THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



459 



hours' ride is Mammoth Cave, the world's 

 greatest caverns, which served America 

 in her first war for liberty as the mines 

 of Minnesota are serving her now, fur- 

 nishing the saltpeter then unobtainable 

 elsewhere, even as Minnesota furnishes 

 the iron ore today. 



Camp Taylor was named for Zachary 

 Taylor, twelfth President of the United 

 States and hero of Buena Vista, where 

 he won a notable victory over Santa 

 Anna, the Mexican leader, in 1847. 



CAMP CUSTER 



Situated in the environs of Battle 

 Creek, famous for its breakfast foods 

 and rest cures, Camp Custer, which is 

 given over to the National Army forces 

 from Michigan and eastern Wisconsin, is 

 the smallest of the 16 cantonments. The 

 Kalamazoo River runs past the camp site, 

 and the barracks are ranged along the 

 crest of a hill, shaped like a boomerang. 

 At the end of the parade ground there 

 is a beautiful flower garden, planted by 

 the ladies of Battle Creek. 



Although the camp is the smallest of 

 the cantonments, it is a sizable place. 

 Eleven hundred buildings, a half-million- 

 dollar hospital, 20 miles of sewerage, 16 

 miles of water pipe, 8 artesian wells, 

 with a combined flow of 4,000 gallons a 

 minute, are not mean figures. The hospi- 

 tal, with its 59 buildings, is laid out 

 around Eagle Lake, a beautiful sheet of 

 water. 



Some fifty miles from the shores of 

 Lake Michigan, a hundred miles from 

 Lake Erie, and about forty from the In- 

 diana State line, Battle Creek has an ideal 

 location as a mobilization center. 



Battle Creek was not on the map be- 

 fore 1850, being incorporated as a village 

 in that year; but as a junction point of 

 the main lines of the Grand Trunk and 

 the Michigan Central railroads, it soon 

 began to flourish. 



Camp Custer was named for General 

 George A. Custer, who was killed in a 

 battle with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, 

 June 25, 1876. 



CAMP GRANT 



Located about five miles south of Rock- 

 ford, 111., to the east of Rock River, and 

 connected with that city by a magnificent 



concrete highway, Camp Grant, which is 

 the training quarters for the men who 

 will constitute the divisions to be drawn 

 from northern Illinois and all except the 

 Lake Michigan shore counties of Wiscon- 

 sin, is one of the most northerly of the 

 16 cantonments. It has more sunny days 

 than any other of the 16 cantonments, 

 with 274 cloudless or only partially cloudy 

 ones annually. 



Camp Grant is bounded on the west by 

 the Rock River, and fronts the north 

 bank of the beautiful little Kishwaukee 

 River for a distance of half a mile. Rock- 

 ford, with a population of 60,000, was so 

 enthusiastic about having a cantonment 

 near it that a fund of $100,000 was raised 

 to improve conditions there. The Cham- 

 ber of Commerce built some 400 resi- 

 dences on a tract outside of the canton- 

 ment to be used as homes for the officers. 

 No city has shown a heartier hospitality 

 to the new National Army forces than 

 Rockford. 



This cantonment was laid out with an 

 eye to preserving the natural beauty of 

 the site. A magnificent fringe of trees 

 stretches along the banks of Rock River 

 and has been preserved for park pur- 

 poses. Some rare old farm houses have 

 been utilized as officers' quarters. 



A circle drawn around the camp at a 

 distance of 80 miles will pass through 

 Chicago and Milwaukee, cross the Mis- 

 sissippi at Dubuque and embrace an area 

 in Iowa within the Big Bend of that river 

 between Dubuque and Davenport. This 

 territory embraces magnificent farming 

 land and the great dairy region of which 

 Elgin is the center and from which an- 

 nually come hundreds of millions of 

 pounds of golden butter. 



Of course, everybody knows for whom 

 this camp was named — Gen. Ulysses S. 

 Grant, chief military hero of the North- 

 ern armies in the Civil War and after- 

 ward President of the United States. 



CAMP PIKE 



Camp Pike, situated eight miles north- 

 west of Little Rock, Ark., houses the 

 National Army forces drawn from Ar- 

 kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and west- 

 ern Alabama. Here an up-to-date mili- 

 tary city of 42,000 capacity had virtually 



