Big noise in a little forest: Camp Skokie Valley

Blue Star Memorial Woods is located in the Village of Glenview, a community on Chicago’s affluent North Shore. Inside these woods was once a vibrant Army camp from 1942 to 1946. The personnel stationed here made significant contributions towards Chicago’s Home Front. They made big noise, figuratively and literally, from inside a little forest.

Rooted in the Great Depression

Camp Skokie Valley did not get its start in World War II. Instead, it was the Great Depression. As high unemployment rates gripped the country, masses of able-bodied men found themselves without work, their families suffering as a result. To alleviate this crises, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. Approximately three million enrollees signed up to work on environmental projects across the nation. In exchange, they received housing, clothes, food, and regular wages.

Considerably more labor extensive than most was the Skokie Lagoons project. It involved the digging of seven lagoons and interlocking channels on a once healthy wetland north of Chicago, the Skokie Marsh, which human activity severely degraded by the 1930s.

Starting the project in June 1933 were some one thousand and one hundred-fifty men organized into five companies of about two hundred each.¹ Four of the companies camped on a field in Winnetka while a fifth segregated unit of African American enrollees found itself in Glenview.

What is now Blue Star Memorial Woods became the home of the segregated company. The property of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC) ever since the early 1900s, it was the northern tip of Harms Woods in the 1930s. Marking its borders was Lake Avenue and Glenview Road to the north and south, respectively, and the North Branch Chicago River and Harms Road to the west and east.

At the time of the African American CCC enrollees’ arrival, the woods was the site of a major supply warehouse belonging to the FPDCC. It contained World War I government surplus, including stockpiles of thousands of crates and kegs of axes, picks, saws, hammers, iron spikes, and more. This all became quickly exhausted by the project.³

Only a few months into the digging of the lagoons a major problem arose. The owner of the Winnetka field where most of the CCC enrollees were encamped sought a regular rental fee, which the project’s coordinators were unwilling to pay.⁴ Relocation was necessary.

The four CCC companies in Winnetka joined their segregated sister company in Glenview. From a tent city the FPDCC site transformed into a sprawling complex of permanent structures. Under the War Department’s direction, the construction of wooden barracks and other buildings began on October 9, 1933. By February 1934, the Army built a total of one hundred and fifteen buildings, enough to accommodate two thousand men. The CCC allocated five additional companies to the lagoons project. ⁵

Officially the camp had the name Skokie Valley Park CCC Camp. At least in the first year of its existence. Administratively, the camp comprised of ten sub-camps, one for each CCC company, under the same National Park Service (NPS) and Army headquarters. The Army’s headquarters was in the south end of the camp while the NPS had theirs in the north end. Eventually the camp’s name was simplified to Camp Skokie Valley.

The Army Moves In

On March 15, 1942, the final group of men working on the Skokie Lagoons project departed from Camp Skokie Valley. By then only a skeletal force of six NPS employees, ninety-six CCC enrollees, and a few Army officers, remained.⁸ Abandoned but not forgotten, the site soon found a new purpose in World War II.

The size and location of Camp Skokie Valley caught the attention of Maj. Gen. George Grunert. In early 1942, Grunert commanded the 6th Service Command, responsible for the Army’s administrative and supply operations in the region of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. One of his duties was to maintain internal security. Of particular concern was “a new trend of labor organizing and unionizing plant protection guards” in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.⁹

Grunert decided to allocate additional military police (MP) units to the area. He deemed Camp Skokie Valley the ideal garrison location, from where they could quickly respond to troubles, with access to the nearby Skokie Highway.

Arriving in September 1942, the 740th MP Battalion made Glenview its home for the next several years. The unit’s stated purpose was “to provide protection for Public Utilities, Industrial Plants and to help provide for the internal security of the United States.”¹⁰

The 740th MP Battalion: military operations

Militarily, a priority for the 740th MPs was defense plant security. As described by Victor A. Arrigo, a unit member and future Chicago politician, their most important work was the “elimination of sabotage and quieting of strikes in defense plants, even taking them over for the gov’t,” which they accomplished in several ways.¹¹

One of which was the training of security personnel, such as defense plant guards, the Illinois Reserve Militia, and officers of other MP units. When not training others, however, the unit constantly trained itself.

All throughout the war the unit suffered from manpower shortages. So acute was this issue that a basic training program became established at Camp Skokie Valley, where new inductees to the Army, like Victor Arrigo, were sent to. Starting out as an ad hoc program as early as September 1942, it evolved into a school in 1944.¹²

Click here to learn about a major training mishap in which the MPs accidently tear gassed civilians.

Closely related to the training of defense plant security personnel was the MP’s inspection of the plants themselves. Occasionally carried out, the inspections sometimes were apart of regional tours, like one of northern Illinois from June 5 to July 2, 1943.¹³ This tour saw nineteen stops and two hundred and sixty-nine plants visited. All along the way the MPs put on drill shows, parades, and mock battles, much to the public’s entertainment.

Only on a few occasions did the battalion mobilize in response to labor troubles. Particularly noteworthy was its seizure of the Chicago office of Montgomery Ward on 27 April 1944. After Montgomery Ward’s chairman Sewell Avery refused to settle a weeks-long strike, he provoked the government’s wrath. Soldiers from the 740th MP Battalion stormed Avery’s office and carried him out, still in his chair.¹⁴

Other miscellaneous duties for the MPs included providing personnel for military funerals, color guards, honor guards, and detachments. Possible detachments could involve the guarding of prisons, trains, war material movement, and prisoner transfers. Obscure and little known was the battalion’s role in escorting Wisconsin-built submarines floated up Illinois waterways.

Click here to read more on the twenty-eight submarines built in Wisconsin.

In stark contrast the 740th MP Battalion’ personnel at the ‘Weapons of War’ exhibit in Chicago in July, 1944, operated in the public limelight. An attraction meant to stimulate the sale of war bonds, the nation-wide touring exhibit showcased American and captured enemy equipment. Demonstrations of various Army operations were also given. When in Chicago the exhibit’s direction, security, and staffing, were all responsibilities of the battalion. It became a local hit and drew a crowd of twenty thousand persons on the opening day alone.¹⁵

The 740th MP Battalion: its band

Central to the battalion’s public relations work was its band. Organized in October 1942 by Wayne King and Harold B. Bachman, then both Army officers, it had few instruments at first. An advertisement soliciting donations was ran in a local newspaper.¹⁶ These humble beginnings, however, soon gave way to stardom.

By June 1943 the band had grown to include over 30 members. These men were further organized into three ‘outfits’, rarely did the musicians play altogether, which consisted of ‘two sharp dance units and a solid seven-piece jazz combo’.¹⁷ Soon they were heard on the radio.

Broadcasted on Station WBBM Chicago beginning in August 1943 was ‘March With Uncle Sam’. Hosted by the 740th MP Battalion band, this fifteen minute long program aired on Sundays and was intended to spur WAC recruitment. Within eight weeks of the premiere its original time at 8:45 AM was moved to the more desirable 6:45 PM slot. The public responded positively to the program and a second season ensued.

Much more was in store for the band in 1943. Besides playing for WBBM, other programs included: ‘the Tribune Festival at Soldiers Field… which drew 90,000, Chicago Theatre premiere of “This is the Army” show, WGN show at Medinah Temple, Parades for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and other National holidays… and many others’.¹⁸

What contributed to this rise in prominence? It was talent.

Many big names in music, present and future, served in the band. Early members included arranger Roy Kral, a pianist and one-half of the acclaimed ‘Jackie and Roy’ Jazz duo. Blowing a trumpet was William H. Hodgson, ‘Red’, who wrote the lyrics to the popular 1935 song ‘The Music Goes Round and Round’. Drumming away was Bob Tilles who went on to instruct students like Danny Seraphine, of ‘Chicago’ fame, at DePaul University.

There were plenty of stars within its ranks but without effective direction, the band would have not become the eminent force that it was.

First to lead was Al Kvale. In civilian life Kvale was a director for the Balaban and Katz Theatre Corporation, working at several Chicago establishments like State-Lake Theatre.¹⁹ Assisting him in the 740th MP Battalion was Hubert Finlay. A former musical director and business manager for Joe Sanders, he took over Kvale’s position in July 1943.²⁰

Despite all its achievements, the band did not survive the war intact. Bandsmen were constantly transferred to other units. Ultimately just a few were left at Camp Skokie Valley after a major transfer took place in December 1944.²¹ Thereafter the band was just a shell of its former self.

German Prisoners of War

Besides the MPs, German prisoners of war (PoWs) also occupied Camp Skokie Valley. two-hundred and twenty-five of these prisoners arrived on March 9, 1945. Coming from the main regional PoW center at Fort Sheridan, their purpose was to work at various military installations in and around Chicago.

Four places employed the PoWs at first. They were the Chemical Warfare Procurement District (CWPD), the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, the Chicago Signal Corps Depot, and the local Ordnance Service Command Shop. Largest of these employers was the Chicago CWPD where one hundred and twenty-five Germans repaired and salvaged gas masks. Their initial daily quota of six thousand pieces was later raised to seven thousand and five-hundred.²²

Later on, men worked at Vaughan General Hospital, washing clothes in the laundry department. There was also plenty of work at Camp Skokie Valley, inside and outside of the PoW enclosure.

Several contemporary sources document the activities of Camp Skokie Valley’s German prisoners. Newspaper articles including one published in The Des Plaines Suburban Times and another in Glenview’s own Announcements, state that the Germans performed essential Army work.²³

More concrete is the camp’s Labor Reports. Filed bi-monthly by PoW camp administrators, the reports recorded the type of work that prisoners performed, and for how many man-days. Today the documents are housed at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.²⁴ Those for the PoW camp at Camp Skokie Valley are very precise and show the prisoners working at government installations.

Despite all the evidence that proves otherwise, there is still a popular misconception that the PoWs at Camp Skokie Valley worked on local farms and had extensive relations with German American families. This narrative is true for the PoWs at Camps Thornton and Pine, two other nearby PoW branch camps in Cook County. But in the case of Camp Skokie Valley, it is only partially correct.

Strong relationships did form between Glenview’s PoWs and Americans to be sure. One even returned to Chicago just to visit a wartime friend.

Hans Paar was a teenager at the time of his capture by American forces in Italy in 1944. Spending several months at Camp Skokie Valley, Paar worked at the Chicago Quartermaster Depot, at 1819 W. Pershing Rd. At the depot, he and another PoW befriended civilian employee Emmett Melcher, a middle-aged man. Melcher felt sorry for the Germans and sometimes brought them soft drinks. He even occasionally snuck them to his house for lunch.

Melcher’s grandson grew up hearing stories of the two PoWs and wanting to reunite them with his grandfather, contacted the German government. The German authorities informed the former PoWs of the request and Paar traveled to Chicago in September 1988. He spent a week reminiscing with ninety-year-old Melcher at his home.²⁵

There is a possibility that some prisoners at Camp Skokie Valley did do some agriculture work.

In the last three labor reports filed for the PoW camp, inactivated on September 20, 1945, the number sixty-six appears on a line titled “agriculture.” This number does not factor in the reports’ total count of man-days worked by prisoners and whether or not it is a clerical mistake, is unknown.

Liquidation

On 2 September 1945, Japan formally surrendered to the Allies. World War II finally came to an end. Americans all over rejoiced and millions of servicemen eagerly awaited discharge. The post-war Army began to downsize, closing down many of its installations.

Three weeks later, on September 19, the War Department declared Camp Skokie Valley surplus.²⁶ Still, the army remained on the property until at least February 1946, when the 740th MP Battalion’s newspaper ends.

Then in autumn 1946, a lucrative proposition presented itself to the FPDCC. Originally when the Federal Government signed the permit to use FPDCC land for Skokie Valley Park CCC Camp, in 1933, it agreed to restore the area to its original state once its activities ceased. This condition remained the same when the Army took over the facilities.

In talks with government officials, forest preserve district General Superintendent Charles G. Sauers secured a profitable deal. For five thousand dollars the FPDCC could buy the camp and relinquish the government from its responsibilities. By selling the buildings themselves, Sauers estimated that the agency stood to make twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars. The profits would go towards the purchase of much needed field operations equipment.

The FPDCC’s board agreed to the plan. Soon thereafter the sale of individual camp buildings was advertised. By October 1946 each building went to the highest bidder. Whether the dismantlement of the camp occurred in late 1946 or early 1947 is unclear.²⁷

A single building survived the liquidation and stood on-site until relatively recently. It became Camp Adahi and served local Girl Scouts for several decades.²⁸ Falling into disrepair, the structure was demolished in 2016.

Today, Blue Star Memorial Woods holds many traces of the old CCC camp. All it takes is a keen eye.

This post is based on my master’s dissertation titled ‘Conflicted Heritage: Interrogating the Memory of Cook County’s ‘Prisoner of War Branch Camps’’, submitted in September 2019 to fulfill the University of Glasgow’s requirement for their MLitt of Conflict Archaeology and Heritage.

1. CT, June 26, 1933, “Start draining of Skokie Marsh for trees today,” The Chicago Tribune (CT), p.5.
2. FDPCC, map of “Development Skokie Lagoons” (May 1935), series I, box V-18, folder V-19-289, FPDCC, UIC.
3. Roberts Mann, Origin of Names and Histories of Places: Including Major Forests and Holdings, Picnic Areas and Recreational Facilities, Nature Preserves, Aquatic Areas, and Wildlife Refuges in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois (Chicago: FPDCC, 1965), p.52.
4. For a contemporary account of this issue see Charles G. Sauers, correspondence to FPDCC president and board members (February 26, 1935), series I, box 18, folder 177, Forest Preserve District of Cook County records (FPDCC), Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois (UIC).
5. “2,000 CCC Men Reclaiming 900 Swampy Acres,” Chicago Tribune, February 18, 1934, p.3.
6. NPS, photo with caption “National Park Service, State Park Conservation Work, Illinois Camps 12 to 16 – 25 to 29, Skokie Valley Park, Cook County, ILL,” no.135 (June 26, 1934), box 30, entry P 95, folder Skokie Lagoons State Park, Illinois, SP-27, Project Reports on CCC Projects and Local Parks, 1933-1937 (PRCCC), Record Group 79 of the National Park Service (RG79), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (NACP).
7.  NPS, photo no. 78 – 6 (June 23, 1934), box 30, entry P 95, in report marked “Camp Skokie Lagoons S.P. 28, Winnetka, Illinois” for period of December 1933 to March 1936, PRCCC, RG 79, NACP.
8. “Army, Navy Will Use Skokie Valley,” The Announcements [Glenview, IL.], March 5, 1942, p.1, Glenview Newspapers on Microfilm collection (GNM), Glenview Public Library (GPL).
9. George Grunert, Maj. Gen., correspondence to Maj. Gen. Allen W. Gullion (May 29, 1942), box 298, folder 620 Skokie Valley (ILL), Administrative Division Mail of Records Branch Unclassified Decimal File, 1941-1945 (ADM), Record Group 389 (RG 389), NACP.
10. 740th MP Battalion, “First Anniversary Commemorative Program” (April 1943), box 3, folder 46, Victor Arrigo Papers (VAP), UIC.
11. Victor A. Arrigo, correspondence to his wife (September 17, 1942),  box 4, folder 64, Victor, VAP, UIC.
12. The training school’s opening is recorded in Camp Skokie Valley’s newspaper the Skokie Mudhen, in the article ‘Welcome is Extended to New Troops’, of May 5, 1944, p.1, Newspapers on Microfilm Collection (NMC), Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (ALPL).
13. The tour’s progress is detailed in the Skokie Mudhen editions of 29 May, June 19, and July 15, 1943. NMC, ALPL.
14. Most sources cite National Guardsmen as having carried out the seizure. This is incorrect. A detailed account of the incident and the 740th MP’s involvement is found in the Chicago Daily Tribune article “U.S. Court Curbs Ward’s” of April 28, 1944, p.1.
15. A description of the exhibit’s opening night can be found in ‘U.S. Tops Foes’, Chicago Tribune, 12 July, 1944, p.24. The battalion’s newspaper, the Skokie Mudhen, provides a more detailed account of the day-to-day operations of the exhibit.
16. TA, ‘Military Police Need Instruments for Band’, The Announcements, 29 October, 1942, p.9, GNM, GPL.
17. A description of the band’s origins, early members, and structure, is found in Pvt. Bob Siegrist, ‘Glenview MP’s Have Four Top Music Outfits’, Down Beat (DB), 15 June, 1943 (vol.10, no.12), p.15.
18. Bob Tilles (Pvt.), ‘Band Box’, Skokie Mudhen, 31 January, 1944, p.4, NMC, ALPL.
19. Loren Binford, Sequential History of House Band Leaders: State-Lake Theater’, Intermezzo, January 2011 (vol.71, no.1), pp.6 and 7, accessed 14 October, 2020, https://cfm10208.com/assets/files/Intermezzo/Intermezzo-2011-01.pdf.
20. 740th MP Battalion, ‘Sgt. Hubert Finlay Takes Over as New Director of 740th Band’, Skokie Mudhen, 1 August, 1943, pp.1 and 3, NMC, ALPL.
21. Glenview Service Organization (GSO), ‘Dear Jane’, The Announcements, 7 December, 1942, p.19, GNM, GPL.
22. Associated Press, “War Prisoners Repair Gas Masks for Chicago,” The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, IL.), March 10, 1945, p.3.
23. “Prisoners of War Earn 80 Cents Per Day and Save Taxpayers Much,” The Des Plaines Suburban Times (Des Plaines, IL.), April 20, 1945, p.1; “Prisoners of War Housed at Skokie,” The Announcements, p.3.
24. The PoW camp labor reports for Camp Skokie Valley are in box 2498, folder Skokie Valley, Glenview, Illinois, Enemy POW Information Bureaus Reporting Branch, Subject File, 1942-46 (EPIB), RG 389, NACP.
25. Barbara Brotman, “Reunion Shows that Friendship Still Captures Heart of ex-German PoW,” The Chicago Tribune, September 13, 1988, p.D1.
26. “Army Declares Camps Ellis and Skokie Surplus,” The Chicago Tribune, September 20, 1945, p.30.
27. Correspondence regarding the liquidation of Camp Skokie Valley is found in series I, box 20, folder 205, FPDCC, UIC.
28. GHC, Architectural Resources in Glenview, IL: Historic Structures Survey Report (Chicago: Granacki Historic Consultants [GHC], 2008), pp.34-5.