Searching for a WWII POW Camp

Finding Camp Ellis

Nov 6^th, 2010

Always on the lookout for someplace interesting to fly, I came across the website for museum located at Logan County Airport, in Lincoln, IL.  The website stated that the museum is housed in a building from Camp Ellis, which a Google search revealed housed thousands of German and Austrian POWs during the Second World War. However, if you assumed, as I did, that the airport is on the former Camp Ellis, you'd be wrong.   While trying to match up the location of Camp Ellis with Logan County Airport it quickly became apparent that something was amiss.  It turns out Camp Ellis was nowhere near Lincoln, IL; it was situated 60 miles to the North West near Ipava, IL.   When the army closed down Camp Ellis in 1950 the buildings were up for grabs to anyone who could truck them away.  Consequently, buildings from Camp Ellis are scattered around Illinois, while almost nothing remains at the original location.  Fortunately, however, others have researched Camp Ellis, and one individual serendipitously posted the GPS coordinates and a photo of the only surviving building from the original camp.  GPS coordinates you say?  Time for road trip.

 

Logan Country Airport is located just south of Bloomington, IL which is shortly over hour for Clow Airport.   Without at GPS, it would be easy to get there using the Joliet, Pontiac, and Bloomington VORs, but on this trip I was using my Garmin 196 handled GSP and relying on the VORs and sectional chart for backup.  The danger of my GPS failing is all too real, with my batteries often finding their way into Buzz Light-year toys these days.  I also found that the GPS antenna did not like to stick to the Plexiglas in the near-freezing air at altitude, and kept falling off.  In the event, my flight to Logan County was uneventful and relaxing.

Heading to Logan County, a tractor kicking up dust

Logan County airport is a place where you get the feeling that not much has changed since F.D.R. was president.  Airplanes find shelter under Quonset huts, which at night are illuminated by a large, antiquated beacon which Charles Lindbergh would have recognized.  The fact that the museum is in a WWII era building is of little directional value, as just about every structure on the field seems to date from that era.   However, several people were ambling around, and they were able to point me toward the museum building. 

The museum, housed in a former Camp Ellis building.

If it could be said that one man’s museum is another man’s junkyard, it could also be said that the “Heritage in Flight” museum has a pretty nice junkyard.  All of the artifacts are from local donors. The museum building is divided into several rooms, each with a different theme. There are some modern items from operation Iraqi Freedom, but most of the museum space is devoted to the Second World War. There is, however, a room devoted to memorabilia from WWI, the largest of which is a large scimitar shaped aircraft propeller which was found under a local porch.  The museum also has many plastic models donated at various times, often by the widows of those who had built them.   In addition to the museum building, the adjacent hangar also has a large assortment of military items in glass display cases.  

Local papers announcing the End of WWII in Europe

The museum has a surprsingly broad collection of items.

After checking out the exhibits, I topped off the gas tanks and departed runway 21 to go look for the remains of Camp Ellis.  I had entered the GPS coordinates which I had found on the Internet as a waypoint, so getting there was a simple matter of following the GPS.  Right on schedule, the building whose picture I had seen online came into view.  

departing Logan County Airport

The only building remaining from Camp Ellis, which housed 5,000 POWs

I circled the building, took a few pictures, and headed North East back toward Clow Airport. Total flight time for the trip was 2.9 hours.

Ronald Reagan's Boyhood Home - Dixon, Illinois

Cold War and Cold Beer

On August 1st (my birthday) I was fortunate to have a short excursion which combined flying with my interest in history. Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home is located in Dixon, IL just a few miles from the Dixon-Walgreen airport, and it has been on my “places to go” list, since I learned about it – well that and watching “Hot Tub Time Machine” made me nostalgic for the 1980’s. To get the most out of the experience, I reviewed my cold war history by watching “Spies Like Us” and playing several games of “Missile Command.” On this trip, I was also fortunate to have a friend along for the ride, Adam, a fellow newly minted teacher and stay-at-home father.

The weather on Sunday was slightly scuddy. There was widespread fog and an advisory for IFR conditions, but since the museum didn’t open until 1:00pm, we were under no pressure to make an early departure. By noon the ceilings were up to 2800 ft., and visibility was 10 miles or better. I had filed an IFR flight plan, but given the improving weather there was no need to activate it. The flight out there was enjoyable, and since the cloud tops were only at around 3,500 ft. we got on top just for fun.

climbing up over the clouds on the way to Dixon, IL

The landing at Dixon was uneventful and we were able to get a taxi (City Cab) within a few minutes. The airport does have a courtesy car, but it is available only on weekdays. It worked out for the best, since our cab driver was able to swing us down by the newly renovated waterfront where a large statue of Reagan, seated on a horse, has been built. Ironically, the statue is facing the Democratic Party office, so it looks like the former president is about charge off through his opponent’s headquarters. After taking a few photos, we hopped back in the cab which took us to the Ronald Reagan house.

The main hangar at Dixon, a WPA building from the 1930's

The new statue of Reagan - across the street from the Democratic party office

The house adjacent to Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home has been converted into a visitor center which features a gift shop and a small theater. The museum charges a nominal fee which includes a guided tour and a short film. Prior to touring the main attraction, visitors view a short, eight minute film, about the former president. The film talks briefly about Dixon Illinois, provides a history of the Reagan family, and discuses the renovation of the house prior to Ronald Reagan’s visit during his presidency.

the visitor center adjacent to Reagan's boyhood home

Ronald Reagan's boyhood home

After the film, the visitors are walked next door by a guide, where they enter Reagan’s former residence through the front door and proceed upstairs. The house was originally built in the 1890’s so it small by modern standards – though it is palatial in comparison to Herbert Hoover’s boyhood home, which I visited last year. The upstairs consisted of a guest room/sewing room, a bedroom for the two Reagan boys, who shared a bed, and a small bathroom.

Ron and Neil's bedroom - probably a lot tidier now

After seeing the upstairs rooms, the tour move downstairs to see salon, dining room and kitchen. Most of the furnishing are from the period, but not original to the house. When the Reagan family moved from Illinois to California, many items were sold and other put into storage where they were subsequently destroyed by a fire. The recollections of Ronald, and his brother Neil, were used to return the house as closely as possible to its condition during the 1920s.

One surprising aspect of the tour was ironically how little one learns about Ronald Reagan from it. The tour of the house is really only just that – a tour of the house. The experience does not educate the visitor about Reagan’s political career or presidency at all. It neither promotes him as visionary who won the cold war, but neither does it mention any of the negative aspects of his presidency such as the tripling of the national debt, or the Iran Contra Affair. In that sense, it is at least impartial. Though the tour did not provide much of an education on Reagan, our tour guide (a retired teacher) was very knowledge. After our tour had concluded, we stayed around to ask additional questions, and then called city cab for a ride back to the airport.

the flight back in clearer skies

Adam

Our return flight was smooth. Having just completed something “culturally worthwhile” the obvious next course of action was to balance that out by the consuming some of the many fine beers in the Binny’s gift basket my brother had sent my for my birthday, proving that there is not better complement to the study of the cold war, than the study of cold beer.