Civilian Conservation Corps Camp – Wall

Camps NP-2: 8 miles S of Wall on SD 240, 13 miles W (1 mi W of Sage Creek) S of road and NP-3: ¾ mile S of Cedar Pass Visitor Center. Company: 2754 (NP-2)-11/1/1939-10/24/1941 (NP-3) 10/24/41/3/25/42 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. Work of Camp Badlands, supervised by the National Park Service, was done in the 243,302-acre Badlands National Monument.

The major project was the development of a water system that included the construction of a 20,000 gallon sump and pump house on the White River, five miles of ditch 6-to-12 feet deep, a reservoir nine feet deep and 50 feet in diameter at Cedar Pass and the connecting 4-and 6-inch pipe. Camp NP-3 was established to eliminate traveling 40 miles each way from Camp NP-2.

Enrollees also erected the checking station at Pinnacles and the custodian’s residence at Cedar Pass, graveled Sage Creek road, back-sloped roadsides and surveyed proposed development sites. Erected in 1989 by CCC Alumni, the South Dakota State Historical Society, the South Dakota Department of Transportation and Badlands National Park.