We stopped in a small campground behind a Subway in a commercial district of Salina Creek Utah, this is the outskirts of Salina Utah which extends about 4 block North, South, East and West of the intersection of US 50 and 89. Using our internet resources we determined that unless we were into offroading in a quad or fishing there was not much to do. The campground itself offers next to nothing other than good water pressure and a sewer connection as well as 50 amp electrical service. This was all we wanted as our next stop will be 5 days with no water or sewer (dry camping) and it is nice to have laundry done and tanks empty and full as appropriate for the stay. We will visit with Simonne and Steve while in Grand Junction . We are staying at the local Elks Lodge.
With nothing particular to do after finishing the laundry and cleaning we decided to take a tour. Main St reached an end at the edge of town – four blocks East of the intersection. There, after noting the rodeo stands and atv track we saw this sign
We are familiar with Civilian Conservation Corp sites and have stayed at a couple that are now active campgrounds. We decided to explore further and found
The white notice on the door has a phone number to call for a tour, instead I resorted to the internet and found https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/53 and https://w.indows atlasobscura.com/places/ccc-pow-camp
So here we have a CCC site and a POW site and a mass murder all in one place. In brief July 8 1945 a guard who had a lengthy discipline history decided to kill some Germans, he did, 9 in all and 20 injured. Note the date, the war was over. The following pictures were taken through windows that have not seen any cleaning in some time and the sun is over my shoulder to prevent photography, however:
This is the camp layout and below is a WWII Jeep.
We did return when the museum was scheduled to be open but nobody showed and we went on our way.
Wow, I never heard of this Paul. Great find and a terrible story. Someone has made a very extensive Wikipedia article on the massacre here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_prisoner_of_war_massacre