“Civilian Conservation Corps Camp – Tigerville”

camp f-15 tigerville: Located 1/4 mile S of here.

Companies: 765 - - 10/26/33-Spring 34757 - - 4/21/34-10/20/34 2748 - - 10/21/34-1/36793 - - 5/25/36-6/13/39

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal relief program during 1933-1942 that gave jobless men work renovating abused lands. The Army built 48 200-man camps in South Dakota and provided food, clothing, medical care, pay and programs of education, recreation and religion for 23,709 enrollees (single men aged 17-25 who sent $25 of their $30 wage to their families) and war veterans. Camps and work projects were supervised by another 2834 men.

The Office of Indian Affairs ran smaller units for 4554 American Indians.

Camp F-15 was part of a national CCC program to renovate forests and build more recreation areas. Work projects, supervised by the USDA Forest Service, included tree thinning, pruning and planting; fire prevention and suppression; rodent, disease and insect control; grazing land improvement and recreational area development. Enrollees thinned and pruned thousands of acres (up to 400 a month) of pines, removed brush, built fire trails and fire breaks and planted trees. They built and stocked small dams; erected telephone and power lines and built roads (20 miles in one year). CCs erected Mayo and Mitchell dams and started Sheridan dam where they developed the practice of injecting bentonite into rock substrata to prevent leakage of earthen dams.

Erected in 1991 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society, the South Dakota Department of Transportation and Black Hills National Forest.

Pennington County, 7 or 8 miles of Hill City on Deerfield Rd, 187 & 300