. Transported daily by army trucks to work details, the prisoners labored in local rice fields, helping bring in the harvest for farmers whose workers had gone to war. Their labor became a crucial part of the area's wartime food production, and many developed good working relationships with their employers. Although the original camp operated only briefly in 1944, prisoners brought from camps in China, Texas, and Edgerly, Louisiana, were again employed on Orange County farms in 1945.