Building a Tradition

Especially during the difficult days of the Great Depression, Americans sought inexpensive, healthful fun. The Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal jobs program that improved infrastructure and conserved natural resources across the nation, advanced that goal at Oconee by constructing a park centered on a swimming lake and bathhouse, along with cabins, picnic sites, and other amenities. The bathhouse included a tearoom and rented 300 baskets for visitors to store their clothes before swimming. Its porch became a center of social activity, with refreshments, people-watching, ping-pong, and checkers. Envisioned as the park's activity center even before it was built, it also served as the base for lifeguards who called square dances, organized church services, and cleaned cabins, while overnight guests rowed boats to a nearby icehouse for ice before refrigeration. Men from CCC Camp S-75 were photographed in 1937 during construction of the bathhouse, whose stonework and hand-hewn beams exemplified CCC craftsmanship.

South Carolina · United States