Camp Young, California, Headquarters for
Desert Training Center
| Named after Lieutenant General Samuel Young, the camp was located
approximately 25 miles east of Indio in Shaver's Valley. Built in early
1942, Camp Young was the first divisional installation built and served
as the administrative headquarters for the entire theatre of operations
for Desert Training Center during its operation from 1942 until its
closure in 1944. General Patton selected this site to run the DTC
operations due to its remoteness, yet there was an adequate water supply
via the Metropolitan Aqueduct. Since Camp Young served as the DTC
headquarters is had far more permanent structures and improvements than
the other camps including; asphalt streets, wood structures, and tents
that had wooden floors. Some of the installations found at Camp Young were: -126 shower buildings -151 latrine buildings -miles of underground sewer pipes -over 3,200 wooden pyramidal tents -231 administration buildings -93 mess halls -4 amphitheatres -55,000 gallon metal elevated water tank Today, all of the structures are long gone and the overgrown and eroded site hardly resembles the improved divisional camp from over 75 years ago. Camp Young was not built on a flat stretch of desert, but rather on a grade of approximately 10-12%. As a result, years of water runoff have covered and/ or eradicated many rock and improved features still found at other camps. Much of the slope that the camp was built on had terraces graded for structures to remain level, and most of those are now greatly eroded in areas. It is known that the 3rd and 6th armored divisions trained at Camp Young before transferring to their permanent camps. |
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| Original camp layout drawing from 1942. |
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| Asphalt roads are found throughout the camp. | Asphalt was used to keep roads from washing away after storms as the camp was constructed on a slope. |
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| Walkways and tent areas | A tree growing in what was a road. |
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| Nails are scattred everywhere and give evidense where the wooden structures once stood. | Overgrown rock-lined streets. |
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| Many rock-lined streets. |
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| A sewer line access. | Hard to see here, it was about 4 feet deep. |
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| This old camp sewer pipe is exposed after years of erosion. | This graded terrace is slowly eroding away. What was a gentle slope is now a 6 foot drop-off. |
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| Headquarters offices, circa 1942. | Headquarters offices, circa 1942 |
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| Getting a haircut, Aug 1943. (author's collection) | This tent served as a PX, Sept. 1943. (author's collection) |
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| In front of a shower building, July 29, 1943. (authors collection) | Men from the 3rd Signal Battalion at Camp Young wearing captured German uniforms. The gray uniform on the left is the standard European theatre, while the tan one on the right was worn by soldiers of the Afrika Korps. (authors collection) |