For many of us who love exploring Camp Michaux, it is a marriage of insatiable curiosity with a rich and deserving history. to those who seek with tenacity and have a bit of luck on their side, Camp Michaux slowly reveals its secrets. Each time I return, I’m filled with child-like anticipation and hope.
I have never forgotten my first solitary walk through Camp Michaux. The sun was setting and visitors had gone. I explored in silence, hearing only a gentle breeze create an eerie creaking in the trees that made me strain my ear as if listening for voices of the past.
The photographs in the collection at the Cumberland County Historical Society (CCHS) that document the history of the Pine Grove Furnace Prisoner of War Camp at Camp Michaux during the Second World War come from several sources. The primary source is from a collection originally owned by Major Laurence Thomas, the camp’s commander that were taken by the Army Signal Corp. This collection contains pictures of German and Japanese POWs, usually working around the camp or in candid poses and photos of the camp during various seasons of the year.