“Civilian Conservation Corps Camp – Farm Island”
(Note: any text in italics has been taken from the official SDSHS records.)
Marker Text
camp s-207 (se-207 in 1933): 1/4 mile W and 2 miles S on Farm Island. Companies: Number unknown - - (Blacks) 06/27/33-10/22/33 - - (North Dakotans) 10/23/33-11/01/34; 2756 - - 10/20/34-09/30/37.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal work-relief program during the Great Depression. From 1933-1942, the CCC provided work for 31,097 jobless men in South Dakota - - about 1700 war veterans, 4554 American Indians, and 2834 supervisors. The U.S. Army provided 200-man camps, food, clothing, medical care, and pay, and educational, recreational, and religious programs. The Office of Indian Affairs provided similar services for units on Indian reservations.
At this camp, the State Division of Forestry supervised the men who completed the Arikara Dam northeast of Pierre and developed a park on Farm Island. Enrollees constructed the causeway across the river channel at the head of the island and the dike at the foot, forming Hipple Lake, and built wing dikes to reduce shoreline erosion. In addition, CCC crews back-sloped a mile of lake shore; built seven miles of road; erected the Boy Scout cabin, Izaak Walton cabin, and Lewis and Clark monument; develop picnic areas, a trap and skeet range, and three holes for golf; and operated a 70-acre tree nursery.
Erected in 1989 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society and the State Department of Transportation.
Location
Hughes County, SD 34- just east of Entrance to Farm Island State Park a 1/4 mile (2006)