Camp Peary is a military reservation in
York CountyYork County is a county located on the north side of the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. Situated on the York River and many tributaries, the county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown...
near
Williamsburg, VirginiaWilliamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
. Officially it is referred to as the
Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) under the auspices of the Department of Defense, but it is widely believed to be the location of a covert CIA training facility known as "The Farm". It has a sister facility, "
The PointThe Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity facility, owned by the Department of Defense, is located on a peninsula in Perquimans County, North Carolina, along the Albemarle Sound, near the city of Hertford, NC. Established in World War II as an operating base for sea planes conducting anti-submarine...
", located in
Hertford, North CarolinaHertford is a town in Perquimans County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,185 at the 2008 census. It is the county seat of Perquimans County. Hertford is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region and is part of the Elizabeth City Micropolitan Statistical Area...
.
Porto Bello, the hunting lodge of Lord Dunmore, last royal governor of Virginia, still stands on the grounds of Camp Peary. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Location
Camp Peary has about 9,275 acres (38 km
2) of land, of which about 8,000 acres (32 km
2) are unimproved or only partially improved. The 100 acre (400,000 m
2) Biglers Millpond occupies the site adjacent to the
York RiverThe York River is a navigable estuary, approximately long, in eastern Virginia in the United States. It ranges in width from at its head to near its mouth on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Its watershed drains an area including portions of 17 counties of the coastal plain of Virginia north...
. It has been closed to the public since 1951, and as of 2007 access still is highly restricted.
While most of Camp Peary is in York County, a small portion of the large military reservation near Skimino Creek at the western edge is actually located in James City County.
World War II, relocations of residents
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, beginning in 1942, the U.S. Navy took over a large area on the north side of the
Virginia PeninsulaThe Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay.Hampton Roads is the common name for the metropolitan area that surrounds the body of water of the same name...
in
York County, VirginiaYork County is a county located on the north side of the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. Situated on the York River and many tributaries, the county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown...
which became known as Camp Peary, initially for use as a
SeabeeSeabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
training base. The
Chesapeake and Ohio RailwayThe Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
(C&O) extended a spur track from its Richmond-Newport News main line tracks to the site from nearby
WilliamsburgWilliamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
and established Magruder Station near the former unincorporated town of
MagruderMagruder was a small unincorporated town in Virginia near Williamsburg in York County. Now extinct, it once had its own church, post office, cemetery, lodge, and homes. Magruder is considered one of the many lost towns of Virginia. The land on which it stood is now part of the US military...
. There is information about life at the Camp and the German PoWs in the Herman Recht papers held by the
College of William and MaryThe College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
, a set of letters written by a clerk at the Camp.
As part of the process of converting the property to a military reservation, all residents of the entire towns of Magruder and
Bigler's MillBigler's Mill was a small town in Virginia near Williamsburg in York County which is now extinct. It is now considered one of the many lost towns of Virginia....
had to vacate. The town of Magruder was a traditionally African-American community established for freedmen after the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. It had been named for
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
General
John B. MagruderJohn Bankhead Magruder was a career military officer who served in the armies of three nations. He was a U.S. Army officer in the Mexican-American War, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and a postbellum general in the Imperial Mexican Army...
. A civil war field hospital had occupied the site of Bigler's Mill near the York River.
Although the graves in the church cemetery were not moved, many of the residents and the local Mount Gilead Baptist Church were relocated to the
GroveGrove is an unincorporated community in the southeastern portion of James City County in the Peninsula subregion of Virginia in the United States. It is located in the center of the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, communities linked by the Colonial Parkway; the area is one of the busiest...
community, located on
U.S. Route 60U.S. Route 60 is an east–west United States highway, running from the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast in Virginia to western Arizona. Despite the final "0" in its number, indicating a transcontinental designation, the 1926 route formerly ended in Springfield, Missouri, at its intersection...
in adjacent
James City CountyJames City County is a county located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. Its population was 67,009 , and it is often associated with Williamsburg, an independent city, and Jamestown which is within the...
a few miles away, where a number of displaced residents from an area near
LackeyLackey was a small unincorporated community near Yorktown in York County, Virginia, United States...
known simply as "the Reservation" had earlier relocated under similar circumstances during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
when what is now the
Naval Weapons Station YorktownNaval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia...
was created.
Seabee training
The first World War II
SeabeeSeabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
recruits were the men who helped build Boulder Dam, America's highways and
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
skyscrapers. At Naval Construction Training Centers and Advanced Base Depots established on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Seabees were taught military discipline and the use of light arms.
At the outset of the War, the preliminary training of the Seabees had been carried out at various Naval Training Stations throughout the country. In Virginia, after completing three weeks of boot training at Camp Allen, and later its successor, Camp Peary, the Seabees were formed into construction battalions or other types of construction units. Soon, however, another mission had been identified for Camp Peary. All preliminary and advanced specialized training for Seabees was changed to be conducted at Camp Allen and Camp Bradford at
Norfolk, VirginiaNorfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, where both were an integral part of the
Naval Operating BaseNaval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
.
German prisoners-of-war
The mission of Camp Peary changed as the War progressed and a new need presented itself to the U.S. Navy. It became a stockade for special German prisoners-of-war (POW's).
The POW's kept at Camp Peary were not just an ordinary sort, but rather, many came from captured German
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
and ship crews which the Germans had thought lost-at-sea with crews presumed dead. It was important for Nazi authorities to be unaware of their capture, since that also meant secret code books thought lost-at sea may also have been compromised. Thus, extra secrecy was necessary.
Many of the former POW's stayed in Virginia and the United States after the War, and became naturalized as U.S. citizens.
Post World War II use
Turned loose by the Navy in 1946, Camp Peary became a
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
state forestry and game reserve for five years. A reservoir which had been built on the upper reaches of
Queen's CreekQueen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States...
to supply the substantial fresh water needs of Camp Peary when it was a Seabee base was divested to the City of Williamsburg. The Waller Mill Reservoir formed the basis for the city's Waller Mill Park, although the park is located north of the city limits in York County. A portion of the abandoned
Chesapeake and Ohio RailwayThe Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
spur from the
Peninsula ExtensionThe Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County...
main line just east of near
Ewell StationEwell was an unincorporated town in James City County west of Williamsburg, in the U.S. state of Virginia.Ewell was named for Benjamin Stoddard Ewell who was a U.S. and Confederate army officer, and civil engineer...
to the base (also built during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
) is now a recreational
rail trailA rail trail is the conversion of a disused railway easement into a multi-use path, typically for walking, cycling and sometimes horse riding. The characteristics of former tracks—flat, long, frequently running through historical areas—are appealing for various development. The term sometimes also...
.
Then, in 1951, the Navy returned to the property, securing the portion north of the highway which was State Route 168 at the time, and announced it closed to the public; it has been that way ever since. In June 1961, two months after the
Bay of Pigs InvasionThe Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
, the Navy announced it was officially opening a new facility at
Harvey PointThe Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity facility, owned by the Department of Defense, is located on a peninsula in Perquimans County, North Carolina, along the Albemarle Sound, near the city of Hertford, NC. Established in World War II as an operating base for sea planes conducting anti-submarine...
base, in
Hertford, North CarolinaHertford is a town in Perquimans County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,185 at the 2008 census. It is the county seat of Perquimans County. Hertford is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region and is part of the Elizabeth City Micropolitan Statistical Area...
. A spokesman said that all four branches of the military would conduct "testing and evaluation of various classified materials and equipment" at the new site. He added that some of the training "now being done at Camp Peary, Va., will be transferred to
Harvey PointThe Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity facility, owned by the Department of Defense, is located on a peninsula in Perquimans County, North Carolina, along the Albemarle Sound, near the city of Hertford, NC. Established in World War II as an operating base for sea planes conducting anti-submarine...
."
Camp Peary and areas near it were the primary setting for a 2007 novel by
David BaldacciDavid Baldacci is a bestselling American novelist.-Biography:Baldacci received a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. As a student, Baldacci wrote short stories in his spare time, and later practiced law for nine years near Washington, D.C....
titled
Simple GeniusSimple Genius is a 2007 crime fiction novel by the American writer, David Baldacci. Topping the New York Times bestseller list as the #1 bestseller for the week ending April 28, 2007, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewed Simple Genius as "simply entertaining." Simple Genius continues the story of...
in which, as Baldacci admits, he took certain liberties with the details of place and specific activities of the area.
The Farm
Camp Peary later became well-known as "The Farm", a training facility for the U.S.
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA), although this has never been formally acknowledged by the U.S. Government. The portion of the original World War II Seabee base which is north of
Interstate 64In the U.S. state of Virginia, Interstate 64 runs east–west through the middle of the state from West Virginia to the Hampton Roads region, a total of . It is notable for crossing the mouth of the harbor of Hampton Roads on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the first bridge-tunnel to...
has remained closed to the public since 1951. However, the roads and many structures of Magruder and Bigler's Mill are apparently still there and many are occupied. An airport with a 5000 feet (1,524 m) runway was added to the facility near the site of Bigler's Mill.
Former CIA agent Bill Wagner attended a three week long interrogation course at The Farm in 1970. He claims that it was the agency's "premier course," and that volunteers played the role of interrogation subjects in order to be guaranteed seats in future classes. Interrogators-in-training practiced techniques such as
sleep deprivationSleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
, deliberately tainted food, and mock executions. According to Wagner, the course was dropped from the CIA training curriculum after the
Watergate scandalThe Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
, due to increased attention being paid to CIA practices.
In 1972, the
Virginia Gazette newspaper of Williamsburg reported that CIA agents were trained as
assassinsTo carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
on base. The CIA replied that it was nonsense. "None of its people," the agency said, "had ever been trained or used as assassins."
External links