Fresno Fairgrounds/Fresno Assembly Center (site) (Fresno, California)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, fairground, historical layer / disappeared object

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The polygon outline represents the site's historical boundaries when it became a training center for the Army Air Force after 1942.

"The Fresno Assembly Center was located at the Fresno County Fairgrounds. Occupied from May 6 to October 30, 1942, it was the last assembly center to close. It held a total of 5,344 evacuees (with a maximum of 5,120 at a time) from the central San Joaquin Valley and Amador County. Over 100 barracks served by six sets of communal buildings were located within the infield of the fairgrounds racetrack, and four contiguous blocks with 20 barracks each were located adjacent to the fairgrounds

"At this center accommodations were crude tar paper barracks with cots, out houses and overhead water pipes with holes drilled in them to serve as showers.

"There are no assembly center remains or any historical marker at the site. Most of the fairgrounds has been changed so extensively from its 1942 appearance that it is difficult to determine whether any fair buildings present during the assembly center use still remain Most of those processed at the Fresno center went to the Relocation Center at Jerome, Arkansas.

"The Fresno Assembly Center ceased operations on October 30, 1942 when the last group of ethnic Japanese departed. The center was then turned over to the 4th Air Force which converted it into non-flying training facility called the Fresno Ground Training Center. Signalmen, camouflage specialists, chemical warfare specialists, ordnance technicians, clerks, truck drivers and cooks trained here. The 1945 Army Inventory of Installations lists this activity as the Fresno Army Air Forces Training Center.

"There is an historical marker with information on the site located near the Chance Avenue gate of the fairgrounds."