page_title: Fort Caswell Rifle Range
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Caswell Rifle Range / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument erected on the Fort Caswell Rifle Range
context_page_description: The Fort Caswell Rifle Range located in Caswell Beach NC, is a discontiguous part of Fort Caswell which defended Confederate positions on the North Carolina coast during the Civil War and served both as an army training ground in World War I and a patrol/ communications base in World War II. In 2013, the rifle range which was constructed during WWI, along with Fort Caswell itself, was designated as a National Register of Historic Places property.
context_section_description: The US War Department approved construction of the rifle range on January 21, 1918 for small arms training of soldiers. After World War II, it was declared surplus and sold, and over the years left untended, the range walls were undermined due to tree roots and water infiltration. Of special concern were the load-bearing supports across interior doorways which were cracking and separating from the walls. In 2012, work started on restoring the range, which involved among other things using contracted labor and volunteers to initially stabilize the walls. Currently, Friends of Fort Caswell Rifle Range, a non-profit formed in 2015, is carrying on this task with the full support of the Town of Caswell Beach and the Caswell Dunes Homeowners Association. On April 5, 2018, the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library announced that the 1918 Fort Caswell Rifle Range was one of the one hundred WWI memorials chosen for a restoration grant and honored with the official national designation as "WWI Centennial Memorial". And then on November 11, 2018, the 100th Anniversary of the WWI Armistice Day,  the Brunswick County WWI Monument recently erected on site, was dedicated to commemorate the veterans who fought in the war.
caption: Fort Caswell Rifle Range Monument
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