Seventy-Six Years Ago, German POWs Lived in Clearmont

One of the few photos of the POWs that worked in the fields around Clearmont (Rose Fowler Photo, Vannoy Collection.)

Seventy-six years ago this month, Clearmont was home to around 200 German Prisoners of War, who were sent to Clearmont to help in the surrounding hay and sugar beet fields.

The camp was called POW Branch Camp #7, and was only in existence for a few months. It was activated in June, 1945, deactivated on Aug 4, reactivated again on August 14, and closed completely in Nov. 1945. It was one of many branch camps throughout the state.

The reason for this up and down opening and closing was due to working in the sugar beet fields, for harvesting and topping. During the war, there was a the shortage of agricultural labor, and several people in Sheridan County formed the Sheridan County Labor Agency for emergency farm labor, mainly working in the sugar beets. Any labor was appreciated, and the POW’s became the labor force in Wyoming for a few years.

Rose Fowler, whose husband, John, hired several of the men from the Clearmont camp had this to say, “You know, many people in the area were mad at us, and said we were sympathizing with the Nazi regime. But we just needed the help. Most of the prisoners were decent people. Many people who settled the Clear Creek Valley were of German origin, so we got along well with the German soldiers.”

Prisoners performed many essential jobs in the areas surrounding the POW camps, working in the sugar beets, harvesting hay and cutting timber. They were even paid for their labor, and those who saved the wages had a fair nest egg to take home after the war.

Clearmont was a satellite camp of the Douglas Camp in Douglas, Wyoming. After 1942, the first year the United States was in WWII, captured enemy combatants from the North African campaign were held in overcrowded POW compounds overseas. There was a need for more camps to accommodate over 50,000 POWs.

In the fall of 1942, The US Government began a 50 million-dollar program of POW camps in the United States. Due to security concerns camps were to be located in remote and isolated areas, and had to be at least 170 miles from the east or west coasts, and 150 miles from the Canadian and Mexican borders.

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the ideal site was an area with at least 350 acres of level and well-drained land located within five miles of a railroad. Camps had to built to the minimum standards of a military installation.

Douglas, Wyoming, met all the government requirements, and a 687 acre site was deemed ideal for the camp. The contract specified the buildings were to be completed in 120 days, but Peter Kiewit and Sons of Omaha, Nebraska, finished it in 95.

Jenna Thorburn, Superintendent of Camp Douglas Officer’s Club, Fort Fetterman and the Wyoming Memorial Pioneer Museum, said the camp had officers quarters, softball field, 150-bed hospital, and a fire station, as well as barracks for the men. All together there were 180 buildings. For security, the camp was surrounded by double rows of wired fencing, the inner fence was electrified.

In August of 1942 the first group of POWs arrived. Four hundred and twelve Italian prisoners alighted from the train in Douglas and were marched in groups of 50 the one mile to the camp. In 1944, after Italy surrendered and the Italian prisoners returned home, German prisoners were housed at the camp. During the three years that the camp was in operation, there were a total of 2000 Italians, 3000 Germans and 500 American Army Personal.

It was essentially its own town, and, depending on the number of POW’s and military personnel housed there, had a higher population than the town of Douglas at that time. In 1940 and 1950 Douglas only had 2500 people. The peak population of Camp Douglas was a little over 3000.

The Clearmont camp had buildings that were purchased from the Civil Conservation Corps camp in Gillette, and the compound was surrounded by a 10-foot wire fence. The POWs worked for the farmers during the day and were returned to the camp at night.

Fowler talked about the POWs that worked for them. “Each group of prisoners was accompanied by a guard. Our group was accompanied by a young man in an army uniform and carrying a gun. His name was Berdett Anderson, but he told us to call him Andy. When he got to the house, he put his gun in the kitchen, and proceeded get comfortable and read comic books. ‘Don’t you have to guard them?’” Rose asked.

“They aren’t going to run off into those dry, barren hills.” Andy laughed, and went back to his comic books.

There was only one story about an aborted escape attempt from the Clearmont Camp. One of the Nazi’s in the camp wanted to stage an escape, but the other prisoners, who were quite happy to be in Wyoming working the beet fields as opposed to the poor conditions in the Germany army at the time, beat the man up and refused to be part of an escape.

There were some minor escape attempts from the Douglas Camp. According to Thorburn, one attempt ended rather humorously. Not realizing the size of the United States, “…one group of Germans escaped, but they were found in Glendo, 25-miles away, and thought they were in another state.”

Mike Kuzara, a one-time Clearmont resident, remembers WWII veteran Cameron Campbell saying he watched the POW’s in the camp from his porch as he was healing from wounds sustained in the war. Kuzara also said he heard that the federal troops at the camp were also there to make sure that German sympathizers didn’t hijack the train at Clearmont, due to the small population around the train stop and the fact that there was very little law in the area.

The men in the camps varied in age from mid-20s to the 40s. Before the war many were skilled workers, journalists, artists, carpenters and farmers.

The Officer’s Club from the Douglas Camp still stands, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is under the supervision of the Wyoming Memorial Pioneer Museum and Wyoming Division of Parks.

Inside is a museum with artifacts and memorabilia from the camp. Sixteen murals painted by three Italian prisoners, V. Finotti, E. Tarquinio, and F. DeRossi can still be seen on the walls. The artists painted a variety of western scenes, using as inspiration smaller paintings by western artists such as Charles Russel and William Henry Jackson.

Like the Italian artists in Douglas, the German soldiers came from all walks of life. Fowler said this about one of the men that worked for them. “Albert Nuss was a pianist. He always ate lunch quickly so he could play the piano. He kept us all entertained.”

Fowler added that only one man was true to the Nazi’s regime, and he held himself aloof from the rest of the men, who dubbed him, ‘Superman.’ Most of the POW’s felt that it was ‘Hitler’s War’, not theirs. Most were glad to be in the American prison camps.

Dick Lenz, another farmer whose father hired the POW’s to work in his fields, said that one man coached the Clearmont School Football team for a time. He also said that two of the fellows, Franz Schneider and Hugo Tescher went into the service together, were captured together, and in 1946 were heard from when they were in a British POW camp together.

After the war, many of the prisoners corresponded with the farmers. Some became good friends with the area residents and a few even came back to Wyoming after the war. Herman Eckert wrote to Rose Fowler in 1948, saying the conditions in Germany were terrible. He wrote, “It gives me pleasure to think of the time when I was working with you in the sweet beets. At the time I was feeling like a free man, even though I was a prisoner of war.”

Today, there is nothing left of the Clearmont POW camp. The buildings were sold in 1948 to various area residents and the land where the camp stood is now privately owned. No photos seem to exist of the camp, and now it is only a memory of how World War II affected American small towns as far from the front lines as Clearmont, Wyoming.

Thanks to the Douglas Officer’s Club and the Pioneer Memorial Museum for the info on the Camp Douglas, and much of the Clearmont Camp info came from transcripts of oral history tapes of old time Clearmont residents, in the Cynthia Vannoy Collection.

World War II POW Camps of Wyoming, by Cheryl O’Brien gives a good overall look at all the POW Camps in Wyoming.