Camp Evans History
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In Monmouth County on October 4,1899 Marconi demonstrated to America his
Wireless Telegraphy. The Camp Evans story begins in 1912, when the Marconi
Wireless Telegraph Company of America decided to build a station in Wall, New
Jersey. The U.S. Army Signal Corps helped win W.W.II with radar devices built in
Monmouth County, many built right at Camp Evans. From the radar that detected
the Japanese planes on their way to attack Pearl Harbor to devices that
detonated the atomic bombs over Japan, Monmouth County technology gave this
country a decisive edge over the Axis powers. Without a pause, Monmouth's
technological advances opened the space age, continued into the Cold War, and
led to vast improvements in computers and transistors. Monmouth's history and
the technology developed here has improved the lives of every American today.
Thanks to the Marconi Park Complex Advisory Committee for approving InfoAge
as an educational re-use of Camp Evans.
December 1, 1999 the State of New Jersey - Historic Preservation review board
heard our application to list Camp Evans on the National Registor of Historic
Places. They approved our application and will forward it to the federal
level. The link below has the text of that application and selected links to
photos and references. The page represents hundreds of hours of research
and work by many volunteers
Documents covering the entire site
history.
NRHP Application Update.
55 acres of Camp Evans is now a state historic district. Our National
Register of Historic Places application was approved by the NJ state historic
review board on May 5, 2000. We are still waiting for the Army
Preservation Officer to approve and forward the application to Washington...
Researching a topic relating to Camp Evans?
This page lists primary and secondary sources by year published. It
contants references to books, maps,
drawings, newspaper articles etc. that relate to Camp Evans history.
A step in the BRAC process was to determine if the BRAC site
had any historical value. In 1996 Geo-Marine, Inc. prepared under contract
the
"EVALUATION OF SELECTED CULTURAL RESOURCES AT FORT
MONMOUTH, NEW JERSEY: CONTEXT FOR COLD WAR ERA, REVISION OF HISTORIC PROPERTIES
DOCUMENTATION, AND SURVEY OF EVANS AREA AND SECTIONS OF CAMP CHARLES WOOD".
Some title...the short form is 'Cultural
Resources Report - 1996'. Researchers Mary Beth
Reed and Mark Swanson of New South Associates did excellent research into the
history of Camp Evans. We have most of it here on our web site to
assist persons researching topics in the history of technology.
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Camp Evans...approximately 1970. Birds eye view of the heart of
the historic district.
Starting at the bottom center you see the roof of the Marconi cottage
9002, as you move up you come to the Marconi hotel roof (9001), the the
first 'H'-building (9010/9011), then finally the second 'H'-building
(9036/9037).
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Pre-Marconi Period 1912
- This link is to excellent work of Mark
Swanson, complete with all pre-Marconi land owners.
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World War II Radar Laboratory
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Army Research Period 1946 - 1998
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Army Projects at Camp Evans
- Tracking Pioneer-V
from the Diana site
- Joint Stars
- Rembass
- FireFinder
- Learn
how FIREFINDER performed in Desert Storm...keeping the Camp Evans
tradition of radar location of enemy fire at Evans until 1997.
- Camp Evans was the center of a TOP SECRET unit (9677th) which had
equipment at Camp Evans and in friendly countries to detect atomic test
blasts...we are collecting information to create a page. We have
been told this was the secret project which Senator Joe McCarthy insisted
his staff be allowed to see and was refused entrance to building 9400.
They detected the first Chinese test and others.
- Star Wars - A project called 'Pulse Power' had a unit in an old WWII
radar shelter at Camp Evans during President Reagan's Strategic Defense
Initiative (aka Star Wars). Using very high voltage and high
amperage pulses of power... we believe they were trying to develop the
technology to disrupt Soviet satellites in orbit. We are not sure,
but we are sure the explosions and failures of transformers during testing
caused PCB contamination. The building had to be completely removed
including tons of soil.
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Was it a missile silo?
No, it was a turntable......a merry go round for radar scientists. A
$500,000 toy for boys. Ph.D. required to play
Updated September 7, 2001 - created August
15, 2000 Copyright© Infoage
1998-2001 InfoAge.
All rights reserved.
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