TIP #533 - ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A TOWN CALLED STITHTON I've never been there yet, I have no idea of the lives of the people who lived and worked there. The hopes, ambitions, the layout of the land - I will never know. According to Robert Rennick in Kentucky Place Names ( (c) 1984, University of Kentucky Press), the little town of Stithton was located in Hardin County KY. In the 19th century it was a trade center, named supposedly for either Thomas Stith, a local resident who had served in the Mexican War, or the family of Milton Stith who had settled there soon after his purchase of 1,000 acres in 1859. The post office there was established in 1859 and in 1874, the Illinois Central Railroad built a station there. A stagecoach stop was located in the area on the old Louisville and Nashville Turnpick. Stithton was located about 12 miles north-northwest of Eliabethtown. However, in 1918, everything changed. Camp Knox - later to be known as Fort Knox was established there and the government acquired the entire town site. Many of the residents of Stithton moved a little ways away only to be forced to move a second time when the military instillation was expanded in 1942. The Stithton name disappeared from the records when the post office was official changed to Camp Knox on May 15, 1925. Fort Knox has 109,000 acres and is garrison of the U S Army; now encompassing parts of Hardin, Meade and Bullitt Counties. It has another distinction; it is where the U S Bullion Depository is located. From the smaller Camp Knox it has grown to tremendous size; originally it was a field artillery training range for Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville. The name Camp Knox came from the first U S Secretary of War, General Henry Knox, who also held the distinction of being the chief of artillery in the Revolutionary War. In 1940 it became the center for training officers and enlisted soldiers; it develops weapons and tactics and establishes doctrine. Camp Knox or Fort Knox was noted during the Civil War. Both Union and Confederate were in abundance nearby. In 1862, the 6th Michigan Infantry built fortifications on the top of Muldraugh Hill, a ride now in the military reservation. General John Hunt Morgan, in 1862, led the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry to a raid in the area and captured Union troops. By 1903, the War Department began considering this area as the location for a permanent military reservation when it established Camp Young as a maneuvers headquarters here. 30,000 artillery, cavalry and infantry troops moved there for large maneuvers over land that is now in Fort Knox. Congress, after World War I allocated $1.6 million dollars to purchase 40,000 acres - the year that Smithton disappeared from the map. A firing and training center was planned, barracks and facilities large enough to house six brigades of artillery; 60,000 personnel. Quartermaster W. H. Radcliffe led the construction. One little note is given in the Kentucky Encyclopedia: "One of the casualties of Camp Knox development as the small agricultural community of Stithton." After WW I, construction stopped and the grounds were not totally occupied. The Field Artillery Central Officers Training School was established there and a few troops coming back from France went her for demobilization. In 1921, artillery activities were transferred to Fort Sill in OK and the 5th Corps remained at Camp Knox. Thousands of troops arrived in the summer from the National Guard, Reserve Officers Training Corps and the Citizens Military Training Camps. In 1925, the Camp Knox National Forest was created and civilian personnel took over the camp. This was abandoned in 1928. Fort Eustis VA moved the Army's mechanized force there; and on January 1, 1932, Congress designated Camp Knox as a permanent garrison and the name was changed to Fort Knox. In 1933, the oldest mounted regiment in the U S Army, the 1st Cavalry Regiment moved to Fort Knox from Marfa, TX. In 1936 it was joined by the 13th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Riley, KS. The cavalry brigade had light tanks, combat cars, mototcycles and became known as the "fastest-moving, hardest-hitting outfit in the US Army" (Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 346). Fort Knox soon developed many of the tactics used by the U S Armored Force in WW II. The 7th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanized) became the 1st Armored Division. The final victory of WW II saw great use of the 1st Armored. By 1940 there were 864 buildings at the Fort, but by 1943, there were 3,820. The Fort now encompasses 14 miles north to south, eighteen miles east to west; and the daily population is 35,000 to 40,000 including civilian personnel. For more information on Fort Knox, you may check: http://www.knox.army.mil/ http://fortknox.maineguide.com/history.html (c) Copyright 24 Mar 2005, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved Colonel Sandi Gorin SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/