UT-0002 Dalton Wells

Marker text: DALTON WELLS

Civilian Conservation Corps Camp DG-32 Co. 234) 1935-1942 During the Great Depression of the 1930's, CCC Camps were scattered all over the USA. They provided gainful employment to youth of the nation with work on public service projects. Between 1933 and 1942, four camps were located near Moab. Each camp worked on various natural resource projects for the Soil Conservation Service, the National Park Service, and the forerunner of the Bureau of Land Management. DG-32 was a long-lasting camp and typical of most with wooden, tar-paper covered barracks and buildings housing some 200 young men between the ages of 18 and 25. Enrollees came from the eastern states, and leadership was provided by the Army, Grazing Service, and local men experienced in construction and stock grazing needs. Under spartan conditions, clothing, food, and housing were provided in the primitive camp. Pay was $30 per month with $25 sent home. DG-32 projects included many range improvements, stock trails down the precipitous sandstone cliffs, spring developments, wells and stock ponds, eradication of rodents that competed with stock for feed, fences for corrals and pastures, reservoir for the enrollees, besides the benefits they brought to the local economy. Many of these works are still in use today. The value of the camp and its works to Grand County is beyond estimation. It was a significant milestone that greatly influenced the economic history of the county. All that remains of the camp today are the cottonwood trees planted by the enrollees that you see fronting this site, concrete stabs for buildings, graveled roads and rock-outlined walkways, the remains of an old windmill and rock masonry water storage tank. These remnants signify the moving history of a time when America valiantly struggled to restore its economic stability and provide its young people with meaningful employment.

JAPANESE-AMERICAN WORLD WAR II CONCENTRATION CAMP, 1943 On January 11, 1943, a train pulled int