Camp White Oregon – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Doing the Denman (White City, Oregon) 08-Jun-2021

2021-06-082021-12-29Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Camp White Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Ken Denman Wildlife Area, Southern Oregon6 Comments

Oregon’s transition from Spring into summer has always been a little chaotic – the old joke being that summer doesn’t start here until Fourth of July. But, with some extra weather weirdness due to the atmosphere’s ever rising CO₂ content, we had 100+°F (37+°C) temperatures in late May (several records were broken), then temperatures plunged toward 60°F (15°C), then it was thunderstorms, downpours (a month’s rain in a day!), and a spritz of snow higher up – all in the space of a few days. The rain was most welcome but had little impact on our continuing severe drought. Makes you wonder about the climate. 🤔

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Denman on the Rogue (White City, Oregon) 27-Dec-2020

2020-12-272020-12-29Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Camp White Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Ken Denman Wildlife Area, Rogue River, Southern Oregon, TouVelle State Recreation Site2 Comments

Christmas was a muted affair this year. It rained almost the whole day and the next, which made sheltering in-place just that much easier. Presents were low key too – as what we crave most these days is not (more) stuff but more experiences. We’ll just have to be patient with that.

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The Pillboxes of Camp White (Oregon) 03-Jan-2019

2019-01-032022-01-31Posted in Other Adventures, Southern OregonTagged 91st Division (US), BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Camp White Oregon, Medford Oregon, Pillboxes, Southern Oregon, Upper Table Rock Oregon, World War 26 Comments

During World War II, Camp George A. White, situated just north of Medford, Oregon, served as the training center for the U.S. Army’s 91^st and 96^th Infantry Divisions. At its height, Camp White held 40,000 soldiers and was the second largest city in Oregon. In 1946, the Army dismantled the camp and sold all its property to local residents. When the camp was active, the Beagle Range, on the east and north sides of Upper Table Rock, was used to conduct live-fire exercises on the manning and capturing of concrete pillboxes. The ones here were designed to roughly simulate German coastal fortifications in Europe (think D-Day). Remnants of 25 of these pillboxes are clustered south and west of the intersection of Highway 234 and Antioch Road. Fourteen are on land acquired by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2009 (the Table Rock Management Area) and eleven are located on private lands inside or adjacent to the management area. The pillboxes generally measure 20 by 30 feet and are clearly visible on aerial imagery.

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