Working Year-Round to Develop the Park

Although Fort Ridgely had been a state park since 1911, little recreational development had occurred until the Department of Interior directed the National Park Service to plan, design, and supervise work projects carried out by the CCC. Beginning on August 2, 1934, CCC crews worked eight hours a day, five days a week, except when rain or extreme cold slowed or stopped them, first cleaning up the park and back sloping high-cut banks along the entrance road between Nicollet County Highway 21 and the cemetery. They soon undertook additional erosion control, drained a swamp north of the highway bridge, developed foot trails, planted trees, and installed foot bridges across Fort Ridgely Creek. In early 1935 they began park buildings of Morton Gneiss from nearby Morton, Minnesota, including a latrine in the lower area, the custodian's residence, and a shelter, but these were only partially completed when CCC Company 2712 was disbanded and the camp closed on November 1, 1935, because of lack of funding. On October 7, 1936, Veterans Conservation Corp Company 2713 arrived from Camden State Park to complete the park, quickly resumed construction of the partially built picnic shelters, latrine, custodian's residence, and drinking fountains, and, regarding restoration of Fort Ridgely as its main purpose, carried out archaeological excavation under the direction of a National Park Service archaeologist. Late in 1936, reconstruction of the old commissary began with stone from the quarry that had supplied the original building, and after the park projects were completed in July 1939, VCC Company 2713 moved to a camp in northern Minnesota.

Minnesota · United States