Original Camp Coxcomb Monument Photo by Wesley Johnston - May 12, 2006

Re-dedicated Camp Coxcomb Monument Photo by Wesley Johnston - April 15, 2014 Click on image for full size

Re-dedicated Camp Coxcomb Monument Photo by Wesley Johnston - April 15, 2014

• Map of locations of all of the camps of the Desert Training Center (PDF File on BLM site)
• Bureau of Land Management 2-page pamphlet on the Desert Training Center - includes excellent modern map for visiting any of the camps
• Desert USA site on the Desert Training Center and the Patton Museum
• Let's Go See It site on the Patton Museum

Cautions: This is not territory that most people are familiar with. It is isolated desert, with no one around for 15 miles in any direction. So here are a few cautions about visiting the area.

• Heat
  
  • You: Take plenty of drinking water: My thirst and sweating were such that I drank about a half liter of water each hour. Wear clothing that will protect your skin from the sun: I even wore a towel under my cap to cover the back of my neck. Use sun block on exposed skin. Wear shoes that are appropriate for walking in hot sand.
  • Your Car: Fill you gas tank before heading out into the desert. The nearest gas is 15 miles south at Desert Center, CA, along Interstate 10. Make sure your car is in good working condition, with good tires. Using your air conditioner on the climb can cause your car to overheat; so try to get used to driving without the air conditioner. Stay on solid roads unless you have 4-wheel drive: the last thing you want is to have your car stuck in the sand in a place where cell phones do not work and no one is around for 15 miles and the temperature is 120 in the shade -- except that there is no shade.
  • Here is an account of one of E/48 AIR's (which later became B/23 AIB) experiences on 5 May 1943:
    "Through Texas, Arizona and New Mexico we traveled and landed on the Mohave Desert at Camp Cox Comb, Calif. surrounded by Cox Comb, Palen and Iron Mountain and not the beautiful orange groves and lovely women we had always thought of when the Golden State was mentioned. Our experiences were great but very hard on the desert. I shall never forget the fifteen miles march across Palen Pass that the infantry had to make on May fifth, nor shall I forget how bad, physically, our men looked as they staggered in for food and a drink of water that evening. Some of the men had chewed gum to prevent their mouth from becoming so dry, but even this didn’t keep their mouth moist and the gum had to be pulled out in strings. Several passed out and had to be carried in. These incidents were not a matter of not being a man, but a matter of overtaxing good men’s strength."
    -- by Eugene Jones in "Buzzings of Company 'B'"
• Isolation
  Camp Coxcomb is 15 miles from even the isolated service station at Desert Center, CA. The area does now have cell phone service. But just to be safe, as you drive, keep track of where the call boxes are along the road and keep track of the mileage markers, so that you know where you are at all times and where the nearest call box is.
• Hazards of Nature
  Be careful of snakes and cacti. Watch where you are about to step or are about to place your hand: look before you step, so that you do not expose yourself to a snake bite. Here is an account of one of E/48 AIR's (which later became B/23 AIB) experiences:
  "Those three day problem were killers with cactuses for pillows and side winder rattlers or scorpions for bed fellows ..."
  -- by Eugene Jones in "Buzzings of Company 'B'"

I have to thank the folks at the Patton Museum at Chiriaco Summit. Even with verbal directions, I still had to make two trips out there, since the only thing visible from the road is the monument -- and it is easy to miss that if you are not looking for it.

From the Desert Center exit off of Interstate 10, take California Highway 177 north. There are white markers every mile, numbering from 0 at the Interstate. There are also frequent roadside emergency phones -- keep a watch on these so that you always know where the last one you passed was at, in case you get into trouble.

As you go north on 177, there are telephone poles on the left side of the road. Watch for the place where the telephone poles end, which is just past the 15 mile marker. The telephone poles actually turn left there. Continue on to the 17 mile marker, which is where the Camp Coxcomb monument is on the left (west) side of the road. The monument is at the junction with the sand road that leads west, which was the main road into the camp. (See map below.) Do NOT use that road unless you have 4-wheel drive. It has deep loose sand, and you can easily get stuck there in a 2-wheel drive vehicle.

If you go back to the road that heads west from the 15-mile marker, this road was passable with a 2-wheel drive in May 2006. There are a few sites to the south (left as you drive in) of that dirt road. South of where the road meets the Los Angeles aqueduct, I found two concrete floor slabs of buildings. Further back toward 177 from the aqueduct, there is an undrivable road that goes off to the south (left side as you drive in, right side as you drive out), and if you follow it on foot, you will find what appear to be concrete piers and cables, possibly for some sort of small bridge.

There may be more there. The lady at the Patton Museum (at Chiriaco Summit, CA -- about 35 miles away) told me that where the mountains (the Coxcomb Mountains -- which are part of Joshua Tree National Park) comes close to Hwy 177 there are bunkers, but I did not see those. She also said that there is a chapel still out there somewhere, but I did not find that either.

Camp Coxcomb Layout
You will have to be imaginative to see the layout now, but this map should help.
Click on either version of the map to see the image full size.

The Camp Young monument is much easier to reach from I-10 than is Camp Coxcomb. Take the Cottonwood exit for Mecca and Joshua Tree National Park and head north toward Joshua Tree National Park. Only about a quarter mile north of the freeway, you will see the sign saying that the Camp Young monument is 7/8 mile to the right. The road is dirt and is in washboard shape much of the way to the monument. But you can take your 2-wheel drive vehicle in and out if you drive cautiously. (I try to keep my left wheel on the mound in the center of the road, and I find that this avoids some of the washboard conditions -- but not all. The monument is on your left. Watch your odometer to count the 10ths of a mile. Since you are driving so slowly on the washboard road, you may think you have gone too far, but you probably have not. If you reach 1 mile in though, you have indeed gone too far somehow. The monument is just to the left of the road and very hard to miss. It is about 4 or 5 feet high.

Camp Young apparently included the area where the Patton Museum is now at Chiriaco Summit, CA (named for the Italian family who settled there and who established the museum). Thus there is also a monument outside the Patton Museum, which gives more information about Camp Young and also has a map of all of the camps in the Desert Training center.