Bonus Army - Ideal Park

Picture postcard of the Bonus Army (Bonus Expedinary Force) leaving Ideal Park - Johnstown.

In the fall of 1931, hundreds of veterans and their families camped near Johnstown on their way to Washington D.C. The next summer, more than 20,000 Bonus Marchers converged on Washington to demand immediate payment of the Soldiers" bonus promised to men who had served in the armed forces during World War I.

Driven out of the nation's capital at bayonet point, more than 4,000 broke and disheartened Bonus Army marchers spent the better part of two weeks in a makeshift encampment near Ideal Park before returning to their homes.