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Description

Detailed birdseye view of Camp (later Fort) Lewis, showing roads, barracks, train stations, parade grounds and mountains in the distance.

Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition, is one of the largest military reservations in the United States, consisting of 87,000 acres of prairie land cut from the glacier-flattened Nisqually Plain. Fort Lewis began as Camp Lewis in 1917 when the citizens of Pierce County voted to buy 68,721 acres of land and then donated the land to the federal government for military use. The only stipulation was that the tract be used as a permanent Army post.

Captain David L. Stone and his staff arrived at the camp site May 26,1917, and a few days later the initial construction began. The entire camp was ready for occupancy a month ahead of schedule. In 90 days, Stone had supervised the construction of a "city" of 757 buildings and 422 other structures all lighted and heated for 60,000 men. The first recruits moved into their new barracks on Sept. 5, 1917, two months after the post building plan had been handed to the contractors.

The present view, published the year after the Camp was commissioned, is one of the earliest obtainable views of the Camp.