| Building 6981 at Camp Shelby is significant for its historical association with the development of Camp Shelby as a military mobilization and training center during World War I. Built in 1918 as an ammunition storage magazine, it is the only building on the installation that survives from World War I. During the World War I period Camp Shelby's cantonment area was largely a vast array of tents. Few permanent buildings were constructed. One early map indicates that four small ammunition storage buildings were the only permanent buildings on the entire installation. Three of these were eventually demolished, leaving the structure now called Building 6981 as the only surviving building from the World War I years. Very few, if any, other properties directly associated with the military mobilization for that war survive in the entire state of Mississippi. This building was listed on the National Register on 11 June 1992. It was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 7 December 1995. (R.Cawthon, 2021) |