Fort Hunter Liggett
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Fort Hunter Liggett, named after General Hunter Liggett, is a United States Army fort in southern Monterey County, California, about 250 miles (400 km) north of Los Angeles and 150 miles south of San Francisco. The fort is primarily used as a training facility, where activities such as field maneuvers and live fire exercises are performed. Land for the fort was purchased in 1940 from William Randolph Hearst (Hearst Castle is down the coast), and from adjacent landowners. It was named after Hunter Liggett in 1941. It was under the authority of Camp Roberts, to the southeast, until 1952, when it became a sub installation of Fort Ord on the Monterey Peninsula. It was made a sub installation of Fort McCoy, Wisconsin in 1993.
The Salinas Valley is the fort's northern border, the Santa Lucia Mountains bound it on the east, Los Padres National Forest on the west and the Monterey and San Luis Obispo County line on the south. The fort originally comprised 200,000 acres (800 km²), but even at its present size of 165,000 acres (668 km²), it is the largest United States Army Reserve command post. Some of the land, 52 acres, was given to Mission San Antonio de Padua, bringing its size to 85 acres. Additionally, land has been traded between the United States Forest Service, which owns the adjacent Los Padres National Forest, and the Army. Cone Peak, at 5,155 feet, is the highest peak within the fort. Junipero Serra Peak, formerly called Santa Lucia Peak, is towards the north. It is 5,862 feet tall and is sometimes covered in snow in the winter. The fort also contains the headwaters of the Nacimiento River.
There are only 250 permanent civil and military residents at the fort. However, the population can swell up to 4,000 when a rotation of personnel comes for training.
In its 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations, the Department of Defense recommended to relocating the 91st Division from Parks Reserve Forces Training Area to Hunter Liggett.[1]
