Category: Event Date: 2015-06-03
Reunion Dedication
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Museum of South Dakota was dedicated on May 16, 2009. A reunion at the museum on that day brought several men together that had worked in the CCC.
It was created to solve two of the nation's ills - unemployment and deteriorating natural resources.
By 1932 one out of every four American men aged 15-24 worked only part time. Unemployment and soup lines were familiar to many families across the nation.
More than 50 companies - 29 composed of South Dakotans served in 49 camps at 46 locations: 28 camps in the Black Hills area; eleven full-time camps near Alcester, Belle Fourche, Camp Crook, Chamberlain (3), Columbia, Huron, Martin, Pierre, and Wall; two camps for three or four summers at Lake Andes and Presho; four for one summer near Belvidere, Canton, Lake Poinsett, and Watertown, and four on Indian Reservations.x
xDerschied, Lyle A. "The Civilian Conservation Corps in South Dakota, 1933-1942." Brookings, SD, South Dakota State University Foundation Press, 1986. No longer in print. Available at some libraries but may not be checked-out.A.J. Williams, Iven Jacobson, Jay Hendrickson, Jayson Dykstra, Melvin Hermanson, Stanley Hawthorn and Walter Atwood talk about their time in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
