page_title: Marine Corps Base Quantico
section_title: Establishing the base
hierarchical_section_title: Marine Corps Base Quantico / History / Establishing the base
caption_attribution_description: English: Logo of Marine Corps Base Quantico.
context_page_description: Marine Corps Base Quantico is a United States Marine Corps installation located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly 55,148 acres of southern Prince William County, Virginia, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County. Used primarily for training purposes, MCB Quantico is known as the "Crossroads of the Marine Corps".
  Quantico Station is a census-designated place in Prince William and Stafford counties in the U.S. state of Virginia, used by the Census Bureau to describe base housing. The population was 4,452 at the 2010 census.
  The U.S. Marine Corps' Combat Development Command, which develops strategies for U.S. Marine combat and makes up most of the community of over 12,000 military and civilian personnel, is based here. It has a budget of around $300 million and is the home of the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. The Marine Corps Research Center at Quantico pursues equipment research and development, especially telecommunications, for the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Brig, a military prison, was also located at Quantico, until its closure on 31 December 2011 and its subsequent demolition.
context_section_description: Prior to the base's establishment, the land was owned by the Town of Quantico. Around the start of the 20th century, the Quantico Company was formed on Quantico Creek. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Quantico was being advertised as a recreational day trip. The Quantico Company promoted the town as a tourist and excursion center, and brought in tourists from Washington and Richmond by the steamer St. Johns and trains using the RF&P railroad lines and depot developed at Quantico in 1872. A beach was developed with dressing rooms and refreshment stands. In one week in 1916, Quantico was visited by 2,600 visitors who came by steamer or train.
  By 1916, the Quantico Company began advertising Quantico as "The New Industrial City," and pushed for industry to come to the area. At the same time, the Quantico Shipyards were established on Hospital Point (the land that formerly held the Naval Medical Clinic but is now home to Marine Corps Systems Command) to build ocean freighters and oil tankers. With growing tensions of war in Europe, the construction of U.S. Navy ships was a major money-maker for the Quantico Shipyards. While the Town of Quantico was rapidly growing as a fishing village, excursion center and a shipbuilding center in early 1917, the town was not large or significant, and was suffering many financial difficulties.
  Around the same time, Major General George Barnett, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, sent a board to find possible sites for a new Marine Corps base in the Washington, D.C., vicinity.
  In 1917, Marine Barracks, Quantico was established on the land currently occupied by today's base. Marine Barracks personnel consisted of 91 enlisted men and four officers. Thousands of Marines were trained here during World War I. The Commanding General's Quarters was built in 1920 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. By 1920, the Marine Corps schools were founded, as Colonel Smedley Butler put it, "to make this post and the whole Marine Corps a great university". These schools eventually developed into today's Marine Corps University. Virtually all Marine officers receive their basic training here, as well as enlisted technicians from many different disciplines. Around the same time, as a part of these schools, an American football team was established at the base, playing as a college football team. Until its disbanding in 1972, the team played against various NCAA Division I college teams, as well as teams from other military installations.
  The first Marine Aircraft Wing was developed at Quantico, as well as the Corps' first helicopter squadron, Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1), the first helicopter squadron to provide rapid transportation for Presidents of the United States ("Marine One"). It continues that mission today.
  In 1934, Amphibious Warfare Doctrine, along with special amphibious landing crafts for World War II were developed here. These Amphibious Warfare techniques, developed in the years before World War II, made victory possible in the Pacific theater. Quantico trained over 15,000 USMC and other service officers in these techniques.
  In 1942, over 50,000 acres were purchased by the federal government and added to Quantico, making up what is now the base west of Interstate 95. The expansion was needed for additional range and maneuver training areas during World War II.
  In 1987, the Marine Corps Development and Education Command here was changed to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command.
  On the night of 21 March 2013, a Marine opened fire killing two other Marines before killing himself.
  In 2015, the base held first Department of Defense organized Warrior Games.
caption: The former logo of MCB Quantico
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