The post has been in virtually constant use since it was first formed as the "Sparta Maneuver Tract" on 14,000 acres (57 km2) in 1909. At first, the tract was made up of two camps, Camp Emory Upton and Camp Robinson. These were separated by a line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that ran across the land from east to west. In 1910, the army renamed the entire tract "Camp Bruce Elisha McCoy" for the father (a Civil War captain) of Robert Bruce McCoy, a retired major general who first proposed the area as a training ground and bought part of the property on which the fort stands. In 1926, the name of the post was officially renamed "Camp McCoy" in honor of Robert Bruce McCoy, who had died in January of that year. It has gone by many different names such as Sparta Maneuver Tract; Sparta Military Reservation; Camp McCoy; and now the present, Fort McCoy.The name McCoy comes from Robert B. McCoy who was a military man, farmer and served as county judge who initially set up the land as a military camp.