Oct. 6 Event to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Camp Matthews Land Transfer to UC San Diego
Before thousands of students populated the University of California, San Diego campus, approximately 1,200 acres of the university were occupied by soldiers-in-training and at least 15 shooting facilities, including rifle, pistol and skeet ranges. From 1917 to 1964, over a million marines and other shooters received their rifle marksmanship training at Camp Matthews, located in La Jolla, in what is now known as the UC San Diego campus. The base officially closed in 1964, when the Marine Corps transferred the Camp Matthews military base to UC San Diego—the same year the campus’s first undergraduate class entered the university.