Civilian Conservation Corps Camp - Estes

Camp F-3 (Este): Located 1/2 mile west astride Estes Creek. Companies: 789 - - 5/18-7/30/41 2759V - - (WW I Vets) 7/30/41-7/28/42 The Civilian Conservation Corps was a federal work-relief program during the Great Depression. From 1933-1942, the CCC provided work for 31,097 jobless men in South Dakota - - about 1700 war veterans, 4554 American Indians, and 2834 supervisors.

The U.S. Army provided 200-man camps, food, clothing, medical care, and pay, and educational, recreational, and religious programs. The Office of Indian Affairs provided similar services for units on Indian reservations. F-3 was the first South Dakota CCC camp to open and one of the last to close. Work, supervised by the Black Hills National Forest, ranged from fire prevention and suppression to forest development.

Men from the camp thinned, pruned and planted trees; removed dead and diseased growth (which was used for poles, posts and firewood) from many acres of forest; controlled insects and rodents; and operated a fire lookout. They also built a considerable number of items including a telephone line, Box Elder Forks campgrounds, dams (Dalton, Waite Gulch and Spruce Gulch), fire trails, roads, Steamboat Rock picnic area, ski course and Nemo Forest Ranger station.

Erected in 1990 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society, Black Hills National Forest, and Lawrence County Highway Department.