Camp Evans Historic District | |
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| Nearest city | Belmar, New Jersey |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°11′20″N74°3′53″W / 40.18889°N 74.06472°W /40.18889; -74.06472 |
| Area | 55 acres (22 ha) |
| Built | 1912–1914 |
| NRHP reference No. | 02000274[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 26, 2002 |
| Designated NHLD | October 16, 2012 |
Camp Evans Historic District is an area of the Camp EvansFormerly Used Defense Site inWall Township, New Jersey. The site of the military installation (40°11′08″N074°03′45″W / 40.18556°N 74.06250°W /40.18556; -74.06250[4]) is noted for a 1941 transatlantic radio receiver and variousWorld War II/Cold War laboratories of theUnited States Army (e.g., signal, vacuum tube,dosimetry, & photo-optics). It was designated aNational Historic Landmark District in 2012, in recognition of the site's long role in the development of modern civilian and military electronic communications.[5]
The Belmar Receiving Station was established nearthe Belmar community together with a separate transatlantic transmitting facility atNew Brunswick, New Jersey, by theMarconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (American Marconi).[6] The Belmar station included a mile-long bronze-wire receiving antenna strung on six 400 foot tall masts with three 150 foot balancing towers along theShark River. OutgoingMorse-code messages were sent via a telegraph land-line from the Belmar Station to the transmitter. The receiving site also had a telegraph land-line to a New York office.[7]
Original buildings on the campus[8] (40°11′09″N74°03′34″W / 40.1859°N 74.0594°W /40.1859; -74.0594[citation needed]) were built by the J.G. White Engineering Corp. between 1912 and 1914. This was part of theGuglielmo Marconi's wireless girdle[9] around the Earth. In one of the buildings being constructed for the Belmar station, theregenerative circuit was demonstrated on January 31/February 1, 1914.
In April 1917, the Belmar station was acquired as part of the Navy'sWorld War I Trans-Atlantic Communication System and after the November1918 Armistice with Germany, American Marconi regained the Belmar station,[10] whichRadio Corporation of America owned from October 1919 until 1924.[11] In 1924, the site was returned to Radio Corporation of America (RCA) ownership.[12]
RCA sold the site to the Monmouth County Pleasure Seekers Club which was closely tied toArthur H. Bell and theKu Klux Klan. They owned the site from 1925 to 1935.[13]
The Young People's Association for the Propagation of the Gospel purchased the Belmar station in 1936,[14] andThe King's College opened in September 1938 — when it was deniedaccreditation it relocated (currently it is in theEmpire State Building).
The Signal Corps Radar Laboratory (SCRL) ofFort Hancock[15] (formerly "Field Laboratory No. 3")[16] in the late 1930s used a field set-up at the Belmar station to compare US radars with theBritish CH-CHL Radars[17] (additional testing of hardware was often done at the nearbyTwin Lights radar station,[18] such as a trial radar network in 1939).
In 1941 the Belmar radio site was renamed the Evans Signal Laboratory[19] after Wall Township purchased the original Marconi buildings and the surrounding 93 acres for the Army to move theSCRL.[15] Initial construction of Camp Evans Historic District quickly built more than two dozen buildings and structures on the open land to the south and west of the Marconi buildings,[5] including 2 boiler houses, 4 long rectangular one-story buildings, and two groups of radio antenna shelters.[2] Two models of theSCR-271 radar were located near the intersection of Monmouth Boulevard and Watson Road (the model D had a sign for the SCRL Installation and Maintenance School).[20]
Camp Evans was designated byWar Department General Order, 17 February 1942;[16] the Camp Evans Signal Laboratory was named on March 31, 1942[21] (the date of the camp's dedication);[16] and in December 1942, the War Department directed the Signal Corps General Development Laboratories and the Camp Evans Signal Lab to combine into the Signal Corps Ground Service (SCGS) with headquarters atBradley Beach, New Jersey (Hotel Grossman).[citation needed] The Camp Evans lab used VT-158 tube(s), developed byHarold A. Zahl, to adaptSCR-268s for picket ships,[18] modified the SCR-268 into the SCR-602 which detected Japanesekamikazes[22] (producing 12 renumbered AN/TPQ-3 developmental models)[23] and on theSCR-584 tracking radar, did preliminary testing in December 1941 and addedidentification friend or foe.[5] The lab also improved components (e.g. for the proximity fuse) and establisheda special unit which tested[where?] captured German and Japanese radars.[24][verification needed] The laboratory was also responsible for Army radar development by civilian companies (e.g.,GE AN/CPS-1 early warning radar,Rad Lab AN/CPS-4 height finder,Bendix AN/GPN-2 & LE AN/GPN-6 search sets, and Bendix AN/CPN-18 secondary surveillance radar).[5]
By August 1943, Lt Col Paul E. Watson was the director of the Camp Evans Signal Laboratory.[25] In addition to the Signal lab, Camp Evans had the Joint Army-Navy Tube Standardization (JANS) Laboratory and in May 1945, the Signal Corps Ground Services was reformed into the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories.[5] Initial experimentation with an enemy mortar and artillery locating radar was conducted at Camp Evans in 1944.[2] By the end of the war Camp Evans had approximately 134 buildings and structures on approximately 217 acres[5] including the Meteorological Branch of the Army Signal Corps[26] (cf. theMeteorological Branch at McCook Field).[27]
The facility was the initial point of contact for many top German scientists after WWII. These includedWernher von Braun andErich Traub as part ofOperation Paperclip.[28] Camp Evans' black engineers contributed[specify] to electronic research, development, product distribution and training.[29] For instance,Dr. Walter McAfee atFort Monmouth[30] first calculated the speed of the moon duringProject Diana[31] (it took 40 minutes to travel 15 deg, the width of the fixed radar beam rotating with the Earth).[32]
After the World War IIPeenemündeV-2s tracked by the giantWürzburg radar hadreached space and their telemetry had been received (e.g., at burnout); during moonrise on January 10, 1946,Project Diana transmittedVHF radar pulses through the ionosphere to the moon and detected the reflection[33][34][35] using a modified version of an experimental SCR-271[36] at the right of center Camp Evans.[37] By August 1951, the Evans Signal Laboratory had a Meteorological Branch[38] in Bldg. 39.[39]
The 1952 Army Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory was established in building 9401 which had an underground vault, aVan de Graaff machine, and AN/UDM-1Acaesium-137 and AN/UDM-1cobalt-60 calibration sources and a 130,000 Curie Cobalt-60 pool irradiator for radiac development. The building had one and a half foot walls to protect contain the radiation during experiments.[40] After a visit on October 20, 1953.McCarthyism claimed that Camp Evans was a "house of spies", but none of the camp's employees whichSenator McCarthy investigated in 1953 and 1954 were ever prosecuted.[citation needed] In 1957, replacement equipment, on the frame of a captured German Wertzburg [sic] Reise radar, erected at the Project Diana site helped trackthe Soviet Union's Sputnik[5] (cf. theDeal Test Site inOcean Township that moved to Evans in 1973).[2]
Camp Evans became part of theSignal Radio Propagation Agency and developed aradar weather set[41] The Evans laboratory transferred from the SCGS to the U. S. Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories (SCEL), which in April 1958 was renamed theU. S. Army Signal Corps Research and Development Laboratory.[42]The Project Diana site[43] with building 9162 was used for theNASATIROS-1 satellite's downlink antenna (60-foot dish shaped antenna, Space Sentry)[43] on April 1, 1960, for the first photograph[dubious –discuss] from space[5] (the ground terminal [was] atFort Monmouth[43] in the laboratory receiving area).[41]Radiation Incorporated's AN/TLM-18 Space Sentry[44] at Camp Evans was used forminitrack.[45] The Army Photo-optics Laboratory opened at Camp Evans in 1963. MostDeal Test Site facilities and personnel moved to Camp Evans due to the Deal site lease terminating on June 30, 1973.[2]
The1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission at theend of the Cold War designated Camp Evans for closure (e.g., the Army Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory closed in 1999)[46] Evans units moved to Fort Monmouth's Main Post (Project 42682),[2] and Camp Evans land transferred to theNational Park Service.[citation needed]
A section of the former camp is home to the Brookdale Campus at Wall, a branch of theBrookdale Community College.[47]
A district of Camp Evans was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 2002, and camp areas became part of theSave America's Treasures project[48] (2005 funds were donated to restore the AN/TLM-18).[44] In 2011,Institute for Exploratory Research began in the basement at the InfoAge Science Center.
 | It has been suggested that this section besplit out into another article titledInfoAge - Infoage Science & History Center. (Discuss)(May 2022) |
InfoAge Science & History Museums (InfoAge) was established in some of the historic district buildings .[3] InfoAge is a member of theAssociation of Science-Technology Centers and was part of theNASA Digital Learning NetworkArchived May 12, 2022, at theWayback Machine. Its focus is science and the scientific and military history of Camp Evans.
Exhibits and participating organizations include theVintage Computing Federation, TheMilitary Technology Museum of New Jersey, electronic warfare, a Cold War-era fallout shelter, vintage radio, the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame and Museum,The Computer Deconstruction Laboratory, theNew Jersey Shipwreck Museum., and theMonmouth County Fire Museum.
TheInfoAge Space Exploration Center (ISEC) provides adult and youth programs that range from lectures, activities, to week-long summer programs. ISEC exhibits include the operational AN/TLM-18 antenna system, satellite models, and Apollo guidance computer.[49]
| External images | |
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 Camp map with numbered buildings | |
| "Diana Radar" sign | |
 Diana & AN/TLM-18 antennas (min. 19:30 & 19:50) |
Establishment of a Summer resort for the Ku Klux Klan on the Shark River at New Bedford is being fostered by officials of the New Jersey Realm of the Klan. ... Only members of the Klan or affiliated organizations are admitted to the 396-acre (1.60 km2) reservation, which until a year ago was owned by the Radio Corporation of America and was known as the Marconi Radio Station. The property was purchased by the Monmouth Pleasure Club, a holding company of Klansmen, and is now State headquarters of the organization. ...
By mid August, an experimental model of the SCR-270 was assembled at Twin Lights... [Westinghouse] delivered 112 sets prior to Pearl Harbor day. [An SCR-271] put into operation atFort Sherman in June, became the first radar in the American defense system... There were six mobile stations spotted around the perimeter of Oahu in early December 1941. ... During late 1941 and 1942, a network of approximately 25 SCR-270's was installed along thePacific Coast, with a few in Mexico and Canada
In February 1931 Major General William R. Blair began Project 88 for the detection of enemy aircraft by noise, intrared waves and radio waves. In December 1936 Signal Corps engineers field tested their first radar equipment atthe airport in Newark, New Jersey. On May 18, 1937, the futureSCR-268, was demonstrated to Brig. Gen.Henry H. Arnold at Fort Monmouth. from pg 232-233 Getting the Message Through, A Branch History of the U.S. Army Signal Corps by Raines, Rebecca., Center of Military History United States Army, Washington D.C., 1996
Evans Bldg. 36/37. There radars would be assembled in Bldg 37 and installed in trailers with antennas 2- to 30 ft. long (known as Bedspring Radars). ... He then was assigned to Bldg. 39, Meteorological Branch. His work there included storm detection. During late 1942, early 1943, the first weather station was built to service Ft. Monmouth and surrounding area. His group built infrared sensors, did research on solid state materials, testedballoons andradiosonde.
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