By early 1942, the U.S. Army had built stateside camps to house prisoners of war. Camp Alto, located south of this site, was a small branch operation of the Camp Fannin base facility in Tyler, created to meet local labor needs caused by wartime shortages. Beginning operations in the fall of 1944, Camp Alto housed approximately 100 German prisoners of war in tents, and most cut pulpwood for the East Texas ice storm salvage project. As the end of the war approached, branch camps sent prisoners to larger base camps as a step toward eventual repatriation, and Camp Alto closed in the spring of 1945 under direction of the War Assets Administration.