Camp SP-4 (DSP-2), known as Camp Lodge, occupied the buildings seen here and housed Companies 2755 from July 16, 1934, to October 21, 1935, 795 from October 29, 1935, to January 13, 1936, and 1793 from April 27, 1936, to July 30, 1942. The Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal relief program from 1933 to 1942, gave jobless men work renovating abused lands. In South Dakota, the army built forty-eight two-hundred-man camps that provided food, clothing, medical care, pay, and programs of education, recreation, and religion for 23,709 enrollees, single men aged 17 to 25 who sent $25 of their $30 wage to their families, and war veterans. Another 2,834 men supervised camps and work projects, and the Office of Indian Affairs ran smaller units for 4,554 American Indians. Camp Lodge is the only camp in the state still intact. It was part of the national CCC program to build more areas for tourists, and under the supervision of Custer State Park and the National Park Service, CCC workers labored in several parts of Custer State Park. They built the Center Lake dam, camp, bathhouse, latrines, and parking; at Sylvan Lake they installed sewer, water, electrical, and telephone systems, erected seventeen cabins, a store, restaurant, and filling station, and built a camp, picnic area, bathing facilities, and road network. Enrollees also installed two water systems and fence near the game lodge, built roads and bridges on Needles Highway, Mills Cutoff, and at Remington, completed Grizzly Bear campground, erected three and a half miles of big game fence, and worked at the park museum and zoo.

Photo: Connor Olson

Keystone, South Dakota · USA