Camp Ellis Cache #6
It's a Fish Fry
The unincorporated village of Bernadotte lies four miles north of Ipava on the Spoon River at the northeast corner of old U.S. Army Camp Ellis.
Bernadotte is named for the French Marshal who later became King of Sweden. The town was first settled in 1826 and was known as Fulton. Bernadotte was a milling site for grist and saw milling.
The two noted landmarks at Bernadotte are the dam, and the iron bridge which was constructed in 1910 replacing the old wood covered bridge which had served many years as a crossing over Spoon River and along the Underground Railroad in Illinois.
The dam was erected by U.S. Army Engineers to impound water for Camp Ellis and replaced an earlier mill and mill dam. The dam is still a fishing site for area fishermen and is the only dam on the Spoon River.
Bernadotte has the distinction of having once been considered as the site for the capital of Illinois, prior to the capital being located at Vandalia in 1820. Vandalia was selected over Bernadotte by the difference of one vote in the state legislature.
Until the early 1940s, Bernadotte had a population of about four hundred people when it was razed, with the exception of one building, to become part of the Camp Ellis prisoner of war and training camp during World War II. The population of Bernadotte is well under one hundred persons and was not recorded on the 2000 U.S. Census.
The Bernadotte Bridge is one of the few iron bridges still standing in Illinois and has been closed to vehicular traffic for a number of years, but still remains a major attraction for residents and visitors to Spoon River country.
The Bernadotte Bridge is one of nine metal highway bridges in Fulton County, Illinois listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This particular one along Illinois Route 2 as it passes in and around Smithfield, Illinois. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1980, along with the eight other bridges, as one of the "Metal Highway Bridges of Fulton County". The bridge is one of three near Smithfield listed on the Register, the others are the Buckeye Bridge (now demolished) and the Tartar's Ferry Bridge. The Bernadotte Bridge is one of the few remaining; five of the nine have been destroyed.
Local Interest:
Easley Pioneer Museum, located at 210 West Broadway, Ipava, Illinois, (309) 254-3207, is privately owned by a descendant of the original Easley family. The museum houses a very large collection of artifacts related to the World War II Army camp, Camp Ellis. The museum is closed from November 1 through March 31, except by special appointment.
Camp Ellis Info:
On September 17, 1942, life in part of central Illinois was about to change. What was once endless cornfields and farm land was about to become a busy military city. It was built in the area of Table Grove, Illinois, and occupied 17,750 acres. Farmers were given just thirty days to vacate their farms, taking with them whatever they could haul away in that short period of time. Sealed bids were taken on crops left in the field, and it was the farmers' responsibility to harvest them before the huge construction machines moved in.
The area was to become the largest army camp under construction. It took only six months to construct this military city although bad weather and wartime material shortages hampered their efforts.
Upon completing construction the Army had erected thousands of buildings. On April 15, 1943, the gates opened to Camp Ellis, named in honor of Sergeant Michael B. Ellis whose heroics during World War I ranked him as a hero. The facility was originally designated as the Camp Ellis Interment Camp, but on August 31, 1943, its name was changed to the Camp Ellis, Illinois, Prisoner of War Camp. During the time Camp Ellis operated, 125,000 men were trained, and nearly 5,000 POWs were housed.
Training at Camp Ellis reached its peak in June 1944; during this time, it sent units to the European and Pacific theaters. The engineer group stationed at Camp Ellis was disbanded in January 1945 and training that was conducted at the base by other units ended soon thereafter. The camp remained open, however, and its primary mission was changed to guarding the POWs. Some of the land that made up Camp Ellis was leased back to the local farmers as early as 1945. The camp was declared surplus in October 1945.
In April 1946, the War Department decided to keep Camp Ellis open as an Army Ground Forces training center. The Army National Guard used about 850 acres of the camp from 1946 until 1950 for equipment storage and small arms training. Only small arms were fired at Camp Ellis during the period that the Army National Guard used the camp.
In the early 1950s, the Air Force used parts of the camp for survival training. Between 1954 and 1955, the General Services Administration (GSA) sold the property at auction back to private landowners. The installation was used for numerous types of weapons and munitions training operations.
* Historical information from a story by Brian Parks, Macomb Junior-Senior High School West, Macomb, & the US Army Corps of Engineers
Driving Tour Brochure
Historical text and Postcard provided by:
http://www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton/camp_ellis/camp_ellis.html