Fort Chaffee Museums Collection

Built in 1941, originally designated as Camp Chaffee this 72,000-acre military base was the training site for thousands of troops heading overseas during World War II. The camp was named after Major General Adna R. Chaffee Jr., an artillery officer who, in Europe during World War I, determined that the cavalry was outmoded and, unlike other cavalry officers, advocated for the use of tanks. It served as an annual reserve training center and was the "Ellis Island" point of entrance for Vietnamese, Laotian, Hmong, and Cuban refugees coming to the United States. In 2005, Fort Chaffee temporarily housed thousands of evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The materials in this collection are part of the Fort Chaffee Musuems collection and have been digitized and made aviable through a partnership with the Pebley Center.