The site, known as Camp Rice, was part of the Desert Training Center/California-Arizona Maneuver Area (DTC/CAMA), a complex of camps and training sites used by the Army during World War II. Very little information is available for Camp Rice. It was used as a camp site early in the development of DTC/CAMA, from approximately August to October 1942, by the 5th Armored Division. The site may have also been used for camp purposes briefly by the 6th Armored Division in early 1943. Aircraft technicians from nearby Rice Army Air Field may have also used it for a tent camp after the armored divisions departed. Camp Rice improvements currently evident consist of dirt roads oriented in a typical CAMA camp layout.
The Army retransferred the 1,920-acre site to the BLM by means unknown. No documentation is available for disposal of this property which is expected to have occurred sometime between 1943 and the late 1940s, following the end of World War II. Currently the camp is an historical site owned by the BLM. There are no improvements on the property with the exception of dirt roads and rock-lined paths.
