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CM SP16 Online Edition

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ongtime local residents will remember when Fort Ord was a bustling military center where soldiers trained for several major 20th century conflicts. When the post closed in the mid 1990s, it was one of the largest American bases ever to be shut down. Today, this rugged parcel of land between Seaside and Marina accommodates a pair of scenic parks that feel historically rich, surpris- ingly remote and refreshingly close to home. For t Ord began as Camp Gigling in 1917, when the United States established a 15,000-acre training area for cavalry troops and field ar tillery units. Later renamed Camp Ord, after Civil War veteran Edward O.C. Ord, the post was redesignated as For t Ord in 1940. Troops staged and drilled here during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and the 7th Infantry Division occupied the base for decades. More than 1.5 million soldiers passed through For t Ord between 1940 and 1973, includ- ing Clint Eastwood, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia and Leonard Nimoy. Fort Ord covered 28,000 acres by the time it was decommissioned—approximately as much land as the city of San Francisco. It officially closed in 1994, leaving a hole in the local economy and forever changing the Monterey Peninsula landscape. Area leaders and jurisdictions responded by planning hous- ing, retail and educational developments for the for- mer base, among other reuse projects. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) applied for interior land that became Fort Ord National Monument in 2012, while California State Parks debuted the coastal Fort Ord Dunes State Park in 2009. L Photo: Tom Moss C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 6 131

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