Camp Wikoff | East Hampton Town, NY
There is an I in the first mention of Camp Wikiff. The first visit by a sitting President to East Hampton was when William Mckinley visited the camp. Theodore Roosevelt’s participation in the Spanish-American War and his presence at Camp Wikoff was instrumental in his road to political prominence.
Camp Wikoff is one of the more famous camps of the Spanish American War. Many military units spent their last days as an organization at the New York Camp. The government had realized that with the outbreak of disease in Cuba and Puerto Rico, the returning soldiers could not be immediately sent back to their homes, since the communicable diseases they may carry – yellow fever, malaria, etc. – may be carried home with them. The idea was started to create an isolated camp where the men could first be cleared of disease before being released. Named for Col. Charles Wilkoff od the 22nd U.S. Infantry who was killed in the San Juan Heights assaults, Camp Wikoff was constructed on five thousand acres of land that was owned by the Long Island Railroad Company.
The camp was originally placed under the command of Brig. Gen. Samuel B. M. Young. Young set about having wells dug, adding four and a half miles of rail sidings, and building warehouses. The camp was to consist of two areas. A smaller area of the camp would be a detention camp for men quarantined from the general population for reasons of disease. The larger portion would be a camp for rest and recovery for men simply weakened by the rough service and poor diet in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
