Fort D. A. Russell (Marfa, Texas)
Marfa · Texas · World War II
History & Significance
Fort D. A. Russell began in 1911 as Camp Albert, a base for cavalry and air reconnaissance units sent to protect West Texas from Mexican bandits after the Pancho Villa raid. Signal Corps biplanes patrolled the Rio Grande during the crisis.
By the 1920s the installation became the last large cavalry post built in the United States, whose presence made Marfa into an army town with nearly half a million military dollars flowing into the local economy. The fort was named for David Allen Russell, a Civil War general killed at the Battle of Opequon on September 19, 1864.
Closed as an economy measure on January 2, 1933, during the Great Depression, the fort reopened two years later in 1935. During World War II, the post expanded and served as an air base, training facility for chemical mortar battalions, and home to pilot-training at the nearby Marfa Army Airfield.
In February 1943 a prisoner-of-war camp opened that interned approximately 200 German POWs, most veterans of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. German prisoners Hans Jürgen Press and Robert Humpel completed iconic POW murals in Building 98 in 1945.
The fort closed on October 23, 1946, and was transferred to the Corps of Engineers, with the Texas National Guard assuming control shortly afterward. The International Woman's Foundation placed the fort on the National Register of Historic Places and operated an artist-in-residency program and base museum since 2002.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Historic WWII military compound with German POW murals in Building 98
- Chinati Foundation contemporary art museum housed in original fort buildings
- Preserved cavalry and air reconnaissance facilities from 1911 onwards
- West Texas desert landscape and remote frontier fort setting
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_D._A._Russell_(Texas)
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fort-d-a-russell
- https://chinati.org/related_reading/lonn-taylor-fort-d-a-russell-marfa/
- https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FV25
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=56185
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/building-98-pow-murals