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

The impetus for Camp Skokie Valley’s construction was not the Second World War. Instead it was the Great Depression. Responding to a high unemployment rate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. Housed, clothed, fed, and paid for, approximately three million enrollees worked on environmental projects across the nation.

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.² 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. This land allocated to the CCC was boxed in by Lake Avenue and Glenview Road to the north and south, respectively, and by 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 government surplus from the First World War. Stockpiled were thousands of crates and kegs full of materials like axes, picks, saws, hammers, and iron spikes, which became exhausted soon after the project began. The empty warehouse was then torn down.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.⁵ 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 9 October 1933. A total of one hundred and fifteen buildings were erected by February 1934. Enough to accommodate ten CCC companies, the lagoons project was allocated an additional five companies, the camp could hold two thousand men.⁶

Officially the camp was named 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.

Takeover by the Army

On 15 March 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.⁹ Abandoned but not forgotten, the site soon found a new life during the Second World War.

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 and of particular concern to him was ‘a new trend of labor organizing and unionizing plant protection guards’ in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.¹⁰ He decided to allocate additional military police (MP) units to the area.

Camp Skokie Valley was the ideal location for the MPs. From here the soldiers could quickly respond to labor troubles that arose in either southern Wisconsin or northern Illinois on a moment’s notice, with access to the nearby Skokie Highway– completed in 1939.

Although Grunert originally requested the presence of two MP battalions, only one would be stationed in Glenview. Arriving in September 1942 was the 740th MP Battalion. Its purpose was ‘to provide protection for Public Utilities, Industrial Plants and to help provide for the internal security of the United States’.¹¹

The purpose of this Battalion is to provide protection for Public Utilities, Industrial Plants and to help provide for the internal security of the United States.

Taken from a history of the 740th MP Battalion, 1943.

Not all of the battalion’s activities were strictly military in nature. The MPs also promoted positive public relations between the Army and local communities. Altogether, the wartime history of the 740th MP Battalion provides a fascinating insight into the Home Front.

The 740th MP Battalion: military operations

Militarily, a priority for the 740th MP Battalion was defense plant security. As described by Victor A. Arrigo, a unit member and future Chicago politician, the MPs’ most important work was the ‘elimination of sabotage and quieting of strikes in defense plants, even taking them over for the gov’t’- accomplished in several ways.¹²

One of which was the training of security personnel. As noted in the battalion’s 1943 history, the MPs instructed defense plant guards, members of the Illinois Reserve Militia, and officers of other MP units. Training was indeed a strong-suit of the battalion.

All throughout the war manpower transfers plagued the battalion. Forced to take in soldiers from different places, the unit had to transform new arrivals into MPs whether the men were already soldiers or raw recruits. The latter category, which Arrigo belonged to, additionally had to receive basic training. An ad hoc program existed at Camp Skokie Valley as early as September 1942, later evolving into a school in 1944.¹³

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. Occasionaly carried out, the inspections sometimes were apart of regional tours. Particularly memorable was the battalion’s tour of northern Illinois from 5 June to 2 July, 1943, which saw nineteen stops and two hundred and sixty-nine plants visited. The tour doubled as a public relations campaign, with the MPs putting on public spectacles like drill shows, parades, and mock battles.¹⁴

Only rarely 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. Montgomery Ward’s chairman was Sewell Avery who after refusing to settle a weeks-long strike, provoked the government’s wrath. Soldiers from the 740th MP Battalion stormed the Chicago office and carried out Avery, still seated in his chair.¹⁵

Beyond the scope of defense plants, other military activities performed by the MPs included: firing squads for funerals, color guards, honor guards, detachments, e.g. Possible detachments could involve the guarding of prisons, trains, war material movement, and prisoner transfers. Obscure and little known was the battalion’s detachment which escorted Wisconsin-built submarines floated down Illinois waterways.

Click here to read more on the twenty-eight submarines transported from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.

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.¹⁶

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.¹⁷ 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’.¹⁸ 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’.¹⁹

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.²⁰ 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 1943.²¹

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 1944.²² Thereafter the band was just a shell of its former self.

German Prisoners of War

The MPs were not the only wartime tenant of Camp Skokie Valley. On 9 March, 1945, two-hundred and twenty-five PoWs arrived at Camp Skokie Valley. They came from the main regional PoW center at Fort Sheridan to work at various military installations in and around the Chicago area in need of additional manpower.

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.²³

In time the Glenview PoWs found employment elsewhere. Vaughan General Hospital, for instance, used prisoner labor in its laundry department. The Germans also worked at Camp Skokie Valley, inside the PoW enclosure and on the rest of the installation- still occupied by the 740th MP Battalion.

Several contemporary sources document the activities of Camp Skokie Valley’s PoWs. 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.²⁴ Then there are the camp’s ‘Labor Reports’.

Filed bi-monthly by camp administrators, the labor reports recorded the type of work that PoWs performed and for how many man-days. Today the documents are preserved by the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.²⁵ Those for the PoW camp at Camp Skokie Valley, administered by PW Camp Detachment #9, 1612th Service Command Unit, and not the 740th MPs, are very precise.

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 also situated on FPDCC property. But in the case of Camp Skokie Valley the narrative is only partially correct.

There were strong relationships formed between Glenview’s PoWs and Americans to be sure. Some of the PoWs immigrated to the US after the war, with at least one returning 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 was assigned to the Chicago Quartermaster Depot at 1819 W. Pershing Rd. While working at the depot he, along with another PoW, befriended a middle aged mechanic named Emmett Melcher. Feeling sorry for the Germans, Melcher 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 alerted the former PoWs of the request and Paar traveled to Chicago in September 1988. He spent a week reminiscing with ninety-year-old Emmett at his home.²⁶

Could have some of the PoWs at Camp Skokie Valley been employed in agricultural work? Possibly.

In the last three labor reports filed for the PoW camp, inactivated on 20 September 1945, the number sixty-six appears on a line titled ‘agriculture’. The number is not factored in the reports’ total count of man-days worked by the PoWs and whether or not it was a clerical mistake is uncertain.

Liquidation

On 2 September 1945, Japan formally surrendered to the Allies. The Second World War finally came to an end. Americans all over rejoiced and millions of servicemen eagerly awaited discharge. Along with its reduction in manpower the post-war Army closed down many installations.

The War Department declared Camp Skokie Valley surplus on 19 September.²⁷ Its actual disposal occurred much later. Remaining on its property until at least February, 1946, when the unit’s newspaper stops, although the last issue has no mention of closure, was the 740th MP Battalion. Later that year the camp’s fate was decided.

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.

An advantageous situation presented itself to the FPDCC in autumn 1946. Talks between the forest preserve district’s General Superintendent, Charles G. Sauers, and government officials culminated in a very lucrative proposal. For the sum of 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 thousands 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 each building went to the highest bidder. Whether the dismantlement of the camp occurred in late 1946 or early 1947 is unclear.²⁸

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.²⁹ Falling into disrepair, the structure was demolished in 2016.

Today, Blue Star Memorial Woods holds many traces of the former government installation. A visitor can find remnants like debris, building foundations, and disturbances in the ground.

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. Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS), ‘file 0bwq0508’, Illinois Historical Aerial Photographs, 1937-1947, accessed 27 August, 2019, https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight4/0bwq05081.jpg .
2. CT, 26 June, 1933, ‘Start draining of Skokie Marsh for trees today’, The Chicago Tribune (CT), p.5.
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. FDPCC, map of ‘Development Skokie Lagoons’ (May 1935), series I, box V-18, folder V-19-289, FPDCC, UIC.
5. For a contemporary account of this issue see Charles G. Sauers, correspondence to FPDCC president and board members (26 February 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).
6. The number of one hundred and fifteen buildings is taken from the article ‘2,000 CCC Men Reclaiming 900 Swampy Acres’, Chicago Tribune, 18 February, 1934, p.3. More buildings were added to the camp until Camp Skokie Valley ceased its CCC operations and towards the end, some buildings were in fact disassembled and transported elsewhere.
7. 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 (26 June 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).
8.  NPS, photo no. 78 – 6 (23 June 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.
9. TA ‘Army, Navy Will Use Skokie Valley’, The Announcements (TA), 5 March, 1942, p.1, Glenview Newspapers on Microfilm collection (GNM), Glenview Public Library (GPL).
10. George Grunert, Maj. Gen., correspondence to Maj. Gen. Allen W. Gullion (29 May 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.
11. 740th MP Battalion, ‘First Anniversary Commemorative Program’ (April 1943), box 3, folder 46, Victor Arrigo Papers (VAP), UIC.
12. Victor A. Arrigo, correspondence to his wife (17 September, 1942),  box 4, folder 64, Victor, VAP, UIC.
13. 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 5 May, 1944, p.1, Newspapers on Microfilm Collection (NMC), Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (ALPL).
14. The tour’s progress is detailed in the Skokie Mudhen editions of 29 May, 19 June, and 15 July, 1943. NMC, ALPL.
15. 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 28 April, 1944, p.1.
16. 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.
17. TA, ‘Military Police Need Instruments for Band’, The Announcements, 29 October, 1942, p.9, GNM, GPL.
18. 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.
19. Bob Tilles (Pvt.), ‘Band Box’, Skokie Mudhen, 31 January, 1944, p.4, NMC, ALPL.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. Glenview Service Organization (GSO), ‘Dear Jane’, The Announcements, 7 December, 1942, p.19, GNM, GPL.
23. Associated Press, ‘War Prisoners Repair Gas Masks for Chicago’, The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, IL.), 10 March, 1945, p.3.
24. DPST, ‘Prisoners of War Earn 80 Cents Per Day and Save Taxpayers Much’, The Des Plaines Suburban Times (Des Plaines, IL.), 20 April, 1945, p.1; TA, ‘Prisoners of War Housed at Skokie’, pp.3.
25. 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.
26. Barbara Brotman, 13 September, 1988, ‘Reunion Shows that Friendship Still Captures Heart of ex-German PoW’, The Chicago Tribune, p.D1.
27. CT, 20 September, 1945, ‘Army Declares Camps Ellis and Skokie Surplus’, The Chicago Tribune, p.30.
28. Correspondence regarding the liquidation of Camp Skokie Valley is found in series I, box 20, folder 205, FPDCC, UIC.
29. GHC, Architectural Resources in Glenview, IL: Historic Structures Survey Report (Chicago: Granacki Historic Consultants [GHC], 2008), pp.34-5.