Established at this location in 1912, the camp at Columbus housed the 13th Cavalry and more than 500 troops. For its first four years it remained a temporary tent camp, where soldiers lived on cots set head to foot with no space between and were periodically required to raise their tent canvas to the center pole for inspection and airing. The headquarters building was one of only a few permanent buildings in the original camp, and wooden stables and barracks were completed in January 1916 after the troops had lived in tents for about four years. The 13th Cavalry enjoyed these wood structures for only about two months before, after the raid on Columbus, it was ordered into Mexico with Pershing. After the Villa raid, the camp became permanent, expanded to the west side of the highway, and in the third week of March 1916 officially became Camp Furlong.