Ontario Welcome Center History Walk: Ontario CCC Camp

© Photographed April 8, 2017
Erected 2015 by Forward Ontario
Ontario, Vernon County, Wisconsin
43.722751, -90.590023
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Ontario CCC Camp
From 1935-1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed about 150 men at Camp Ontario, one of 60 camps in the state and one of more than 4,000 throughout the United States. Located just north of Ontario on Highway 131, the camp was a sprawling complex of barracks and other facilities designed to house young men who were unemployed during the Depression. They planted trees, built trails in parts and forests, ran telephone and electrical lines, and did a variety of other projects. They were paid $30 per month, of which $25 had to be sent home to their families.
Young men came mostly from other areas of Wisconsin and the Midwest. The CCC provided two sets of clothing and plenty of food, no doubt a great relief to the young men who had struggled to find adequate nourishment during the Depression years. Much of the work in the Ontario area consisted of grubbing out gooseberry bushes, which harbor a rust that infects white pine.
     CCC Camps resembled Army life, making the young men well-prepared for the outbreak of World War II. The photo at left was taken in 1941, just prior to the camp's closing. A dozen or more of the young men returned to the Ontario area after the war, opening businesses, marrying and raising families.




The marker is located at the Ontario Welcome Center History Walk.

Looking west into town . . .

View coming into town from eastbound Wisconsin Highway 33.

The marker is located in Ontario, Wisconsin.
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Location: State St & Pleasant Street, Ontario, WI 54651, USA

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