Civilian Conservation Corps and Platt National Park

Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps on March 31, 1933, and within two weeks of its funding the Army was moving 25,000 recruits to conditioning camps. Enrollees were unmarried men of eighteen to twenty-five, chosen from state and local relief rolls. Oklahoma placed many of its own at home: in 1934 the state had five thousand men in twenty-six camps, each unit about two hundred strong. Company 808's camp at the park ran from 1933 until it closed in 1940. In 1935 state and Park Service planners chose seven new park sites, from Boiling Springs to Beavers Bend.

What the plaque says

Civilian Conservation Corps and Platt National Park Sulphur, Oklahoma 1933 - 1942 This historical monument is a gift honoring the young men of Civilian Conservation Corps Company 808 who contributed a major part to the building of this beautiful park. They defended, protected and preserved our nation's natural resources for all generations to enjoy. The CCC was organized by the federal government during the Great Depression to provide useful employment for thousands of citizens and to develop and save the nation's natural resources. Under management of U.S. Army personnel, they built roads and nurseries, land- scaped parks, planted trees, and conserved the countryside. For their work they were paid $30 per month, of which $25 was sent home. They also received housing, food, medical and dental care as well as educational benefits. In grateful recognition of their service, this permanent memorial has been presented to CCC Company 808 and its three million members nationwide. Their park serves countless thousands of visitors each year. Dedicated to the members of CCC Company 808 on the 50th anniversary of their founding June 1987 Oklahoma CCC Alumni Association and the Oklahoma Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chickasaw National Recreation Area — 1.3 mi
  Springs the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations sold to the government in 1902 rather than lose them to developers, later Platt National Park, now the Travertine district's creeks, CCC stonework and bison pasture.
• Chickasaw Cultural Center — 1.5 mi
  The Chickasaw Nation's 184-acre campus at Sulphur, opened in 2010, with an exhibit hall on the Nation's history, a recreated 1700s town with daily stomp dance, and a bridge into the national recreation area.
• Turner Falls Park — 11 mi
  Honey Creek dropping 77 feet over Arbuckle rock into a swimming hole off I-35, in a 1,500-acre city park named for the man who settled here with his Chickasaw wife.
• Chickasaw National Capitol — 25 mi
  The red granite capitol the Chickasaw Nation finished at Tishomingo in 1898, forced out of at statehood, used as the county courthouse for most of a century and reclaimed by the Nation in 1992.

More markers nearby

• Sulphur — 0.4 mi
• Natural Mound — 19 mi
• Delaware Mount — 23 mi
• Tishomingo — 24 mi