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When land started to run out in central Massachusetts, the state's National Guard units began to search for sufficient space on which to hold their annual training. They found what they needed on Cape Cod. This land would become Camp Edwards and later the Massachusetts Military Reservation and the Otis Air National Guard Base. When World War II loomed, the reservation became a significant training area for units heading overseas, a proving ground for amphibious operations landing vehicles and equipment, and a major duty station in the lives of thousands of America's military men and women.

The Farragut Naval Training Station, located near Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, was only operational between 1942 and 1946, but during that time it was the largest city in Idaho, the largest business in Idaho, and the second-largest U.S. naval training station. Named for Civil War hero Adm. David G. Farragut, it trained sailors from 23 different states and by June 15, 1946, the day its doors closed, a total of 293,381 recruits, or "boots," and over 25,943 service-school sailors had passed through its doors. At least two Medal of Honor recipients and one Navy Cross recipient, along with a future governor of Idaho, spent time at the station. After its decommissioning, it served as the Farragut College and Technical Institute. Today it is the site of Farragut State Park and a small U.S. Navy acoustic research detachment.

Fort MacArthur, in San Pedro, became the Army's major regional induction center after Pearl Harbor, processing over three-quarters of a million soldiers into World War II. Named for Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero, military visionary, and father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, "Fort Mac" began as a remote military reservation in 1888, was a full-fledged Coast Defense fort by 1923, a blur of GI activity as a portal to all theaters during World War II, a reserve base in 1946, a Nike missile installation in 1954, and again a military reserve base in 1976 following the Vietnam War. The base also played an important role in transforming San Pedro into the Port of Los Angeles, in implementing changes in military technology, in racial integration of the Army in the late 1930s, and in labor history as its soldiers became strikebreakers in the tense early days of the Second World War. The fort's museum, comprising 20 acres above the harbor, is a lasting reminder of the 20th century's vital West Coast national defense facilities.

Before there was a Disneyland, there was Knott's Berry Farm. What started out in the early 1920s as a small, roadside berry stand in Buena Park, California, grew over the next 60 years into one of the most popular amusement parks in the world. Its founder, Walter Knott, along with his wife and family, knew no boundaries when it came to expanding his small berry market and tearoom into the world-famous Chicken Dinner Restaurant and later adding his ultimate achievement, Ghost Town. This book documents the early history of Knott's Berry Farm, featuring over 200 rarely seen images.