Secret WWII Communications Camp

Mysterious things were happening in a forested area north of Naperville early in 1942.  Barbed wire fencing was erected around the abandoned Civilian Conservation Corp camp at McDowell Grove, along Raymond Drive, three miles north of downtown Naperville.

Back in 1930, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County bought scenic land along the West Branch of the DuPage River from Alexander McDowell for conservation and recreational purposes.  In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression era federal “alphabet agency” established a camp in the newly established forest preserve to simultaneously improve the park’s recreational amenities and provide employment during hard economic times.  200-300 men were housed in six barracks buildings along the river bank at the east end of McDowell Road.  The camp operated until the late 1930s.

CCC Camp McDowell as it appeared in 1937

As the camp activities were winding down, the dark clouds of war were gathering over Europe, thousands of miles away.  The island nation of Great Britain developed new electronic technology whereby radio waves were reflected off far-away objects (in that case approaching enemy aircraft) to detect location, direction and velocity of the incoming aircraft.  The technology was named Radio Detection and Ranging, or radar for short.   The new radar technology would provide decisive in the island nation’s defense during the 1940 Battle of Britain. The United States military, aware of radar’s importance, collaborated with the British in making radar available in North America.

United States’ sudden entry into World War II as a combatant nation following the December, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor, raised the urgency of implementing the radar technology in the U.S.   To that end, in early 1942, the United States Army Signal Corps commandeered the former McDowell Grove CCC camp, and in twenty-eight days transformed it into a radar training school.  Additional barracks were added, and a nearly four-story building erected to house radar equipment.  The structure reportedly incorporated a false roof and walls that could be closed during the day to conceal the radar apparatus.

Civilian students were recruited from area colleges and universities, Illinois Institute of Technology in particular, and promised draft deferments and or post-graduation enlistments, in exchange for participation in the program.  Once in the program, the new Camp McDowell residents were trained in how to maintain and operate radar systems so they could instruct others in the field.

Though it was plainly evident that some kind of war related military activity was being conducted, the “secret” Camp McDowell existed side-by-side with the fishing and picnicking activities in the remainder of the McDowell Grove Forest Preserve.    Strict secrecy was maintained with regard to exactly what military activity was going on.  The barbed-wire fence protected the perimeter. Cameras were prohibited from the radar school and radar manuals and textbooks never left the radar building, not even to be taken to the students’ barracks.  A trustworthy local resident was recruited to surreptitiously dispose of camp refuse. 

Then in late 1943, the secret became mysteriously secret.   The school requested from the DuPage Forest Preserve district permission to prohibit public use of McDowell Grove in its entirety, stating: “the movement of any individual in the neighborhood of the Camp is liable to put suspicion on the part of the Guards of Camp McDowell; and in order to forestall any incident which may involve misunderstanding, and even shooting...” Further permission was requested “to use the first Island for handgrenade [sic] instruction, obstacle races and military drill.” Clearly something more than radar training was intended.

In 1942, the United States had established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as an independent (of any individual branch of the armed forces) agency, charged with leading the U.S. espionage agents during the war. In fact, at war’s end, the agency would evolve into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  OSS needed a remote (from existing facilities in Virginia) to train personnel to operate radios and in other aspects of espionage like weaponry, demolition work, field craft, and close combat skills. OSS needed operatives who could not only complete daring covert missions but also communicate in the field, including behind enemy lines.  Participants in the program have been acknowledged as prototypes of modern intelligence agents.

OSS absorbed the radar school and designated it cryptically as “Area M,” focusing specifically on communications training.  Notable among the several hundred men trained at Area M were Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans, who were recruited from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit comprised entirely of soldiers of Japanese descent, whose Japanese language skills were valuable in espionage work, and assigned to Camp McDowell to continue their military training.  One recruit recollected that “On December 29, 1943 the group left Camp Shelby [Mississippi] under the cloak of darkness. Traveling by Pullman, we arrived [at] Camp McDowell, Naperville, Ill. on January 3, 1944.”

The transition from radar to clandestine communications school was deliberately obscured.  Despite earlier secrecy measures, existence of the radar school had been pretty well known in the surrounding community.  So as to respect the greater security need of the communications school, residents and employees of the OSS run camp were instructed to say that they simply “worked for the radar school.”

Following the end of World War II combat, Camp McDowell was decommissioned and returned to civilian use.  Once again, the forested banks of the West Branch of the Du Page River became a venue for relaxed boating, fishing, picnics and relaxation.   Less than a decade later, Naperville would again host a vital national defense site. Less than three miles from McDowell Grove, a site was established for launch of Nike missiles.   But that is a story for another day.