Camp Wellfleet

Camp Wellfleet is a former United States military training camp. It occupies about 1738 acre of land located along the Atlantic Ocean in the Town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The 548th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion (75mm Gun) used the Camp for a firing range from 1954-1956. The majority of the site (1,688.8 acres) is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, as the administrator of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The Town of Wellfleet owns a portion (49.2 acres) of the site. It was officially opened on March 19, 1943.

Military Use
For almost 19 years, the former Camp Wellfleet property was used by the U.S. Government for military training purposes. The United States Army also conducted several surface removal clearances prior to property transfer. The property was used by the Army as an anti-aircraft training center from 1942 to 1944. In 1944, the United States Navy obtained a permit to use a portion of the property as a temporary bomb target. The Navy returned the site to the Army in 1947, and after World War II it was used as a training center for guardsmen and reservists.

National Park Usage
In 1961, the site was declared excess and conveyed to the United States Department of the Interior by President John F. Kennedy to establish the Cape Cod National Seashore. The periodic discovery of ordnance in beach areas heavily used by the general public, coupled with the potentially large volume of ordnance suspected to be at the site, resulted in the Corps’ initiation of an Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) at the site.

In the 40 years since the military used the property, various ordnance items, including anti-aircraft projectiles, bazooka rounds, smoke grenades, and small arms ammunition have been recovered. The majority of this was found along the beach and dune areas due to wave action and erosion.

Site Today
It is not uncommon to find bazooka and anti-aircraft rounds on the beach today. Recently, a helicopter was flown overhead to find ammunition and duds that might someday turn up.