Fort Crowder

Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton and McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II.

Carl Reiner was stationed at Camp Crowder in the 1940s and when he created the 1960s-era The Dick Van Dyke Show, he made the post the setting where Rob and Laura Petrie, portrayed by actors Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, met; Rob was a sergeant in Special Services and Laura was a USO dancer.

While the core of the post was retained, many of the wood temporary barracks were declared surplus and sold in a June 1946 public sale held by the U.S. War Assets Administration.

For 16 years, starting in 1957, rocket engines for missiles such as the Atlas, Thor and Saturn were assembled and tested at Air Force Plant 65.

With the end of the North American Rockwell contract, the remaining federal government holdings were transferred to the General Services Administration as surplus property for interim management and eventual disposal.

In the mid-1980s, the remaining parcels of the former post were transferred to the Missouri Department of Conservation for wildlife management and outdoor recreation, the Neosho R-5 public school district for agriculture instructional farm, and the Missouri National Guard to operate a military training facility under license from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on 4,358.09 acres (18 km2).

Waste material generated from the former Fort include aviation and vehicular fuels, oils, greases, metals, paints and solvents.