At first, Chiriaco Summit seems like a nondescript desert turnoff from Interstate 10, at exit 173. About 30 miles east of Indio, Chiriaco seems like an unlikely place for a museum, but there is a very good reason that the General Patton Memorial Museum is located there.
During World War II, Maj. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was called upon to train U.S. troops in desert warfare. By the fall of 1941, German soldiers were in North Africa, threatening to capture the critical Suez Canal. This called for a new type of warfare.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been urging President Franklin D. Roosevelt to send U.S. Army troops to support the allied campaign in North Africa. However, U.S. soldiers were not prepared for desert combat, prompting a massive training plan.
In February 1942, Gen. Patton was called to Washington and received these orders: “Locate, create, equip and command a training center for Army ground and air forces to be skilled in desert warfare.” His mission was not only to train units and personnel to live and fight in the desert, but to test and develop suitable equipment, and to develop tactics. The only thing the War Department had settled beforehand was this general location description: “southeastern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada.”
Patton established the Desert Training Center in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, and it ended up stretching all the way from Pomona, Calif., eastward to within 50 miles of Phoenix, southward to Yuma, Ariz., and northward into Nevada. It became the largest military training ground in the history of the U.S. military. A site near Shavers Summit—now known as Chiriaco Summit—between Indio and Desert Center was selected as the headquarters. The site, called Camp Young, became the world’s largest army post.
Patton and his team established 12 divisional camps and several auxiliary camps within the huge 18,000-square-mile area. They tried to locate camps as close as possible to major roads (like Route 66), existing power lines and the Metropolitan Water District aqueduct for water, but most camps were quite isolated. The camps were situated so that each division unit (roughly 15,000 soldiers) could train without interfering with other camps. Airfields, hospitals, supply depots and sites for other support services were built. Conditions were harsh, including high temperatures and a lack of running water.
The vast majority of soldiers who trained at the Desert Training Center were not used to the blistering desert climate. Summer temperatures often surpassed 100 degrees—something those of us in the Coachella Valley know all too well—and temperatures inside the tanks could hit 160. In fact, the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion described the DTC in their official journal as “18,000 square miles of nothing, in a desert designed for hell.” Patton, who lived with his troops and oversaw every aspect of daily training, said: “The desert is a killer, and we must acclimate our soldiers to the climate.”
The training included daily physical exercises, live-fire exercises, day and night marches, and at least one 24-hour exercise with little food and water. The average tour for training was 14 weeks. Divisions would battle in mock and live-fire air, tank and infantry exercises. A two-division exercise would involve as many as 30,000 troops. These were considered some of the most realistic war games ever conducted. Between April 1942 and April 1944, when the DTC was deactivated, more than 1 million soldiers trained there.
In July 1942, just months after the center was organized and established, Gen. Patton was called to Washington, D.C., to help plan Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. While the DTC continued under subsequent leaders, Patton led U.S. troops in some of the most decisive World War II victories.
In January 1947, the U.S. Army returned most of the DTC lands to the Department of Interior, and the majority of the land is now managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The remnants of the camp sites are isolated, but some can be visited on all-terrain vehicles.
The General Patton Memorial Museum was established at Chiriaco Summit off Interstate 10, at the site of the entrance of Camp Young. The mission of the museum is “to promote peace by honoring the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans while educating the public on the life of General George S. Patton Jr., World War II, and the Desert Training Center.” Exhibits include a collection of tanks used in World War II and the Korean War, as well as memorabilia from Patton and soldiers who trained at the DTC. There are also exhibits about the development of the Colorado River Aqueduct and natural science. A 26-minute video detailing Patton’s military service and the creation of the Desert Training Center is shown.
During a recent visit, I was mesmerized by the scale of the Desert Training Center. As a veteran who served during the Cold War, I was engrossed for a couple of hours, seeing some familiar Army weapons—as well as a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Most overwhelming was how this desert was home to so many of America’s fighting forces during World War II. At that time, there wasn’t much to the Coachella Valley; Indio, which today is the largest Coachella Valley city, with a population of 91,000, in 1942 was the main supply railhead for the DTC—with a population of 1,600.
The 1 million soldiers who came through the area during the war years were treated to incredibly harsh desert conditions. From their dusty, hot and arid environs, I’m sure they could not even imagine the swimming pools and golf courses that dominate the Coachella Valley today. They suffered the hardships and did their jobs so that future generations might enjoy an entirely different desert experience.
Learn more about the General Patton Memorial Museum at generalpattonmuseum.com.
Sources for this article include “Desert Training Center,” by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Interior; and The Land That God Forgot by Brig. Gen. David C. Henley (Western American History Series, 1989).