Camp Perry is a National Guard training facility located on the shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio near Port Clinton. In addition to its regular mission as a military training base, Camp Perry also boasts the second largest outdoor rifle range in the world after the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico. The firing is done in the direction of the open water of the lake, that lies just beyond an earthen berm and the targets.
History
The original land for Camp Perry was purchased in 1906, and the reservation was named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the American naval commander who won the Battle of Put-in-Bay during the War of 1812. Rudimentary structures were constructed for use by competitors in the National Matches, and for transient military personnel. During World War I, Camp Perry served as a training center for Army officers and marksmanship instructors. Around 1918 an additional area immediately adjacent to the existing Camp Perry grounds was used to construct the Erie Army Depot for artillery ordnance storage.
In 1924, the police departments of all cities with populations of over 10,000 were invited to participate in national matches at Camp Perry.
The coming of the Second World War closed the Special Police School down, and Camp Perry served as a POW camp for German and Italian prisoners. The camp was used extensively for several years after World War II, and in 1956 the Special Police School was re-opened, but use slowed somewhat during the 1960s. The Erie Army Depot closed in the mid-1960s and was eventually converted to industrial use. However, many of Camp Perry's original structures are still in use in one form or another.
On June 24, 1998, a tornado damaged several buildings on the grounds. and the NRA-sponsored National Rifle Matches since 1907. The National Matches, considered America's "World Series of the Shooting Sports," attracts shooting sports competitors from all across the world to compete in matches of all multitudes. The Small Arms Firing School was first conducted by The Department of Defense as part of the National Matches at the camp in 1918.