Camp Peary

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Camp Peary ( colloquially The Farm ) is a military restricted area of the US Department of Defense for experimental purposes. It is located in York County , Virginia at 37 ° 20 '0 "  N , 76 ° 40' 0"  W coordinates: 37 ° 20 '0 "  N , 76 ° 40' 0"  W . The area comprises 9,275 acres (38 km²), of which almost 8,000 are not built on. Bigler's Millpond is 400,000 square meters and borders the York River .

history

During the Second World War , the US Navy took over large parts of the area for training purposes for their Seabees unit , and as a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers. When the facility was demarcated, all residents of Magruder and Bigler's Mill were relocated. Magruder was named after the Confederate General John B. Magruder , and life in Bigler's Mill was determined by the local military hospital during the Civil War .

In 1946, the Navy left the site and turned the landscaping to the Virginia Forestry Department . In 1951 the navy returned and declared the site closed to the public. This continues to this day.

It is certain that the CIA will use the site for training, even if no US government has so far confirmed this. A 1,750 meter long runway was built near Bigler's Mill in 1972 . In the same year, the Virginia Gazette from nearby Williamsburg reported that the CIA was training assassins on the premises, which the CIA vehemently denied:

"None of our people had ever been trained or used as assassins"

to German :

"Nobody from our staff has ever been trained or used as an assassin."

Through reports like these, which nourished the idea of ​​“breeding” secret service personnel, the name The Farm came into circulation in German: “Plantage” or “Zuchtbetrieb” for the site.

Many of the streets and facilities of Magruder and Bigler's Mill appear to have been preserved. Lord Dunmore's forester's house has also survived. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places , a nationwide file of conservation and landmark properties.

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