Ghost Towns of the Second World War: Arizona’s Historic Military Sites – Surprise

When America entered the Second World War, Arizona’s sparse population and mild weather made it an ideal location for training facilities and prisoner of war camps.  By war’s end, Arizona had trained more pilots than any other state, hosted the country’s largest POW camp, and was part of the largest military training grounds in history.  This presentation tells Arizona’s war-time role by focusing on the stories of those WWII sites in Arizona that still have significant remaining features from the war period.  Includes many photographs and first-hand accounts.

Erik Berg is an award-winning historian and writer with a special interest in the early twentieth century southwest.  Raised in Flagstaff, and a graduate of the University of Arizona, Berg has been exploring, hiking, and researching the southwest for over thirty years.  In addition to contributing to several books and numerous conferences, his work has appeared in the Journal of Arizona History, Arizona Highways, Astronomy, the Journal of the Society of Commercial Archaeology, and Sedona Magazine.  A past-president of the Grand Canyon Historical Society, Berg currently lives in Phoenix.