Roads & Routes

Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States began to prepare to enter World War II.

When the army decided to build a depot in Seneca County in 1941, dozens of families were given only days to vacate the homes they loved and land they had farmed for generations. The depot provided vital jobs for residents, but it also continued to cause controversy even after it was established--all while providing critical support for the army through the Persian Gulf War. Since the base closed in 2000, the community has grappled with what to do with the property, including protecting the area population of white deer. Join local historians Carolyn Zogg and Walter Gable as they tell the story of the Seneca Army Depot and the lives it has affected.

The mission at Fort Campbell has changed over the past seventy-five years, and the city has grown and adapted to meet new challenges. It was conceived before Pearl Harbor as the Tennessee-Kentucky Armor Camp and has progressed in recent years to meet changing national security needs and the transformation of the U.S. Army. The fort is home to the army's most elite air assault and airborne units. It is also the largest employer in Tennessee and Kentucky and puts $2.6 billion into the local economy each year. Author and post historian John O'Brien details the historic ride that took Fort Campbell from a Giant Bachelor City to a World-Class Army Home.

Join local author Harry Gratwick as he uncovers stories of adventure and bravery from the forts of Maine.

Whether dotting the coastline, guarding the banks of the Kennebec or defending the Canadian border, Maine's many forts have sheltered its towns and people since the seventeenth century. Both Fort Kent and Fort Fairfield were built after the War of 1812 during the Aroostook War, when hostilities raged between Mainers and British Canadians over the region's rich timber stands. Portland Harbor's Fort Preble became embroiled in the Civil War when a Confederate raider tried—and failed—to steal a ship from its waters. In the twentieth century, Maine's preservationists protected many of these citadels, including Fort Knox in Penobscot Bay, the largest and most elaborate of all Maine's forts.

In 1917, Stanford University leased a portion of its land to allow the creation of Camp Fremont, headquartered in present-day Menlo Park. That brought the war into the Bay Area's backyard. Soldiers received a welcome reception, and locals embraced the potential economic opportunities. However, the military presence also revealed the conflict Americans felt over the war. Residents threatened conscientious objectors within their community, while the government mollified fears of the vice that often followed troops in training. Armistice came earlier than expected, and many soldiers trained for combat they never saw. But all contributed to the growth and change that arrived with the modern era. Author Barbara Wilcox tells Camp Fremont's story of adaptability, bravery and extraordinary accomplishment during the Great War.

Harvard honor alumnus Dale Maple had a promising future, but his obsession with Nazi Germany led to his downfall. Classmates often accused him of pro-Nazi sentiments, and one campus organization even expelled him. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, only to be relegated to a unit of soldiers suspected of harboring German sympathies. He helped two German POWs escape imprisonment at Camp Hale and flee to Mexico. The fugitives ran out of gas seventeen miles from the border and managed to cross it on foot, only to be arrested and returned to American authorities. Convicted and sentenced to death for treason, Maple awaited his fate until President Franklin Roosevelt commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Ultimately, he was released in 1950. Paul N. Herbert narrates the engrossing details of this riveting story.