The U.S. War Department selected 55,000 acres here for an infantry training site in 1941, and after temporary quarters were built the installation was dedicated as Camp Adair in 1942. Designed to train two divisions at once, it grew into a camp of more than 35,000 people with 1,800 buildings including mess halls, barracks, offices, churches, cinemas, stores, servicemen’s clubs, a post office, bank, hospital, bakery, training grounds, and artillery ranges. Two divisions accounted for about 30,000 men, while the rest of the population consisted of people permanently assigned to work there. The camp’s arrival reshaped nearby communities as housing grew scarce, several thousand local residents were forced to move, farmsteads and the village of Wells and its school disappeared, and highways, a railroad, small communities, and even cemeteries within the proposed area were relocated. Most displaced farm families accepted fair compensation and moved without complaint because of the wartime emergency. Four infantry divisions trained here between 1942 and 1944: the 104th Timberwolf, 96th Deadeye, 70th Trailblazer, and 91st Powder River. After the last infantry division departed in 1944, Italian prisoners of war arrived, later joined by many German prisoners of war, and part of the site served as a prisoner of war camp until 1946. At different times, troops and prisoners of war were used to harvest hops, beans, cherries, and other crops. In 1945 the hospital passed to the U.S. Navy for treatment of injuries from the Pacific Theater and was later converted to student housing for Oregon State College. When 45,000 acres were declared surplus, original landowners received the first option to buy land back, while the rifle range and other property went to the Oregon National Guard at buyout prices.