Digital Repository

CCC Camp, Carlsbad Project, New Mexico, 1940

This image shows members of the Civilian Conservation Corps working on the Carlsbad Project in New Mexico, a system of dams and irrigation networks designed to bring water to over 25,000 acres of land in the area. Camps such as this one were organized along semi-military lines, with enrollees grouped into companies led by officers. After the CCC was shut down at the beginning of World War II, some of these camps were used as internment camps for Japanese-Americans or as prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. The Carlsbad camp was one of those later used to house POWs.

CCC Camp, Carlsbad Project, New Mexico, 1940. Records of the Bureau of Reclamation, Record Group 115, National Archives and Records Administration.