Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Winona Lake is tied to a bit of World War I history through Camp Winona, a military camp that helped the war effort by training truck drivers and mechanics.
The camp was active from August 1918 until the war ended in November of that year. Camp Winona was a military camp that was established and contracted by the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce and its President William D. Frazer.
The camp was located in front of what is currently the Rodeheaver Auditorium and the K21 building on Park Avenue in Winona Lake. Men were housed in the Winona and Westminster hotels, and in The Inn, a facility (no longer in existence) in the 1000 block of Park Avenue.
The Mount Memorial building was used as the company headquarters. The Marshall Home, once located in the 1100 block of Park Avenue, and the Otterbein women’s dormitory, built in 1903 and located across from Westminster Hall where the former Free Methodist Church stands, were used as the camp’s hospitals. Warsaw’s McDonald Hospital, at the corner of Parker and Center Streets, was utilized for the most seriously ill soldiers.
According to local historian William Darr, the greatest hardship that faced Camp Winona was illness. The entire nation was being ravaged by the Spanish influenza, and Camp Winona, despite attempts at quarantine, suffered 18 deaths from pneumonia and influenza.
More than 1,000 soldiers gathered in the hotels of the resort area. When Armistice came in November, the captain from the training camp led his soldiers and the citizens from Winona on a march to Warsaw to celebrate.
The Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, was joyously celebrated in Warsaw and Winona Lake, and Camp Winona ceased to exist on Saturday, Nov. 23, 1918. Special cars and trains of the Winona Interurban Railroad were contracted to transport 732 men and military material to Indianapolis.
In November 2008, to celebrate Veteran’s Day, the Morgan Library on the Grace College campus featured an exhibit of artifacts from Camp Winona that was open to the public.
Numerous community sources provided artifacts for the exhibit. The Hershberger family contributed an officer uniform to the display. Professor Wayne Snider, retired Grace College faculty member, donated numerous items including hand grenades.
Lawrence J. McClelland, Hammond, whose father, Lawrence McClelland, was a member of the camp, donated photographs of the camp during the time. Lawrence recalled that his father was a prize fighter and attended the mechanic school at Camp Winona. He said his father stayed at Camp Winona for six weeks and described him as patriotic.
Camp Winona, Warsaw/Winona Lake’s only military base, became only a memory in November 1918. No monument today marks its existence.
