Camp Fannin Archives

Camp Fannin Texas mural of World War II US Army encampment near Tyler, Texas.The campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler is located on the former grounds of the Station Hospital of Camp Fannin, an Infantry Replacement Training Center opened by the Army in 1943. In addition to operating as a training base, Camp Fannin was home to a prisoner of war camp housing mainly German prisoners captured in the North African campaign of World War II. The Camp was subsequently closed, with various parts of the 14,000-acre facility reverting to private property or to the State of Texas as a tuberculosis sanatorium. Hence the Station Hospital area’s development as the East Texas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium (sometimes referred to as the East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium), East Texas Tuberculosis Hospital, East Texas Chest Hospital, the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.


A list of Library resources is as follows:

Books:

  • Nazis in the Pineywoods, Mark Choate, Lufkin, TX, Best of East Texas Publishers, 1989
  • Camp Fannin, Texas … A 50 Year Perspective, Gordon J. Neilsen for the Camp Fannin Association, Tyler, TX, Tyler Press, 1993
  • The Lone Star and the Swastika: Prisoners of War in Texas, Richard P. Walker, Austin, TX, Eakin Press, 2001
  • Findings: Ordnance and Explosive Waste Archives Search Report for Camp Fannin, Tyler, Texas, September 1994 (includes: photocopies of pictures of some existing sites of ordnance damage; some locational information; maps and surveys; and descriptions of the types of weapons and ordnance in use at Camp Fannin)
  • Replacement & School Command, Historical Section, Army Ground Forces, 1946
  • Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center: Camp Fannin, Texas & Camp Robinson, Arkansas: The Story of Training in Photographs (located in Original Documents folder)
  • Handbook of Information, Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center, Camp Fannin, Texas, 1943 (located in Original Documents folder; also at The Handbook of Texas)

Archives:

  • History & Memoirs
  • Maps & Guides (includes driving tour of Camp Fannin on existing roads)
  • News, Reunions & Veterans
  • Ordnance & Artifacts
  • Original Documents
  • Pictures (buildings and a few personnel)
  • AV Archives (includes video of M-3 Lee tanks found at Camp Fannin in 1987 and lost in 1991, plus film clips of Camp Fannin personnel during WW II)

Related Materials:

  • An Oriental View of American Civilization (book from Camp Fannin Station Hospital Library)
  • Medical Department Soldier’s Handbook, War Department Technical Manual TM 8-220, March 5, 1941 (used at Camp Fannin)

Web Sites:

Other Resources

  • Camp Fannin Association, P. O. Box 132024, Tyler, TX 75713, 903-533-9232
  • Camp Fannin display (located across from the Library on 3rd floor of UT Health Science Center Academic Center)
  • Camp Fannin – A Trainee’s Memoir, by Elmer T. Horne.

​Located in World War II Collection MS-2012, Folder 48.
University Archives and Special Collections
Hoskins Library
The University of Tennessee
Cumberland Ave. at 15th St.
Knoxville, TN 37996-4000
Phone: 423-974-4480
Fax: 423-974-0560
E-mail: special @aztec.lib.utk.edu

  • Board of Control, RG 303, AC 1991/16, 1916-1979 (bulk 1935-1953), 83.05 cubic feet.

Records transferred from the Texas State Purchasing and General Services Commission to the State Archives Oct. 10, 1990.
Box 1991/16-62, Camp Fannin-East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Camp Fannin, 1947
East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1948-1949
Camp Fannin, cold storage plant, 1947-1948
Box 1991/16-63, Camp Fannin-East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Camp Fannin, interim period, 1947-1948
Camp Fannin, inventory, 1949
Camp Fannin, 1947
Camp Fannin deed, signed copy, 1948 and plat maps
Camp Fannin, 1948 (plat maps)
East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1949

  • Camp Fannin Files, Tyler Public Library
  • Smith County Historical Society Museum

Many thanks to those who have provided resources for the Camp Fannin Archives, including:

  • Office of Institutional Advancement, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
  • Office of the President, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
  • John Anderson
  • Dr. D.M. Edwards & Larry Jowell, Camp Fannin Association
  • Dale Hawbaker
  • Elmer T. Horne, Jr., Camp Fannin veteran
  • The late Archie P. McDonald, Stephen F. Austin State University and East Texas Historical Association
  • Texas Monthly magazine
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers