During World War II, a prisoner-of-war internment camp was located directly north of here. It began with a request by the Holdredge New Industries Committee for a federal conscientious-objector camp to help relieve the severe wartime farm labor shortage, but a prisoner-of-war camp was built instead. Planning began in June 1943, and by November construction had been completed on approximately seventy buildings and seven miles of concrete road while guard personnel awaited the arrival of prisoners. The camp contained three prison compounds holding a total of 3,000 men, and it also administered smaller branch internment camps in Nebraska. The prisoners were German soldiers captured in the North Africa and Italian campaign. About 600 military and 130 civilian personnel provided security and maintenance. One prisoner reportedly escaped but returned voluntarily. The prisoners-of-war were a valuable source of farm labor in the area until the camp was phased out in 1945-46, and material removed from the site later provided lumber for postwar construction and concrete rip-rap for Tri-County irrigation ditches.