We have been exploring the history of Camden State Park, our southwest Minnesota wilderness. We learned that the wooded Redwood River Valley upriver from Lynd has attracted human habitation and trade, since long before Euro-American settlement.

We learned about Andrew Dale’s dream of raising a family on the valley farm he bought there in 1911 that reminded him of his native Norway. We learned of the Dale children’s determination to keep the family together and farming after their parents were killed in an auto/train collision in 1921. And we learned of their decision to sell the valley farm to the State of Minnesota in June 1934 during the farm crisis brought on by the Great Depression and persistent drought conditions.

Responding to that depression, Congress passed the Emergency Conservation Work Act (ECWA) in 1933, authorizing President Roosevelt to create the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Veterans Conservation Corps (VCC). In July 1934 the Director of the ECW authorized increased enrollments in these programs in response to Midwest drought conditions.

Once Minnesota had a purchase agreement with the Dale’s, it petitioned the Federal government to establish a drought camp at Camden. The ECW Director approved Minnesota’s request.

These ECW projects were popular Depression Era programs. Over 500,000 men were enrolled in CCC or VCC camps at their height in 1935. Army personnel organized, equipped, and maintained the camps, while National Park Service personnel planned and supervised the conservation work projects. From 1933 to 1942 over three million men served across the US. Minnesota hosted 165 ECW camps, only eight of which were VCC camps. The CCC enrolled unmarried, unemployed men ages 18-25, while the VCC enrolled veterans of any age, married or unmarried, who needed work.

Camden’s first Superintendent, John A. Woodhall, and his successors submitted monthly progress reports. These reports narrate the development of Camden State Park.

Mr. Woodhall’s report for August 1934 explains that he arrived in Marshall on August 6th 1934 and, guided by a County Engineer, spent several days exploring the park land and considering park development. The men encountered brush heaps; dead and fallen trees; herds of cattle and a few horses grazing the land; and lots of tree stumps. They met with the local park committee and arranged to discontinue grazing before the conservation company arrived.

Mr. Woodhall described the arrival of the camp’s company of 205 men a few days later.

“The Conservation Company arrived on the morning of the 10th and proved to be a company of veterans transferred from Rochester.”

Their first task was to establish a tent camp in a clearing north of the bluff above what is now the lower campground and uphill to the west of the present location of the swimming pond. Camp leadership also selected a site for a permanent camp in a clearing below the tent camp where the lower campground is located today. The Army contracted with local firms to build the camp’s barracks, hospital, mess and recreation halls, and supervisors’ cabins before winter.

Mr. Woodhall quickly realized, as the Army staff began moving Army tents and equipment on-site with heavy trucks, improving roads had to be a priority. So he assigned a road work crew on Monday, August 13th.

He described other circumstances that dictated another early work priority.

“It became immediately apparent from the unusual amount of local interest and the large number of visitors that it would necessary to provide an accessible picnic grounds in order to keep them from roaming all over the park. I selected a spot about midway of the area, which was nicely wooded, near the river, and had a fine spring adjacent to it.”

A work crew spent a week clearing the temporary picnic ground and an adjoining parking area; developing the on-site spring as a water source; and building four temporary stone fireplaces. Their work was rewarded with a crowd of over 300 persons using the area that Sunday.

Later in the report Mr. Woodhall shared his observations about the veterans in Company 2713.

“I have found the veterans to be an agreeable, interested crew and am especially pleased at the interest they show in the work. I have found a large number of them to be excellent workmen and instead of being hard to handle, which I at first feared would be the case, I find they are, on the contrary, well-disciplined and efficient workers in that they are experienced and understand the best methods of accomplishing an objective.”

He also reflected on what he had learned of the camp’s military commander.

“I have found the C.O. (Commanding Officer) Capt. A.E. Clark to have a fine spirit of cooperation and he has worked very harmoniously with us in every respect. He is very much interested in the work we are doing and its ultimate objective and I feel he inspires the men to a large extent by this attitude.”

The veterans of Company 2713 spent most of August improving roads; clearing stumps and debris; cleaning up several acres of accessible and scenic parts of the park; and building the temporary picnic grounds. The Company was quickly making its mark.

Mr. Woodhall closed his August summary by reporting on the popularity of the barely-there park.

“The last Sunday of the month there was an estimated crowd of over two thousand people in the park area. . . . I feel that its development will be closely watched and appreciated by the local populace.”

I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com.