- 1944-1945 -
With everyone off fighting WWII on two fronts, you would think that the range was not used. I have been told that this is not true. From 1944 to 1945 a Prisoner of War camp was set up on the Lodi Fair grounds to house German soldiers. I have been told that the guards continued to use the range for practice.
The following is from LodiAgFair.com.
History of the Lodi Fair
During World War II in 1944, the Lodi Fairgrounds served as a German Prisoner of War Camp. Since many Americans left to fight the war, the prisoners were sent to the States to help with the shortage of workers. Some of the first projects the prisoners completed were laying concrete flooring under grandstand, in the Fine Arts Hall (aka the Jr. Exhibit Hall), the agriculture building, office and the chicken building along with some much needed roof repairs. When these projects were completed, the strong fenced-in fairgrounds became home to 250 POWs in 1944 and 233 in 1945 along with the guards. The Lodi Fair Association installed a large steam heating system for cooking and showers. Originally, it was planned to house the prisoners in these buildings, but a tent city was created instead. When canning season started, a group of 160 prisoners were sorted into groups and trucked to work in 9 of the canning factories located in Lodi, Arlington, Waunakee, Poynette, Sauk City, Reedsburg, Baraboo, North Freedom and Pardeeville, as well, as other prisoners worked at local farms during the day and stayed at the camp at night. Even though the prisoners were housed on the grounds, the fair was still held behind the grandstand. The building on the far right is the grandstand, but the large building on the left was the Fine Arts building, which had a catwalk in the peak of the roof. The guards used the catwalk as a look-out tower to keep an eye on the prisoners. Several published stories tell us that there were very few problems with the prisoners rebelling, since they were well fed, treated decently and were taught some of our farming practices. Some local residents of Lodi remember hearing the groups sing as they were marched off to church on Sunday morning. The canners were very happy with their special employees as noted in the Lodi Enterprise. “This POW group was a gang of downright ‘good guys’,” per Captain Thompson and the group left after pea packing season was over. Later, other groups of POW arrived during peak harvest times during the war.
After the war was over, the prisoners had to return to Germany for a set amount of time. The war had taken its toll on their homeland, so some prisoners chose to come back with their families and settled in the area.
