Camp Evans
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Camp Evans History 

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In Monmouth County on October 4,1899 Marconi demonstrated to America his Wireless Telegraphy. The Camp Evans story begins in 1912, when the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America decided to build a station in Wall, New Jersey. The U.S. Army Signal Corps helped win W.W.II with radar devices built in Monmouth County, many built right at Camp Evans. From the radar that detected the Japanese planes on their way to attack Pearl Harbor to devices that detonated the atomic bombs over Japan, Monmouth County technology gave this country a decisive edge over the Axis powers. Without a pause, Monmouth's technological advances opened the space age, continued into the Cold War, and led to vast improvements in computers and transistors. Monmouth's history and the technology developed here has improved the lives of every American today.

Thanks to the Marconi Park Complex Advisory Committee for approving InfoAge as an educational re-use of Camp Evans.

December 1, 1999 the State of New Jersey - Historic Preservation review board heard our application to list Camp Evans on the National Registor of Historic Places.  They approved our application and will forward it to the federal level. The link below has the text of that application and selected links to photos and references.  The page represents hundreds of hours of research and work by many volunteers

    Documents covering the entire site history.

NRHP Application Update.  55 acres of Camp Evans is now a state historic district.  Our National Register of Historic Places application was approved by the NJ state historic review board on May 5, 2000.  We are still waiting for the Army Preservation Officer to approve and forward the application to Washington...

Researching a topic relating to Camp Evans?  This page lists primary and secondary sources by year published.  It contants references to books, maps, drawings, newspaper articles etc. that relate to Camp Evans history.

A step in the BRAC process was to determine if the BRAC site had any historical value.  In 1996 Geo-Marine, Inc. prepared under contract the
"EVALUATION OF SELECTED CULTURAL RESOURCES AT FORT MONMOUTH, NEW JERSEY: CONTEXT FOR COLD WAR ERA, REVISION OF HISTORIC PROPERTIES DOCUMENTATION, AND SURVEY OF EVANS AREA AND SECTIONS OF CAMP CHARLES WOOD".  Some title...the short form is 'Cultural Resources Report - 1996'.  Researchers Mary Beth Reed and Mark Swanson of New South Associates did excellent research into the history of  Camp Evans.  We have most of it here on our web site to assist persons researching topics in the history of technology.
 
Overhead shot of Camp Evans Camp Evans...approximately 1970.  Birds eye view of the heart of the historic district. 

Starting at the bottom center you see the roof of the Marconi cottage 9002, as you move up you come to the Marconi hotel roof (9001), the the first 'H'-building (9010/9011), then finally the second 'H'-building (9036/9037).

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    Pre-Marconi Period 1912

    • This link is to excellent work of Mark Swanson, complete with all pre-Marconi land owners.
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    Army Projects at Camp Evans

    • Tracking Pioneer-V from the Diana site
    • Joint Stars
    • Rembass
    • FireFinder
    • Learn how FIREFINDER performed in Desert Storm...keeping the Camp Evans tradition of radar location of enemy fire at Evans until 1997.
    • Camp Evans was the center of a TOP SECRET unit (9677th) which had equipment at Camp Evans and in friendly countries to detect atomic test blasts...we are collecting information to create a page.  We have been told this was the secret project which Senator Joe McCarthy insisted his staff be allowed to see and was refused entrance to building 9400.  They detected the first Chinese test and others.
    • Star Wars - A project called 'Pulse Power' had a unit in an old WWII radar shelter at Camp Evans during President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (aka Star Wars).  Using very high voltage and high amperage pulses of power... we believe they were trying to develop the technology to disrupt Soviet satellites in orbit.  We are not sure, but we are sure the explosions and failures of transformers during testing caused PCB contamination.  The building had to be completely removed including tons of soil.
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Was it a missile silo?  No, it was a turntable......a merry go round for radar scientists.  A $500,000 toy for boys.  Ph.D. required to play

Updated September 7, 2001 - created August 15, 2000  Copyright©  Infoage 1998-2001 InfoAge. All rights reserved.

 

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