Berryman Campground

This small, remote campground and picnic area located at the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp of 1937 provides a quiet setting for escaping from your normal routine. With just 8 individual campsites and a picnic shelter, it is enjoyed by campers, picnickers, mountain bikers, equestrians, and hikers.  

The Berryman Trail leaves from this recreation area, and traverses 24 miles of scenic Ozark countryside and winding through timbered stands and fields. The hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding offer one a pleasant measure of solitude and quiet.

The western section of the trail also serves as part of the Courtois Section of the Ozark Trail. 

History of the Berryman CCC Camp

The Berryman CCC Camp, also known as Lost Creek, was home to the 3733rd Company and was designated Camp Number F-MO-13.

The camp’s initial construction began on May 29, 1935, under the command of Lieutenant Charles C. Isely. Twelve men were selected from Company 732 at Boss, Missouri to be the first enrollees of the 3733rd Company and were to be in charge of the cooking, road work, and other work that required special training. 

The early camp conditions were described by Robert Fechner, author of What the CCC Is and Does: Company 3733, Berryman, MO, as follows: “The men lived in one of the uncompleted buildings for two weeks, cooking and eating in the open, and in all enduring hardships that in the light of the present conditions, seem unreal.” The initial camp enrollees were tasked with “lifting the camp out of the mud and brush” (Direct Advertising Company 1937:146). Presumably this colorful language meant that the camp location was cleared of brush, trees, and other vegetation and the landforms leveled so that construction of buildings could begin.

By July 5, 1935, George E. Maness, Relief Director for Washington County, directed that a total of 41 men and seven alternates between the ages of 18 and 28 on the county relief rolls were to be sent to the Berryman CCC Camp. A total of 176 recruits arrived on July 5, 1935, to begin the construction of the camp. Frank D. Crawford was assigned by the Forest Service to be Project Superintendent and he arrived at the camp on July 9, 1935. The forestry office was temporarily housed in the Camp Headquarters Building until the completion of the Forestry Building in November 1935. The initial camp projects completed were the construction of the camp road and the establishment of a telephone line into the camp.

Between 1935 and 1937, the Berryman (Lost Creek) CCC Camp had “built over 50 miles of forest road, erected five steel fire lookout towers, built more than 40 miles of telephone line, planted approximately 320,000 pine trees, 280,000 black walnut trees and cleaned up several hundred acres of standing timber” (Direct Advertising Company 1937:147).

In June of 1938, an open house for the general public was held at the Berryman (Lost Creek) CCC Camp, at which over 5,000 people attended.

By 1942 and the participation of the United States in World War II, all activities of the CCC were discontinued. It is likely that most of the buildings, supplies, and materials from the Berryman (Lost Creek) CCC Camp were removed and put to other uses. A series of foundation remnants remain in the site area, which currently serves as a trailhead and campground.