To understand the 100-year-old roots of Fort Knox, it is important to understand the ideal positioning of Stithton, Kentucky.
So says Dr. Criss Helmkamp, the Fort Knox archaeologist.
The Army established Camp Knox 100 years ago to date. In order to set up the camp for training artillerymen for "the war to end all wars," they had a dilemma. They would have to move civilian families from the little farming town known as Stithton, Kentucky, a town that had been established as early as 1874.
"Stithton Post Office was established in 1874, so we know there was a town there at that time," said Helmkamp. "Named after the Stith family, it was headed up probably by Milton Stith."
A few years after the turn of the 20th century, the Army engaged in a series of mock battles north of Stithton, at West Point, that proved instrumental in Fort Knox's future.
In the battles that involved 13,000 Soldiers, a blue force, notionally from Louisville, was pitted against a brown force, notionally from Nashville, Tennessee. The battles took place at West Point, in a temporary encampment leaders called Camp Young -- named after the Army's first chief of staff and Civil War Union veteran, Samuel Young.
The impact of the maneuvers was felt by Army leaders, who pondered establishing a permanent presence in the area.
Fast-forward nearly 15 years, Maj. Gen. William Snow, appointed the first chief of Field Artillery in February 1918, was looking to create some training centers to train Soldiers for war in Europe.
"His plan at the outbreak of the U.S. entering the war was to have four artillery training centers," said Helm-kamp. "One of those was to be Camp Knox."
The earlier maneuvers had drawn Snow to the area to consider it for a training center, but he had concerns.
"His big fear was flooding," said Helmkamp. "[He believed] if they established a real camp here with permanent structures, they would be flooded out. He was exactly right."
Snow turned his attention to the high ground adjacent to West Point -- the town of Stithton.
"He said, 'That's just what we need,'" Helmkamp explained.
The big draw to the area for Snow, according to Helmkamp, involved the existing railroad and Ohio River for transportation of equipment and personnel, and the central location of Camp Knox to the other camps. Two small artillery camps, one in South Carolina and one in Oklahoma, were already established. Snow wanted to set up two large camps.
"He wanted one near the East Coast for shipping -- getting troops overseas -- well, that became Fort Bragg in North Carolina," said Helmkamp. "And he wanted one centrally located on a railroad. That became Camp Knox."
Helmkamp said the naming for each was in itself unique.
Snow had sent his deputy to identify the location for Bragg and then told his deputy to give both camps their names. His one stipulation: they have to be short.
"'I'm growing tired of writing Camp Zachary Taylor. I want the names short. They've got to be five letters or less and named after a distinguished artillery officer,'" Helmkamp explained about Snow's intentions. So [the deputy] came up with Bragg after Civil War General Braxton Bragg, and Knox after Revolutionary War General and Secretary of War Henry Knox.
"General Snow said, 'Well, Bragg is associated with North Carolina, so we'll name that one Camp Bragg and this one Camp Knox,'" said Helmkamp.
The Army rolled into Stithton in 1918 and purchased the land, establishing Camp Knox Aug. 16, 1918.
"Many of the houses became officers' quarters and much of the land had been cleared for agriculture," said Helmkamp. "They had clear lines of sight. They didn't have to clear forests for artillery ranges."
Many of the civilians who decided to stay in the area had moved by 1918 a couple of miles east, where Wilson Road is today, and established New Stithton.
Helmkamp said Camp Knox quickly grew to permanence and prominence: "It was perfectly suited for artillery."
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