1943 aerial view of Camp Granite, one of 12 camps occupied by the one million troops to use the DTC in its less than two years of existence. Thousands of tents and other temporary structures were set up in the grid of roads at the camp. Headquarters for the camp was located at the semicircular roadway in the center of the photograph. Photo from Journal of the Council on America's Military Past, December 1982.

The Desert Training Center (DTC), located in the southeastern Mojave Desert, was was the largest training area ever assembled in the United States covering parts of California, Nevada and Arizona. The 18,000 square-mile Army training ground used from 1942-1944. General Patton created and commanded the DTC, also called the California-Arizona Maneuvers Area (CAMA) where over a million US troops trained for combat over its brief history. The DTC was initially established to train troops in desert survival and warfare, in anticipation of a battle with General Rommel's Africa Corps, which was taking much of North Africa, and was getting closer to controlling the world's supply of oil at the Persian Gulf.

Tanks were a primary fighting tool used at the DTC. Tank tracks still mark much of the landscape, and remnants from many of the 12 fields camps remain, mostly rock mosaics, altars and road alignments. The Bureau of Land Management, which now owns much of the former DTC's land, is currently trying to raise funds to preserve these camps, and monuments and protective fences are slowly appearing in these areas. A substantial portion of the DTC is still occupied by the military, in a network of ranges all across the Mojave, at places such as the Yuma Proving Grounds and the Chocolate Mountain Bombing Range.

A memorial museum to General Patton and the DTC is located off the interstate at Chiriaco Summit. The museum is located at the site of Camp Young, one of 12 WWII training camps that were part of the DTC. The museum contains mostly WWII memorabilia and artifacts recovered from the DTC, such as bomb casings and equipment. An interesting relief map of the Mojave is also located in the museum, built as part of the planning stage of the Colorado River Aqueduct, which also flows nearby.  

General Patton Museum located on Interstate 10, near Desert Center, California. CLUI photo