A WWII prisoner-of-war camp once stood just outside Hereford

In 1942, the U.S. military built a prisoner-of-war facility about 3.5 miles southeast of Hereford, straddling the Deaf Smith and Castro county line. It cost roughly $2 million and became the second-largest POW camp in the United States during World War II. The first prisoners, Italian soldiers, arrived in April 1943. At its peak the camp held around 5,000 Italian prisoners. A group of German prisoners was mistakenly routed there and quickly transferred after a riot broke out between compounds.

The camp closed in early 1946 after the war ended. Almost nothing of the original structure survived. A small concrete chapel was restored in the 1980s and dedicated in 1989. The site received a Texas State Historical Marker in 1993. The Handbook of Texas traces the camp from its 1942 construction through the chapel's restoration.