Fort McCoy Commemorative Area brings Army history to life through a variety of artifacts
Walk through Fort McCoy’s Commemorative Area and the history of the Army’s only installation in Wisconsin is not confined to photographs, documents or words on a wall.
It surrounds visitors.
A World War II barracks stands nearby. Bunk beds, footlockers and a potbelly stove help recreate the environment where Soldiers once lived. Outside, a Sherman tank, helicopters, artillery pieces, tactical trucks and engineering equipment represent generations of Army technology. Nearby, five Soldier statues at Veterans Memorial Plaza stand in formation, representing major eras of service.
Inside the Fort McCoy History Center, uniforms, photographs, memorabilia, documents and artifacts tell stories reaching back more than a century.
Together, the buildings, artifacts, equipment and memorials make the Commemorative Area one of Fort McCoy’s most extensive efforts to preserve and interpret its history.
According to the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office, the Commemorative Area’s mission is to collect, identify, preserve, study and interpret artifacts associated with the establishment and history of Fort McCoy. Army historical preservation officials with the U.S. Army Center of Military History identify the Fort McCoy Historical Center as an Army museum activity and describe the Commemorative Area, History Center, Equipment Park and Veterans Memorial Plaza as a connected historical site.
A walk into Fort McCoy’s past
The historic 900 block and approximately 11 acres surrounding it are at the center of Fort McCoy’s history-preservation efforts.
Five World War II-era buildings remain as physical reminders of the enormous cantonment constructed at Camp McCoy beginning in 1942.
Three of the buildings have been arranged to represent their original wartime functions: an administrative facility, a dining facility and a barracks.
Walking into the barracks provides an immediate glimpse of the daily life of Soldiers during the 1940s.
Visitors can see bunk beds, footlockers, mannequins wearing period uniforms, artwork and potbelly stoves. A World War II chapel display also helps illustrate the community and religious life that existed within the wartime cantonment.
Displays are intentionally tangible. Rather than simply explaining that thousands of Soldiers lived at Camp McCoy during World War II, the preserved barracks allow visitors to see the type of room in which those Soldiers lived and the objects that surrounded them.
The dining facility provides another perspective.
Menus, kitchen equipment and other artifacts help demonstrate the logistical effort required to feed the thousands of Soldiers who trained at Camp McCoy.
The administrative building represents yet another part of the wartime installation — the offices and personnel needed to manage an Army training center of enormous size. The two remaining historic buildings expand the story beyond the 1940s. One highlights four different modern military training venues, while another contains a variety of training aids.
According to Fort McCoy Public Affairs documentation, the buildings were preserved as representative examples of the structures found throughout the 1942 cantonment.
History Center: Objects with stories
Nearby, the Fort McCoy History Center takes visitors beyond the buildings themselves. The U.S. Army Center of Military History describes the center's exhibits as covering Fort McCoy's role during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Refugee Resettlement Center operation, Operation Desert Storm and other missions.
The collection includes uniforms, photographs, documents, memorabilia and artifacts associated with Fort McCoy and the people who served here.
Some artifacts are particularly personal.
Among them is a World War I-era gas mask belonging to Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy, the Wisconsin National Guard officer for whom the installation was named. Other artifacts help tell the story of Fort McCoy's changing missions, including objects associated with World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and other periods of military service.
The collection also continues to grow.
Recent donations have added personal connections to the installation's history, demonstrating that military history is not limited to major weapons systems or famous battles. A uniform worn by an individual Soldier, a piece of equipment used in training, a photograph or an item carried home by a veteran can preserve a much more personal story.
For Army historical preservation officials, that is part of the value of maintaining an active historical collection: artifacts provide physical evidence that connects today's visitors with people and events from the past.
Step outside, history gets bigger
Then there is Equipment Park. The outdoor collection began in the mid-1990s with only five pieces of equipment — what Fort McCoy Public Affairs described as “macro-artifacts.” Today, the park has grown to more than 70 pieces of military equipment and remains expandable.
The collection includes tanks, tracked vehicles, artillery, helicopters, tactical trucks, trailers, engineering equipment and other military systems representing different periods of Army history.
The equipment was selected specifically to represent the types of military equipment used at Fort McCoy. That distinction is important. The park isn't simply a collection of interesting old military vehicles. Its purpose is tied directly to Fort McCoy's history.
Visitors can see an M4A3 Sherman tank representing World War II, an M42A1 anti-aircraft system associated with the Korean War era, and later generations of armored vehicles, trucks and Army systems.
Helicopters include an AH-1S Cobra and UH-1H Huey. There are also numerous examples of the equipment that often receives less attention but was essential to military operations: cargo trucks, fuel tankers, water equipment, cranes, bulldozers, graders, recovery vehicles, maintenance equipment and other engineering and logistical systems.
In other words, Equipment Park shows that an Army does not operate with combat vehicles alone.
It takes trucks to move supplies. It takes fuel equipment to keep vehicles operating. It takes engineers to build and maintain roads and facilities. It takes mechanics and recovery crews to keep equipment moving. It takes laundry, water, maintenance and other support systems to sustain Soldiers in the field. The collection makes those parts of military service visible.
Fort McCoy's Public Affairs Office has described the park as one of the most popular stops in the Commemorative Area, particularly for veterans who recognize equipment they once operated or encountered during their careers.
During Fort McCoy's 2026 Armed Forces Day Open House, the Equipment Park was again a major attraction. Nearly 1,000 people attended the event, and Fort McCoy officials reported that at least half of those visitors toured the park.
New pieces continue an old story
The collection isn't frozen in time. In January 2026, two significant artillery pieces from the former Fort Snelling Military Museum Collection — an M7 “Priest” self-propelled gun and an M114 155 mm towed howitzer — were added to Equipment Park. Their arrival illustrates another important aspect of historical preservation at Fort McCoy: the Commemorative Area continues to evolve as appropriate artifacts become available.
The result is a collection that can change while remaining connected to its original purpose — interpreting Fort McCoy's military history.
Veterans Memorial Plaza
At the center of the outdoor historical experience is another kind of artifact: the memorial. Veterans Memorial Plaza contains five Soldier statues representing World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and the Global War on Terrorism. The statues provide recognizable points along a much longer timeline. Fort McCoy was established in 1909. Its history includes more than a century of military training, mobilization, operations and service.
The five figures at the plaza represent major eras, but the memorial's purpose reaches beyond those five conflicts.
It honors the men and women who served during every era of Fort McCoy's history. The plaza was dedicated June 13, 2009, during Fort McCoy's centennial observance. Since then, it has become both a memorial and an active location for ceremonies, commemorations and military events.
For someone walking through the Commemorative Area, the plaza provides a natural place to stop.
After seeing where Soldiers lived, seeing what they ate, viewing their uniforms and personal artifacts, and walking among the equipment they used, visitors encounter representations of the people themselves.
History that people can touch and see
That is ultimately what makes Fort McCoy's Commemorative Area different from simply reading a chronology of the installation. History is present in layers.
A visitor can walk through a World War II barracks and see a bunk bed. They can step into a dining facility and see equipment connected to feeding Soldiers. They can look at a uniform and consider the individual who wore it.
They can examine an artifact connected to Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy. They can walk around a Sherman tank, stand beneath a Huey or Cobra, examine artillery pieces and trucks, and see the machines that supported generations of Soldiers.
They can stand at Veterans Memorial Plaza and see five Soldier figures representing major periods of service. And they can move among all of those places within a relatively compact portion of Fort McCoy.
That physical arrangement is intentional. The Army Center of Military History identifies the History Center as an Army museum activity, while Fort McCoy Public Affairs supports the Commemorative Area as part of the installation's continuing history-preservation and public-outreach efforts.
The result is a place where military history can be experienced at several scales — from a footlocker used by an individual Soldier to a tank weighing many tons; from a photograph documenting an event to an entire preserved World War II building; from a personal uniform to a memorial representing generations of military service.
Preserving the past while training the future
Perhaps the most appropriate part of the Commemorative Area is its location. It exists on an installation that remains an active Army training center. Today's Soldiers continue to train at Fort McCoy while the Commemorative Area preserves the stories of those who trained here decades ago.
The juxtaposition is deliberate and powerful.
Outside the historic buildings, modern military operations continue. Inside them, visitors can see what Soldier life looked like more than 80 years ago. Equipment Park shows the progression of military technology across generations. The History Center preserves the personal and institutional record.
Veterans Memorial Plaza provides a place to remember those who served. Together, they create a historical experience that doesn't simply ask visitors to look backward.
It helps explain why the Army's past remains relevant to the Army operating today. For Fort McCoy, the Commemorative Area is therefore more than an old collection of buildings, vehicles and artifacts.
It is a physical record of the installation's evolution since 1909 — preserved so today's Soldiers, veterans, families, students and community members can walk through it, see it and better understand the generations of service that came before them.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.” The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online athttps://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.” Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
(Article prepared the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)
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