Visit the Real Camp Swampy from Beetle Bailey in Neosho, Missouri

In the far southwest corner of Missouri, the small town of Neosho is best known as the home of Camp Crowder, the real life prototype for Mort Walker's immortal Campy Swampy, home of Sarge and Beetle Bailey. This small, quiet town in the Missouri Ozarks is picturesque and has long been dubbed "The Flower Box City" due to the many blooms and blossoms that decorate the town during the summer season.

In the early 1940's, however, former farmland and woods were turned into a large Army post that opened just in time to train troops for World War II. The camp was named Camp Crowder, after Missouri general Enoch Crowder, and opened in one of the wettest, muddiest springs in history. The first troops on site trained in the mud and the new Army camp was soon nicknamed "Camp Swampy", something one of several later famous folk would preserve in his comic strip.

Mort Walker was just one of the famous folks who spent some of their Army time at Camp Crowder (which later became a Fort in the early 1950's). Other famous graduates of Camp Crowder include Rob Reiner, Dick Van Dyke (who once had an episode on his television program set at Camp Crowder), and musician Tillman Franks, manager of the late Johnny Horton along with other country music stars.

After the Fort was closed by the Army around 1960, the former Army Camp soon became the site of a junior college - Crowder College - and an industrial park where most of Neosho's major industries are housed. La-Z-Boy Midwest, Jarden (site of the former Sunbeam small appliance company) and Lohman Manufacturing are just a few of the industries that call the Crowder area home.

Crowder College is one of the most respected junior colleges in the state of Missouri. In the center of the campus that still features Army built buildings is a museum dedicated to Camp Crowder. Admission to the musuem located inside the Elsie Plaster Center is free and contains the largest collection of Camp Crowder memorbilia found anywhere. Other World War II era items are also featured.