Civilian Conservation Corps Camps
Camps D-Army-1 & SCS-6 (Fechner): 1/2 mile S on W edge of Ft. Meade D-Army-1 company: 2758--7/20/34-10/31/35. SCS-6 companies: 2765--10/15/36-5/27/42; 4725V--5/28/42-7/27/42.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal work-relief program during the Great Depression. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC provided work for 31,097 jobless men in South Dakota--about 22,000 enrollees (single men aged 17-25), about 1,700 veterans, 4,554 American Indians and 2,834 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.
D-Army-1 was the only camp in South Dakota where work was supervised by the U.S. Army. Enrollees provided services for CCC district headquarters and made physical improvements to Fort Meade. Work of SCS-6, supervised by the Soil Conservation Service, was done on private lands. Enrollees demonstrated the value of contour and strip erosion, prevent runoff and better utilize grazing land. The camp, which billeted the district headquarters staff, was used as a prisoner-of-war compound during WWII.
Marker is at the intersection of State Highway 34 and Custer Avenue, on the left when traveling east on State Highway 34.
Courtesy hmdb.org
