There were POW camps all over the Western United States during World War Two. Locally, at least Douglas Wyoming, Scotsbluff Nebraska and Ft. Robinson Nebraska, had POW camps. Probably more locations around here did, these are just the ones I'm aware of.
Locating POW camps in the West made sense. The vast terrain made escape nearly impossible. Some attempts were made, of course, and a few were successful, but not too many. Douglas in fact had one such escape by German prisoners, who were recaptured after a few days. At the time of their recapture, they asked what state they were now in and were surprised to learn that they hadn't even made it out of Converse County.
My father, who was a teenager in this time period, had a personal recollection regarding this camp. He was going somewhere with his father and the train stopped in Douglas and military policemen came on with a German officer. The MPs told my father and grandfather that the officer was being transported to a hospital, as he was suffering from mental problems. My father recalled that his uniform was very impressive.
Next to nothing remains of the POW camp at Douglas. This is typical for these wartime installations. They were not really well built to start with, and there was not thought at all given to preserving them for any reasons. Today, the Douglas POW camp is down to one building, depicted above. This building was used as an officers club for American officers stationed at the POW camp, and it contains some murals painted by Italian POWs. The "IOOF"" on the building represents its post war use as an Oddfellows lodge.
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