The Iowa National Guard prior to World War I (WWI) established Camp Dodge to house and train National Guard troops. During WWI, Camp Dodge served as a U.S. Army induction center and later as a convalescent center and hospital. A historical map from the World War I era shows a gas instruction house located west of the cantonment area in the Beaver Creek flood plain. Training records from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that the Iowa National Guard and the Chemical Warfare Service used Camp Dodge for training.

The facility was again used as a U.S. Army induction center during World War II. Camp Dodge reverted to the Iowa National Guard in the 1950s. In 1965, 872 acres including the former rifle ranges were transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to form Saylorville Reservoir. In 1989, the U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit retrieved a PIG (steel cylindrical container) of the type used to contain Chemical Agent Identification Set, M1 (CAIS K951) from a loading dock at Camp Dodge. At the time of the site visit (February 12-13, 2003) Camp Dodge continues to be operated by the Iowa National Guard.