camps within the Desert Training Center: Camps Essex, 

Clipper, Coxcomb, Iron Mountain, Ibis, Granite, Rice 

and Pilot Knob in California; and Camps Bouse, Horn, 

Hyder and Laguna in Arizona. He established auxiliary 

camps that provided logistical support for the divisional 

camps, including hospitals, medical units and supply 

depots, and arranged communication logistics with 

local and regional telephone companies. Patton located 

the camps near major roads such as Route 66 and 

railroad communities to transport troops, equipment 

Desert 

Training Center

California-Arizona Maneuver Area

Bureau of 

Land Management

By the fall of 1941, the world had 

been at war for two years. Nazi forces 

occupied most of Europe, and in North 

Africa, German troops threatened to 

capture the critical Suez Canal. Later 

that year, Japanese pilots attacked 

the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. 

Congress declared war on Japan. 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt to send the U.S. Army 

to support Allied troops in North Africa. However, 

America’s soldiers were not prepared for combat in the 

deserts of North Africa. 

Ideal Desert Training Sites

In February 1942, the U.S. Army assigned General 

George S. Patton Jr. to advance desert tank warfare and 

train U.S. soldiers for combat under the harshest desert 

conditions possible.

In early March General Patton and his staff surveyed 

the southwestern United States and established the 

boundary of the Desert Training Center. It encompassed 

18,000 square miles of rugged, desolate and largely 

uninhabited lands within the Mojave and Colorado 

Deserts in California, Arizona and Southern Nevada. 

Patton established the headquarters for his base camp 

near Shavers Summit (now Chiriaco Summit), 25 miles 

east of Indio. The Army named his headquarters Camp 

Young, after Lt. General S.B.M. Young, the Army’s 

Photograph Courtesy of first Chief of Staff. He identified sites for 12 divisional 

U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Old Woman Mountains Wilderness, BLM Needles Field Office. 

Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.

Visit Discover the Desert at blm.gov/ca/cdd to learn 

more about spectacular public lands in southern 

California. 

Subscribe to NewsBytes, BLM California’s weekly 

e-newsletter at blm.gov/ca.

Tanks are 

unloaded at the 

Indio rail yards 

in December 

1942. U.S Army 

photograph. 

Courtesy of 

the General 

Patton Memorial 

Museum.

U.S. Department of the Interior

Bureau of Land Management

Needles Field Office 

1303 South U.S. Highway 95

Needles, California 92363

760-326-7000 

blm.gov/ca/needles

Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office

1201 Bird Center Street

Palm Springs, California 92262

760-833-7100

blm.gov/ca/palmsprings

El Centro Field Office 

1661 South 4th Street

El Centro, California 92243

760-337-4400

blm.gov/ca/elcentro

The first troops arrived in early April. Most of these 

soldiers had already completed months of training at 

Army camps throughout the mid-west and east coast. 

During the following weeks and months, the Desert 

Training Center would expand to become the largest 

military installation maneuver area in the world. 

Conditions were primitive—no barracks or running 

water. Winter temperatures could vary from 100 °F 

at noon to below freezing at night. Summer 

temperatures could reach 130 °F in the shade and could 

average 150–160 °F inside the tanks. The perils of 

flash floods, sand storms, snakes, and scorpions would 

further push soldiers to their limits of endurance. 

The vast majority of soldiers who trained at the Desert 

Training Center were not accustomed to the blistering 

hot, dry desert climate. The 773rd Tank Destroyer 

Battalion described the Desert Training Center in their 

official journal as “18,000 square miles of nothing, in a 

desert designed for hell”.

Water was strictly rationed. Upon arrival and when out 

on maneuvers, soldiers received only one canteen of 

water per day for all their drinking and bathing needs. 

The original thought was soldiers could be trained to 

survive on less water, which would prepare them for the 

harsh desert conditions in North Africa. 

As a result, many soldiers collapsed from severe heat 

exhaustion during training. They were issued salt pills 

and water rations were increased to a gallon a day. The 

soldiers learned to survive with the bare essentials.

Patton said the desert is a killer, and we must acclimate 

our soldiers to the climate. Training at the Desert 

Training Center turned young men into strong, hardened 

soldiers. 

and supplies. He also coordinated with the Union 

Pacific Railroad in the north, the Santa Fe Railroad 

in the center, and the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific 

Railroads in the south to build additional spurs and 

lines to facilitate shipment of troops and supplies.

Where possible, Patton located camps near the 

Metropolitan Water District (MWD) aqueduct to provide 

his troops water. For camps Ibis and Essex located 

away from the aqueduct, the Army built 500,000 gallon 

reservoirs. Other water sources included the Colorado 

River, private wells and municipal water sources.

He also used MWD power lines to provide electricity 

to the camps. To acclimate soldiers to the severe 

conditions of the North African desert, their tents did 

not have electricity.

Patton established five major airfields where America’s 

young pilots would learn to fly. Landing strips also were 

built near each camp to bring in supplies.

General George S. Patton Jr.

General Patton served as the 

Desert Training Center’s first 

Commanding General, but his 

tenure was short. In July 1942, 

he was called to Washington 

to help plan Operation Torch, 

the invasion of North Africa. He 

then led U.S. troops in some of the most decisive Allied 

victories in World War II.

He built a reputation as a brilliant commander and took 

pride in leading his men into battle. He set a personal 

example of courage and ability and left an indelible 

impression on all those who served under him. Patton’s 

legacy survives in the methods and rigors of desert 

training, still valued by today’s military. More than 

half a century later, he is considered one of the most 

successful, flamboyant and controversial leaders in 

American military history. 

General Patton 

Memorial Museum

The Museum is a tribute to General Patton, the soldiers 

who trained at the Desert Training Center, and all U.S. 

soldiers and veterans. It is located at Chiriaco Summit 

off Interstate 10, 25 miles east of Indio, California. For 

more information visit generalpattonmuseum.com.

Military Explosives 

The Desert Training 

Center was a theater 

of war where battles 

were fought using live 

munitions—bullets, 

bombs, mortars, 

grenades, mines, 

etc. Unexploded 

ordnance can be found throughout the desert and can 

cause serious injury or death. Do not touch, handle or 

transport anything resembling a shell/explosive—report 

it to the local BLM and law enforcement offices as soon 

as possible.

Honoring the DTC/C-AMA 

To protect and conserve these public lands as a 

living memorial where the public can learn about this 

extraordinary chapter in America’s history, the use of 

metal detectors/ removal of artifacts is prohibited. The 

BLM is working to have the Desert Training Center listed 

on the National Register of Historical Places. 

Desert Safety 

• Visiting most camps requires 4-wheel drive. 

• The camps are isolated—never travel alone. 

• Many desert areas do not have phone coverage. 

Carry a GPS, compass, maps and satellite phone. 

• Pack adequate food, water, fuel, clothing, first aid kit, 

flashlight, shovel and camp gear. 

• Plan for extreme desert temperatures.

• Watch for snakes, spiders and scorpions.

Camp Ibis Reservoir

BLM/CA/GI-2015/014+8300

Camp Rice 

Airfield
Camp Life

The divisional camps were massive tent cities, 

measuring up to three miles long and a mile wide 

and could house more than 15,000 soldiers at a time. 

Patton lived with his troops and oversaw every aspect 

of daily training and battle maneuver exercises. 

Camps were laid out in grids. Streets and boulevards 

were bulldozed and rows of tents were set up on each 

side of assembly areas.

The camps became homes to the soldiers and they 

took pride in their specific areas. They built religious 

altars, created unit symbols out of rocks with exacting 

detail, swept streets and reveille areas, and created 

extensive rock alignments along roads, streets, 

walkways and around living quarters and plants. 

Serious Training

Training was tough. 

Soldiers underwent daily 

physical exercises, handto-hand combat, live-fire 

exercises, grueling day 

and night marches, and 

at least one 24-hour 

exercise with little food 

and water. The average 

tour for desert training 

was 14 weeks. 

Camps were 

strategically located so 

each unit could train 

without impacting the 

other. Entire divisions 

could conduct mock and 

live-fire air, tank, infantry 

and artillery exercises. 

These maneuvers could 

involve as many as 30,000 troops battling against each 

other at one time. 

California-Arizona 

Maneuver Area 

By mid-1943, the primary mission of 

the DTC changed. Troops originally 

trained for desert warfare were deployed worldwide. In 

October 1943, the Army changed the name of the DTC 

to the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (DTC/C-AMA). 

With the surrender of Germany, the U.S. Army 

decommissioned the DTC/C-AMA in April 1944, ending 

the largest simulated operations in the history of 

military maneuvers. 

In January 1947, the U.S. Army returned most of the 

C-AMA withdrawn lands to the Department of the 

Interior, the majority now managed by the Bureau of 

Land Management (BLM). 

America’s Military Heritage

Between April 1942 and April 1944, more than one 

million soldiers and 60 armored, infantry and artillery 

divisions, and fighter pilot and heavy bomber squadrons 

trained at the DTC/C-AMA. They participated in what is 

considered some of the most realistic war games ever 

conducted under the harshest conditions imaginable. In 

a very real sense, many battles of World War II were won 

on these desert lands. 

The DTC/C-AMA signifies one the most extraordinary 

achievements in U.S. military history and honors the 

vision and leadership of General Patton, the more than 

one million U.S. soldiers who trained there, and the 

contributions of the public lands that more than 70 

years ago helped Allied forces win 

World War II. 

California

Desert Training Center/California-Arizona Maneuver Area

Arizona

Photograph Courtesy of 

Charles C. Dike, 607 Tank 

Destroyer Battalion

Iron Mountain Chapel. Photograph by Doran Sanchez, BLM.

Camp Young 1942—Courtesy General Patton Museum.

Troops on a desert march while 

training at the California Desert 

Training Center. Courtesy of the 

General Patton Memorial Museum.

Tank gunners practice firing 

30-caliber machine guns at 

attacking aircraft in a mock battle. 

Courtesy General Patton Memorial 

Museum.

Protestant Chapel, Iron Mountain Divisional Camp. Photograph by 

Doran Sanchez, BLM.

Rock lined walkway, Iron Mountain Divisional Camp. Photograph by 

Doran Sanchez, BLM.

Star signifying command headquarters, Camp Ibis Divisional Camp. 

Photograph by Doran Sanchez, BLM.

Living quarter tents housed multiple soldiers and 

contained only a cot (no sheets), foot locker and a 

musette bag/back pack for each man. Camp Young 

1942—Courtesy General Patton Museum.