Map showing Camp McQuaide area. .

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 The 250th was part of the National Guard.  It was first organized in 1861.  In 1938 the 250th Coast Artillery Regiment moved to what became Camp McQuaide. During World War II, Camp McQuaide was used as a stockade for deserters.  When being decommissioned, the property was first offered to the County of Santa Cruz for one dollar to encourage plans to make it a junior college. The county declined the offer. The government later sold it to the California conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists.

According to the Army Corp of Engineers:
"The site was used as a coast artillery training center (the Coast Artillery Seacoast Replacement Training Center). Later, the property was used for disciplinary barracks, housing prisoners and guards. The improvements include permanent buildings, 354 tents, roads and utilities distribution systems. In 1947, 300 acres were quitclaimed to the Central California conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists. The Association is now using the site for the Monterey Bay Academy, a boarding school with a work-study program, for high school age students. The remaining leased acres were transferred to the Federal Aviation Administration sometime after May 21, 1981."

Camp McQuaide was named in honor of a Catholic chaplain, Father/Major Joseph P. McQuaide who died in 1927. Possibly the only military camp in the US named for a chaplain.
 

Related Links

Wikipedia listings
Military history listing
The Story of the 250th