Photo By Scott Sturkol | A barracks building from the 1600 block at Fort McCoy, Wis., is shown being prepared...... read more read more
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After moving one barracks building successfully Jan. 22, contractors are set to move a second building from its resting area of 80-plus years to a new location on Fort McCoy’s cantonment area on Feb. 12.
This will be the second of five barracks buildings on the installation cantonment area’s 1600 block that are being moved during January and February 2025 while the ground is frozen, Army Corps of Engineers officials said.
Devooght Building Movers of Manitowoc, Wis., is the contractor doing the building moving with wheels and remote control powered by a generator. These buildings from 1942 will eventually be reset at another area of the post so new construction can begin in their current location on two new officer quarters buildings.
Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works master planners said a plan was previously worked out with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the contractor to move the five old barracks buildings to the 500 block of Fort McCoy in this move. The buildings will be temporarily set in that block until new locations are determined.
In moving the first building Jan. 22 on the installation’s cantonment area, the work took the contractors most of the day to get the building to its new location, however they did successfully and safely get it there.
Four other barracks buildings also were moved from the 1600 block to other areas in 2023 by a different contractor. Those four buildings are now operational in their new locations in the 1700, 1800, and 2100 blocks on the post.
In 2023 during the first barracks move operations, that was the first time an effort like that took place at Fort McCoy, Fort McCoy officials said.
Looking back, all five of the current buildings being moved were originally built 83 years ago in 1942 during the mass construction effort of Fort McCoy’s cantonment area. An article in the Aug. 28, 1942, edition of The Real McCoy newspaper discussed the actual construction of the cantonment area and these buildings.
“Actual building and grading operations for the erection of the hundreds of buildings began March 20, 1942, although the original survey by a corps of engineers was made in July 1941. Authorization for construction was given by the War Department on Feb. 9, 1942.”
The article also states, “Each of the new buildings is of the most modern military design for comfort and welfare of the Soldiers. All are equipped with the latest of scientific appliances. The first Soldiers to move into the new area were the Camp McCoy Military Police.
“Hundreds of mechanics of every type and description were employed to grade and construct the hundreds of buildings, warehouses, recreation centers, chapels, and other necessary buildings. A few months ago, this new camp site was a countryside consisting of beautiful hills and valleys studded with scrub oak, jack pine, and wild grass. Today it is one of the finest military camps in the world,” the article states.
World War II veteran Harry Baker said in a 2022 news article, when he was 102 years old, what the “new buildings” were like that are now being moved. Baker, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who had resided in Pewaukee, Wis., and is a native of Milwaukee, discussed some of his time on post during World War II as a second lieutenant artillery officer with Battery C, 302nd Field Artillery Battalion, 76th Infantry Division.
“They were very nice accommodations,” Baker said of the “New Camp” barracks buildings as he remembered staying in them in winter from 1943-44. “It was nice to have warm rooms and hot showers.”
At the time Baker first stayed in the “New Camp,” most buildings were around a year old. Baker also mentioned a pet peeve about waiting in line for the mess hall in winter when returning in early 1944.
One of his not-so-fond memories was “to be lined up for mess and those damned coal-fired furnaces would get soot on a uniform. Try to stay in proper uniform with the coal flakes on your uniform that came out of those … kitchens.”
Building moves will continue as conditions permit, officials said.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.10.2025 16:34 |
| Story ID: | 490494 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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