Camp Fannin Archives

Camp Fannin mural The campus of The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center is located on the former grounds of the Station Hospital of Camp Fannin, an Infantry Replacement Training Center opened by the Army in 1943. In addition to operating as a training base, Camp Fannin was home to a prisoner of war camp housing mainly German prisoners captured in the North African campaign of World War II. The Camp was subsequently closed, with various parts of the 14,000-acre facility reverting to private property or to the State of Texas as a tuberculosis sanatorium. Hence the Station Hospital area’s development as the East Texas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium (sometimes referred to as the East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium), East Texas Tuberculosis Hospital, East Texas Chest Hospital, The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.

A list of Library resources is as follows:

Books:

Nazis in the Pineywoods, Mark Choate, Lufkin, TX, Best of East Texas Publishers, 1989
Camp Fannin, Texas … A 50 Year Perspective, Gordon J. Neilsen for the Camp Fannin Association, Tyler, TX, Tyler Press, 1993
The Lone Star and the Swastika: Prisoners of War in Texas, Richard P. Walker, Austin, TX, Eakin Press, 2001
Findings: Ordnance and Explosive Waste Archives Search Report for Camp Fannin, Tyler, Texas, September 1994 (includes: photocopies of pictures of some existing sites of ordnance damage; some locational information; maps and surveys; and descriptions of the types of weapons and ordnance in use at Camp Fannin)
Replacement & School Command, Historical Section, Army Ground Forces, 1946
Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center: Camp Fannin, Texas & Camp Robinson, Arkansas: The Story of Training in Photographs (located in Original Documents folder)
Handbook of Information, Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center, Camp Fannin, Texas, 1943 (located in Original Documents folder; also at The Handbook of Texas)

Related Materials:

An Oriental View of American Civilization (book from Camp Fannin Station Hospital Library)
Medical Department Soldier’s Handbook, War Department Technical Manual TM 8-220, March 5, 1941 (used at Camp Fannin)

Web Sites:

Other Resources

Camp Fannin Association, P. O. Box 132024, Tyler, TX 75713, 903.533.9232
Camp Fannin display (located across from the Library on 3rd floor of UT Health Science Center Academic Center)
Camp Fannin – A Trainee’s Memoir, by Elmer T. Horne.

Located in World War II Collection MS-2012, Folder 48.
University Archives and Special Collections
Hoskins Library
The University of Tennessee
Cumberland Ave. at 15th St.
Knoxville, TN 37996-4000
Phone: 423.974.4480
Fax: 423.974.0560
E-mail: special @aztec.lib.utk.edu

Board of Control, RG 303, AC 1991/16, 1916-1979 (bulk 1935-1953), 83.05 cubic feet.

Records transferred from the Texas State Purchasing and General Services Commission to the State Archives Oct. 10, 1990.
Box 1991/16-62, Camp Fannin-East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Camp Fannin, 1947
East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1948-1949
Camp Fannin, cold storage plant, 1947-1948
Box 1991/16-63, Camp Fannin-East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Camp Fannin, interim period, 1947-1948
Camp Fannin, inventory, 1949
Camp Fannin, 1947
Camp Fannin deed, signed copy, 1948 and plat maps
Camp Fannin, 1948 (plat maps)
East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1949

Camp Fannin Files, Tyler Public Library
Smith County Historical Society Museum

Many thanks to those who have provided resources for the Camp Fannin Archives, including:

Office of Institutional Advancement, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
Office of the President, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
John Anderson
Dr. D.M. Edwards & Larry Jowell, Camp Fannin Association
Dale Hawbaker
Elmer T. Horne, Jr., Camp Fannin veteran
The late Archie P. McDonald, Stephen F. Austin State University and East Texas Historical Association
Texas Monthly magazine
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers