Historical Marker · No. 521
Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Estes
Lawrence County · South Dakota
Erected by CCC Alumni, South Dakota State Historical Society, Lawrence County Highway Department and Black Hills National Forest, 1991
Camp F-3 opened on May 18, 1933, one of the first CCC camps in the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain region, on the site of the old Este logging camp. Lumber was sawed there from Case No. 1, the region's first national-forest timber sale and the start of regulated cutting. Company 789 held the camp until July 1941, and World War I veterans of Company 2759V a year longer. The 1991 bronze spells Dalton's dam Daltun and counts 23,709 enrollees, where the Roubaix bronze says about 22,000.
What the plaque says
Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Camp F-3 (ESTE): Located 1/2 mile west astride Estes Creek. Companies: 789--5/18 - 7/30/41 2759V--(WWI Vets) 7/30/41 - 7/28/42 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. Este was the first South Dakota camp opened and one of the last closed. It was part of the federal CCC program to renovate forests and build more recreation areas. Work supervised by the U. S. Forest Service included tree thinning, pruning and planting; fire prevention and supression; grazing land improvement; rodent and insect control and recreational development. Enrollees removed dead, diseased and suppressed trees (used for poles, posts and firewood) and brush from many acres of forest; removed flammable debris from forests and nearby areas and extinguished forest fires. They built Daltun dam, campground and ski course; Box Elder Forks campground, Steam- boat Rock picnic area, Waite Gulch and Spruce Gulch dams, Merritt- Estes and White Gates Roads. CCCs remodeled ranger residences and erected a ranger station and telephone lines. Erected in 1991 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society, Lawrence County Highway Department and Black Hills National Forest
Where it stands
44.17322, -103.49534 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- The Journey Museum and Learning Center — 15 miFour collections under one roof in downtown Rapid City, among them the federal Sioux Indian Museum, founded in 1939 to keep Lakota art in Lakota country.
- 1880 Train — 17 miA steam excursion on a mining branch line that hauled gear for Mount Rushmore, named for a decade it never ran in by a man who wanted steam to survive.
- Mount Moriah Cemetery — 18 miThe hillside where Deadwood moved its dead: Wild Bill and Calamity Jane side by side, Seth Bullock looking at his friend's tower, and the Chinese burner of 1908.
- Homestake Open Cut & Sanford Lab Visitor Center — 18 miA 1,250-foot pit on Lead's Main Street, the visible top of a gold mine that went down 8,000 feet in 125 years and is a physics laboratory now.