Page "Killeen, Texas" Paragraph 3

Until the 1940s Killeen remained a relatively small and isolated farm trade center, but this changed drastically after 1942, when Camp Hood ( re-commissioned as Fort Hood in 1950 ) was created as a military training post to meet the demands of the Second World War.

Laborers, construction workers, contractors, soldiers, and their families moved into the area by the thousands, and Killeen became a military boomtown.

The opening of Camp Hood also radically altered the nature of the local economy, since the sprawling new military post covered almost half of Killeen's farming trade area.

The loss of more than three hundred farms and ranches led to the demise of Killeen's cotton gins and other farm related businesses.

New businesses were started to provide services for the military camp.

Killeen suffered a recession when Camp Hood was all but abandoned after the end of the Second World War, but when Fort Hood was established as a permanent army post in 1950, the city boomed again.

Its population increased from about 1, 300 in 1949 to 7, 045 in 1950, and between 1950 and 1951 about a hundred new commercial buildings were constructed in Killeen.