Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana, will be playing host to a very unusual series of military auctions beginning this week. Throughout the rest of the summer, Camp Atterbury will be auctioning off a surplus of mobile homes that the facility apparently no longer needs. Atterbury serves as a training site for soldiers in the Indiana National Guard before or between their deployments overseas. As deployments have slowed over the past year, officials have announced that they no longer have the need for many of the mobile homes, offering them up for bidding with remarkably low starting prices.
The product
The mobile homes will be auctioned off in groups throughout the summer, with the first 51 going to the auction block this week. Each of the structures is 60 feet long and 14 feet wide with an identical floor plan that includes an open kitchen and living room. The mobile homes were purchased by Camp Atterbury and only used to house soldiers during training, though camp officials encourage potential bidders to look through each unit's photos individually, as some will need more work than others. Every one of the used mobile homes comes with a washer and dryer and furnace as well as the necessary utility connections.
Odd price points
In total, there are over 200 units to be auctioned off throughout the summer and the rest of the year, an increase from the 175 units that Camp Atterbury auctioned away last year. The camp is effectively giving them away, with starting bids on each and every one of them to be set at $25. The only additional expenses that the winning bidders will incur will be the cost of towing the unit away, for which they are responsible, and the total cost for any repairs or modifications they choose to make to the mobile home after the fact.
Camp Atterbury history
Camp Atterbury was built between 1941-1942, with construction commencing almost immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It's namesake is William Wallace Atterbury, who was an executive with (and subsequently president of) the Pennsylvania Railroad. During WWI, Atterbury had been commissioned to build US military railroads in Europe for two years, and the naming of the training facility is in his honor. Camp Atterbury also served as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. A chapel, built on the premises by roman catholic Italian P.O.W.'s, was restored in 1989 and still stands at the camp.
