During World War II, the site was the location of the Sampson Naval Training Station; during the Korean War, it became the Sampson Air Force Base, again providing basic training.

Most buildings are gone leaving a network of 38 miles (61 km) of once-paved roads and trails in a wooded three-square-mile (7.8 km2) area.

The surviving building housing the "brig" today hosts a museum featuring displays that depict the activities and lives of the hundreds of thousands of Navy and Air Force personnel as they trained to go to war at Sampson.

[3] Both the state park and the former naval training station are named after Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, who was born in nearby Palmyra.

[1] The park is home to a museum run by volunteer Air Force and Navy veterans.