As we celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, the America250 initiative invites us to honor the communities that endured the hardest times and built something lasting from them. At Giants Ridge, a proud member of the Adventures Unbound family, we are recognizing the Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees who transformed Minnesota’s Iron Range from an unemployment crisis into a model of conservation and public land stewardship.

When 70 Percent of the Range Was Out of Work

The Great Depression hit Minnesota’s Iron Range harder than almost anywhere in America. Unemployment reportedly reached 70 percent in mining communities across the Mesabi Range. When the CCC arrived in 1933, it was not just a conservation program. It was a lifeline.

Minnesota became one of the CCC’s most active states, with over 145 camps employing more than 84,000 men from 1933 to 1942. The first camp in the state, Company 701, opened at Lake Gegoka near Isabella on May 8, 1933, within the Superior National Forest that surrounds the Giants Ridge area. Close to Biwabik, CCC Camp S-53 at Side Lake housed Company 717, with the majority of enrollees drawn from Mesabi Range homes. These men completed forest surveys across six townships, constructed dams on the Sturgeon River and Big Bear Lake, and conducted fish and wildlife lake surveys.

Just ten miles from Giants Ridge, Camp Esquagama in Biwabik Township was established in 1934 with labor furnished by local CCC and WPA companies. It earned listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Across the state, CCC enrollees planted over 123 million trees, built 45,000 miles of telephone lines, and developed 32,500 acres of public campgrounds.

From Depression to Destination

Today, Giants Ridge sits in a landscape that the CCC helped reforest, survey, and protect during the darkest economic period in Iron Range history. The forests you ski through, the lakes you paddle, the trails you hike all benefited from the work of young men who had no other employment options and chose to build something that would outlast their hardship.

To learn more about how we are celebrating the diverse stories behind America’s national heritage, visit America250 at Adventures Unbound.