THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



465 



their debouching streets with liquid Cas- 

 tilian names, make o.ne think of Monterey 

 and Chihuahua, which were, before the 

 passing of the Diaz regime, about as 

 much American as San Antonio is Span- 

 ish. 



The city was born of the fierce rivalry 

 between France and Spain for the pos- 

 session of the rolling prairies of Texas. 

 Both sent expeditions of exploration to 

 this region. The Spaniards established 

 missions and held the territory. 



When Texas revolted against Santa 

 Anna, in 1835, the city was taken by the 

 Texans, whose garrison included Wil- 

 liam B. Travis and "Davy" Crockett. 

 The city fell and Travis and his com- 

 mand, numbering 179, fortified them- 

 selves in the Alamo, with their rifles and 

 14 cannons. The siege lasted 10 days, 

 with 6,000 troops against the devoted 179. 

 When the place was finally captured 

 every defender left alive was butchered, 

 but they had accounted for a casualty list 

 of 1,600 among the Mexicans. In 1842 

 the Spaniards took the city a second time 

 and marched off its most prominent citi- 

 zens to dungeons in Perote Castle, State 

 of Vera Cruz. A few days later it was 

 retaken by Hays and Caldwell, never to 

 fall into Mexican hands again. 



Col. William B. Travis, for whom Camp 

 Travis is named, was born in Edgefield 

 County, South Carolina, in 181 1. He 

 studied law, moved to Alabama, then to 

 Texas. He became a colonel in the Texas 

 army in 1832, was captured by the Mexi- 

 cans, and released. How gallantly Colo- 

 nel Travis, at the age of 25 years, con- 

 ducted his defense of the Alamo is a story 

 which has fired the imagination of Amer- 

 ican school boys for three-quarters of a 

 century. 



CAMP LEWIS 



The biggest cantonment, both in ca- 

 pacity and in the number of States whose 

 troops it will house, is Camp Lewis, 173^ 

 miles south of Tacoma, Washington, at 

 Dupont, on the Northern Pacific Rail- 

 way, and on the splendid Pacific highway. 

 Tt has quarters for 47,650 officers and 

 men and stables for 15,000 horses. It 

 will be the training school of all the Na- 

 tional Army forces drawn from the eight 



States of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, 

 Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, 

 and Utah. 



This site has long been regarded as the 

 finest military training ground west of 

 the Rocky Mountains. It has more en- 

 tirely clouded days than any other can- 

 tonment site, yet it enjoys the most equa- 

 ble climate of the 16. Even Camp Travis, 

 in a latitude 1,200 miles farther south, 

 sometimes shows a winter thermometer 

 only 4 degrees above zero, while the low 

 mercury mark for Camp Lewis is 9 de- 

 grees above. The warm winds of the 

 Japan current make the climate of this 

 region so equable that Washington has 

 been given the sobriquet of the Evergreen 

 State. 



Within a few miles of the camp site 

 every kind of obstacle that nature op- 

 poses to soldiers may be found. The low 

 ranges of the Cascades are hard by ; Mt. 

 Rainier is not far away. The soldiers, 

 therefore, may practice on any kind of 

 terrain, from Alpine heights to level sa- 

 vannas. 



Camp Lewis is situated in the great 

 Puget Sound Basin, between the coast 

 and Cascade ranges of mountains. In its 

 highest parts this basin scarcely rises 

 more than 500 feet above sea-level, and 

 for more than half of its length is pene- 

 trated by the southern arms of Puget 

 Sound — a body of water which forms 

 one of the finest systems of harbors in 

 the world. 



Camp Lewis was named for Captain 

 Meriwether Lewis, one of the leaders of 

 the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, 

 through which the American people 

 gained their first knowledge of the great 

 Northwest. Lewis was born near Char- 

 lottesville, Va., in 1774. He enlisted in 

 the forces sent to put down the Whiskey 

 Rebellion in 1794, entered the Regular 

 Army as a lieutenant in 1795, became a 

 captain in 1797, and Thomas Jefferson's 

 private secretary in 1801. 



While President, Jefferson sent a con- 

 fidential message to Congress asking an 

 appropriation for an expedition to plant 

 the American flag on the territory from 

 the Mississippi to Puget Sound. After 

 the appropriation was in hand he ap- 

 pointed Captain Lewis and Captain Clark 



