Civilian Conservation Corps Camp

Camp BF-2 at Sand Lake, headquartered 2 1/2 miles west and 2 1/2 miles south, was part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal work-relief program during the Great Depression. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC provided work for 31,097 jobless men in South Dakota, including about 22,000 enrollees, about 1,700 veterans, 4,554 American Indians and 2,834 supervisors. The U.S. Army provided 200-man camps, food, clothing, medical care and pay, as well as educational, recreational and religious programs, while the Office of Indian Affairs provided similar services for units on Indian reservations. Company 2749 served here from 6/28/35 to 7/31/39. Supervised by the Bureau of Biological Survey, BF-2 created the 21,451-acre Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge and started the 3,248-acre Waubay Waterfowl Refuge. Enrollees cleared the land of buildings, rubble and 200 miles of fence before constructing several dams, roads and trails, headquarters buildings and a 100-foot observation tower. They also created islands to form channels that protected nesting and resting birds and circulated river water in dry periods, and they planted trees, ground cover and food crops. Tens of thousands of waterfowl are hatched and hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl rest each year at the 5,000-acre Mud and 6,000-acre Sand Lakes.

South Dakota · United States