The History of Camp Upton (In-Person)

Tim Green, Brookhaven National Laboratory’s cultural resource manager, will speak on the history of Camp Upton from a forested site in the middle of Suffolk County to becoming the 52nd largest city in the U.S. in just a matter of months in 1917. The camp served to train soldiers of the 77th “Liberty” Division as part of the American Expeditionary Force. Between the wars, Camp Upton was dismantled and became the Upton National Forest only to be re-activated in 1940 as an induction camp, then a recovery hospital in 1944. The WWII camp also housed German POWs. The final stage of Camp Upton was its transfer to the Atomic Energy Commission, becoming Brookhaven National Laboratory.