Camp Perkins


Camp Perkins was a Massachusetts Army National Guard camp located in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts near the site of the present Cape Cod Airfield.

History

The camp was described in The Barnstable Patriot in 1921 as having water piped in to company streets, electric lights, a telephone system, a wireless system, and equipment to listen into messages from the Eiffel Tower and Tufts College band concerts. The listening equipment could also pick up storm warnings along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The location was described as being on a plateau ninety feet above the chain of Cotuit ponds. It was also described as having 400 horses, which watered in the nearby lake, something which was a daily source of enjoyment for the infantry men. The camp also fired at a range on the nearby Sandy Neck, a barrier beach on the north side of Barnstable. The guns themselves were described as being just north of the New Haven Railroad. Full charges were also used, with both shrapnel and high explosives. The men also visited the nearby village of Osterville in their free time.
As many as 600 men and 400 horses would visit the camp each summer. According to the Boston Globe, the 101st Field Artillery Regiment and 102nd Field Artillery Regiment trained at the Camp in 1922.