Civilian Conservation Corps Camp – Ft. Meade

Camps D-Army-1 & SCS-6 (Fechner): 1/2 mile S on W edge of Ft. Meade D-Army-1 company:P 2758 7/20/34-10/31/35. SCS-6 companies: 2765-10/15/36-5/27/42; 4725V-5/28/42-7/27/42 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. D-Army-1 was the only camp in South Dakota where work was supervised by the US Army.

Enrollees provided many services for CCC district headquarters staff and made many physical improvements to Fort Meade. Work of SCS-6, supervised by the Soil Conservation Service, was done on private lands. Enrollees demonstrated the use of contour farming, stripcropping, shelterbelts, stock dams, and pasture furrows to reduce erosion, prevent runoff and better utilize grazing land.

The camp continued to billet district headquarters staff and started to prepare for war by improving post security, enlarging the firing range, etc. WWI veterans of Company 4725V continued to prepare for war. The camp was later used as a German POW compound. Erected in 1990 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society, the South Dakota Department of Transportation, and the Soil Conservation Service.