Map of Former California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA)

Site History

The Desert Training Center was the largest facility of its kind: the original 10,000-square-mile camp was expanded to 28,000 square miles (almost 11 million acres) in mid-1943, and the name was changed to Desert Training Center/California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA) in October of that year. The camp was roughly 300 miles from north to south and nearly 150 miles east-to-west, reaching from Yuma, Arizona, on the south to Searchlight, Nevada, and from Indio, California to just west of Phoenix, Arizona.

The DTC/CAMA facility was used for training exercises involving many different kinds of weapons systems and types of equipment, and it was the only training or maneuver area in the United States large enough to support exercises involving aircraft, tanks, and live-fire artillery of all types.

Camp Ibis was one of ten major camps constructed within the DTC/CAMA. Camp Ibis proper was located approximately twenty-one miles northwest of the city of Needles, California, adjacent to US Highway 95. The camp comprised nearly ten thousand acres of bivouac area and an additional 1,802 acres of training area. The Camp's objective was to train combat troops for desert warfare, to train service units and staff, and to test equipment, ammunition, weapons systems, and supplies. Training maneuvers and combat simulations using both practice rounds and live ammunition were carried out from 1942 through 1944 by several armored divisions employing M3 Stewart, M3 Grant, and M4 Sherman Tanks.

Practice and live ammunition were used during training activities at Camp Ibis. Ordnance included artillery ammunition ranging from 37-mm to 155-mm projectiles; .30, .45, and .50 caliber rifles, sidearms, and automatic weapons; and hand grenades.

The DTC was ordered closed as of 15 March 1944 because the intensity of the fighting in Europe and the rapid training and deployment of American troops meant that troops were no longer being scheduled for this more extensive field training. Only Camp Young, the Pomona Ordnance Depot, and the Communication Headquarters at Banning remained operational. Camp Ibis was declared surplus by the War Department in 1944, and by September 1945 all property had been returned to the original stakeholders (including the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Southern Pacific Company, the State of California, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway).

Munitions and ordnance (including UXO) resulting from military training exercises on the site remained on the property when the former Camp Ibis was closed. Through clearance actions, a large number of ordnance items have been destroyed or removed from the site.

For the majority of the time since 1944, this area has been inactive open space. Camp Ibis, along with other portions of the former DTC/CAMA, was reactivated for a short period during May1964 for a military exercise code-named Desert Strike, the largest military exercise since World War II. Live ordnance was not used during this exercise. However, it is possible that additional World War II-era ordnance items remain on the site; and FUDS project activities associated with the former Camp are designed to be protective of human health, safety, and the environment.

Chronology of Military History

1943-1944	Various armored divisions trained at the site. Artillery ammunition ranged from 37-mm to 155-mm projectiles, and troops were armed with .30, .45, and .50 caliber weapons and hand grenades.
1944	The War Department declares the CAMA surplus, and all property is to be returned to the original stakeholders. As a result of the potential presence of residual ordnance, the land within the former Camp is designated for surface use only.
1945-1954	DoD performs surface sweeps to remove ordnance.
1964	The CAMA area is reactivated for a short time for a military exercise code-named Desert Strike. Training activities in support of this exercise are conducted within the former Camp Ibis area.