Camp Coxcomb was established at this site in the spring of 1942 as one of fifteen camps built in the southwestern deserts to harden and train United States troops for service on the battlefields of World War II. It was part of the Desert Training Center, a simulated theater of operations that included portions of California, Arizona, and Nevada. The other camps were Young, Granite, Iron Mountain, Ibis, Clipper, Pilot Knob, Laguna, Horn, Hyder, Bouse, and Rice. A total of thirteen infantry divisions and seven armored divisions, plus numerous smaller units, trained in this harsh environment. The training center operated for almost 2 years and closed early in 1944 when the last units were shipped overseas. During its brief period of operation, more than one million American soldiers were trained for combat. The Sixth Armored Division was later declared a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945.