Ten acres of land was rented from Fremont Maynard for Camp Ellsworth, located just north of the village of Ellsworth on the northeast corner of Highway 65 and 580th Avenue. On September 2nd, 1935, fourteen railroad cars arrived from Mississippi with the camp buildings, all in pre-built sections. Camp Ellsworth was opened in November of 1935 when 170 men and two officers arrived from the CCC camp in Fairchild, Wisconsin. They began work just a few days later on conservation projects in the Beldenville area. The camp was open until 1942, when the CCC program ended due to the entry of the U.S. in WWII. No trace of the camp is left, we were very lucky to have these local gentleman’s memories of it preserved.
Roland Hilden (pictured here with his car on the day he signed up) not only captured photos of camp life, but documented some of
the work completed by the CCC crews. In this collection of photographs you will see several local quarries and some of the trucks and machines used in the camp’s work.
Edwin Jakes of Ellsworth (pictured here in his CCC uniform on the job), recorded himself speaking of his recollections of his time at Camp Ellsworth. Portions of this along with Roland’s photos were used to create a video on Ellsworth’s CCC camp. This is viewable on our YouTube channel.
