CCC Camp Scioto & McBride Lake

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In the mid-1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from nearby Camp Scioto built McBride Lake in the headwaters of Pond Run, a small tributary of the Ohio River.

One of six lakes originally built with CCC labor, McBride is one of the smaller reservoirs, yet one whose curved spillway illustrates the fine stone work of the CCC.

Floyd Chapman, a Field Ecologist with the Ohio Division of Conservation who studied the work of the CCC in southern Ohio, noted that these "lakes were built primarily to provide water for CCC Camps, but are being used at present [in 1938] for public recreation, including fishing, boating and swimming. Such lakes are likewise valuable to wildlife, promote better plant growth, and aid in flood control."

Camp Scioto was the home of Company 552 of the CCC and its work and camp life is well documented thanks to the work of Rudy Yukich, a member of the unit, who kept a photo album of his days in Shawnee Forest. The CC Boys of Company 552 built the reservoir and worked on the construction of Forest Road Nos. 2 and 5. It was enrollees from Camp Scioto that built the Pond Run Fire Tower, which long stood above the lake, offering a dramatic view of the forest and the Ohio River.

Sources:

Floyd Barton Chapman, "The Development and Utilization of the Wildlife Resources of Unglaciated Ohio," (Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1938).

Rudy Yukich Collection, Shawnee Digital History Lab, Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio.