Nicknamed for the numerous rattlesnake dens uncovered during construction, Pyote Army Air Base was established in 1942 on 2,700 acres of University of Texas land to train replacement crews for bombers during World War II. The base had two 8,400-foot runways, five large hangars, and hundreds of buildings that housed 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers and 2,000 civilians. On Jan. 1, 1943, the 19th Bombardment Group, later known as the 19th Combat Crew Training School, arrived from the Pacific Theater to begin training B-17 bomber crews. Pyote became highly regarded as a top training field, and its crews set many new records for flying hours. That reputation continued after the transition to B-29s in July 1944. In the post-war years, the base served as a storage facility and at one time housed as many as 2,000 aircraft, including the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. Pyote also briefly served as a radar station, but by 1966 it was no longer economical to maintain such a large base for so small an operation, and the facility closed.