Camp Swift, located on 55,906 acres in Bastrop County Texas, was built in 1942 and named after Eben Swift, a commander during World War I. Initially designed to accommodate 44,000 troops, during World War II the camp housed 90,000 troops. At one point it served as housing for 3,865 German prisoners of war. Upon the conclusion of the war much of the camp’s land was returned to its prior owners, but the government set aside 11,700 acres to be used as a military reservation. That land over time was home to a University of Texas cancer research center, a federal prison, and parts of the Texas National Guard. The Texas Historical Commission bestowed a Texas Historical Marker upon the camp in 1996. By the 2000s the camp was primarily a training site for the Texas Army National Guard.
Center for Archaeological Studies, Department of Anthropology, Texas State
University.
The Camp Swift Oral History Project Records, 2004-2006, include interview notes, transcripts, photographs of interviewees, computer disks with interview files, and audiocassettes of the interviews. From 2001-2006, principal investigators C. Britt Bousmann and David L. Nickels of the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State University conducted archaeological evaluations and oral history interviews related to Camp Swift. Also contributing to the oral history project were Martha Doty Freeman, David L. Nickels, and Thad Sitton. The project was conducted alongside archaeological surveys for the Texas Army National Guard to investigate historic sites and document new archaeological sites. Specifically, the oral histories pertain to interviews with people living and/or working on the archaeological sites.
Unrestricted access.
Unrestricted use.
Camp Swift Oral History Project Records, 2004-2006, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Two bound volumes have been separated to the Library Unit:
This collection was processed by Evan Hocker, July 2007.