Camp Iron Mountain

Yesterday Pat, Scott and I went out to explore Camp Iron Mountain, one of the camps in Patton's Desert Training Center. Camp Iron Mountain is along route 62 east of highway 177. Easiest way to get there from the Coachella Valley is to take I-10 east to Desert Center, 177 north to 62. Go east on 62 about 6 miles. You'll see a marker on right side for Camp Granite. Continue along 62 and you'll soon see a marker on the left for Camp Iron Mountain. The marker is alongside the main road into the camp. You'll want to have a high clearance vehicle and watch out for soft sand as you drive. Never drive off the roadway, don't take any souvenirs, don't move any rocks.

Here's a Google satellite view of the camp. The arrow marks the point where the main road intersects the barbed wire fence that surrounds the main part of the camp. Park there and continue uphill on foot and you'll come to the fenced-in remains of the big relief map of the Desert Training Center.

The Colorado River Aqueduct runs on the surface just east of the camp and, at Iron Mountain, is pumped up and into tunnels. The presence of the aqueduct is one of the main reasons Camp Iron Mountain is located there, and why Camps Granite, Rice, Young and Coxcomb are located where they are. We explored an area above the aqueduct where there are remains of an aqueduct construction camp. The advanced level of technology used to construct the aqueduct is impressive. The concrete foundations for the buildings of the construction camp were given nice smooth surfaces and are still in excellent condition, yet the aqueduct pre-dates all of Patton's camps, and pre-dates the entire city of Desert Hot Springs as well.

The complete set of photos is here. These are some of them:

Viewed full size you can see not only Camp Iron Mountain to the left, but the roads of Camp Granite to the right. Camp Granite is across highway 62 and the army made an effort to clean up the site in the 1950s, so little remains. Click here for full size.

On a hill west of Camp Iron Mountain.

A photo I shouldn't have. This is the pumping station for the Colorado River Aqueduct in Iron Mountain. We rolled right into this little town and started talking to a worker there. Turned out we weren't supposed to be there at all, and after a friendly chat the worker advised us to slink out of town using the same route we came in on before security spotted us. If there had been any fence, gate or even sign to discourage us, we would have stopped. But the road was wide open.

The soldiers built a giant relief map of the Desert Training Center and coated it with concrete. It has deteriorated badly and only thin patches of old concrete are visible here and there. This part of the camp is surrounded by this impressive fence. There is no gate, but there are places where you could go under the fence. There are no signs forbidding it, but we did not go in. It's obvious that the remains of the map are very delicate. Here's a close Google view of the relief map.

Rows of rocks marking roads and walkways are the most obvious remains of the camp. At the Patton Museum in Chiriaco Summit there is information that placing rows of rocks and circles of rocks around creosote bushes was a make-work project to make sure soldiers didn't have idle time.

Most of the camp is surrounded by a well built barbed wire fence with frequent pedestrian turnstiles like this one. The goal is to keep all vehicles and horses out of the camp. I'm mystified by the actual placement of this fence, as there are large areas of the camp with obvious artifacts lying OUTside the fence on the southeast, southwest and northwest. The fenced area is 2½ miles by ½ mile.

The two obvious roads are outside the fence on the southeast side of the camp.

This chapel is the tallest structure at the camp and, when the light is right, can be seen from highway 62.