Submitted to USGENWEB - By:michael may
at http://camp-livingston.winnfreenet.com/



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Breezy Hill Artillery Range.

The Breezy Hill Artillery Range was operated under the Range Office, Camp Livingston,
Louisiana as an infantry supporting weapons range. It was also used by troops
stationed at Camp Beauregard and Esler Field. The military actively used
approximately 18,650 acres, with most of the range activity concentrated in 15
 areas. The army would bring trainees in for one and two week bivouacs. When the
 training was completed, the soldiers were sent to replacement depots. The site
 was used for artillery, mortar, anti-tank rockets, grenade and small arms training.
 There were mock villages and troop camp areas. The site was also part of the massive
 Louisiana maneuvers of 1940. 

When World War II ended, Breezy Hill Artillery Range was declared surplus and beginning
 in 1946 the fee acres were turned over to the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation
 (FFMC) and offered for sale to the original owners, many of whom did repurchase
 the land. The property not repurchased, was turned over to the Forest Service. 
The remaining 33,981 acres on loan from the Forest Service were returned. 

The majority of the former Breezy Hill Artillery Range is completely re-forested 
and forms a part of the Kisatchie national Forest. The Catahowla National Wildlife
Management Area is also part of the site area. The majority of the human exposure
element consists of Forest rangers and hunters. Two of the areas, areas 3 and 5, are
marked with warning signs that these are no activity areas due to unexploded ordnance.
Three areas are marked as extreme caution areas, no intrusive actions may be performed;
however, timber cutting is allowed. These areas are numbers three, four and six. Area one,
the site of a 1994 discovery of a Mark II grenade, is on private property and not part of
the forest or management area. 

The site is located to the east of the railroad north of Dry Prong.

Observation bunkers can today still be seen in some areas and the feds have this year 05
installed new warning signs about unexploded shells to replace the ones that fell down back
in the 60s. Some signs say Warning some say keep out.

For more info see http://camp-livingston.winnfreenet.com/