Growden Camp - Republic, WA
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 48° 35.094 W 118° 18.310
11U E 403746 N 5382134
You Are Here at Growden Camp, created as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) forest camp in 1937, the purpose being to create both work and a recreational lake.
Waymark Code: WMRNC8
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 07/12/2016
Views: 1
This You Are Here sign is part of the map on an informational sign immediately north of the old 1937 changing house toward the southwest corner of the site. Today the camp is better known as the Growden Heritage Site.
At the Growden Heritage Site, once a CCC camp and now a rest stop along the Sherman Pass Scenic Byway there are several informational signs telling the story of the camp. Among one group of signs is this sculpture which represents one of the hundreds of CCC enrolees which toiled at the camp. Life sized, the sculpture is shown hard at work, lifting some heavy object, such as a tree or a large stone. There are two sculptures at the site, neither of which is signed, unfortunately.
The lake created at the camp was Sherman Lake, on Sherman Creek. It was to be a small recreational lake about a half mile long set in wilderness along the mountain road that eventually became Sherman Pass Scenic Byway. A 150' long, 25' high, 16' wide dam was built on the creek by the CCC in 1937, creating the lake and camping facilities were to be built at the site. Unfortunately, World War II intervened and the focus of the government shifted from the CCC to harvesting timber for the war effort. As a result the camp was closed in 1939.
One unforeseen problem with the lake was that, by the 1950s it began to silt up as a result of the slowing of water flow in the creek below the dam. So, in 2006 it was decided to remove the dam. The creek was returned to, as much as was possible, its original state. The only remnants from the camp and the dam are the changing house, built in 1937, and the concrete frameworks from the spillway, now resting beside the creek as benches. The changing house has been restored and moved to its present location from the west end of the lake.
The site is now maintained as Growden Heritage Site, with informational plaques along a short trail, highlighting the various aspects of what the viewer experiences along the trail.
