This tall Nebraska historical markers located in Riverside Park, Hebron Nebraska. Riverside Park has been expanded to include baseball field and a couple of practice fields. This historical marker is specifically located on Holdredge Avenue, west of South Avenue, just east of the new baseball fields.
The marker reads as follows:
"THE HEBRON CCC AND POW CAMPS
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was authorized by Congress in 1933 to provide employment and vocational training to young men during the Great Depression. The CCC worked on forestry and soil conservation projects across the nation. Company 752 of the CCC occupied a camp at this site from October 2, 1934 through August 15, 1941. Up to 200 men were housed in the compound, known as Camp Thayer. The motto was “We lead, others follow.” Men from Camp Thayer were sent to the Republican Valley after the 1935 flood to perform emergency work.
During World War II, six of the nine barracks at the former CCC camp were used as a side camp to house as many as 120 German prisoners of war from the overcrowded POW camp at Concordia, Kansas. The first prisoners arrived in early December 1943. The POWs performed farm work arranged by the Thayer County nonstock Cooperative labor Association, replacing local men who had entered military service. The Hebron POW camp closed on November 15, 1945. The site of the camp is now the city’s Riverside Park.
City of Hebron
Nebraska State Historical Society"
An original CCC Company 752 barracks building was restored and moved to the grounds of the Thayer County Museum complex: (
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"The Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, as it was commonly called, was a government program that was operated from around 1933 to 1942, to provide jobs for men ages 17 - 28, that couldn't find work elsewhere due to the depression of the 1930's. The first boys to arrive here came on Oct. 2, 1934.
They built buildings, roads, planted trees, helped out in emergencies, and performed many other tasks. One CCC site was in Hebron at what is now called Riverside Park. During World War II, in 1943, 1944, and 1945, the CCC buildings in Hebron were used to house Prisoners of War, or POW's.
The POW's that were held at the camp were available for hire by local farmers, to help make up for the lost labor due to those serving the military. Fred Pohlmann of Byron was one of the farmers who often hired POW's. Fred would drive a truck to Hebron where 6 to 12 POW's and one guard would climb in the box of the truck for a ride 16 miles to his farm north of Byron with him. He and his wife Justine spoke German and could communicate very well with them. Even though there were strict rules about how farmers interacted with the prisoners, such as not letting them in your house, everyone got along so well, that they often fed the group dinner at their dining room table. One afternoon the guard had to ask his prisoners for a favor. He sat his gun down in the field and couldn't find it. All the prisoners that were with him, went out to the field and searched until one of them found it, and willingly handed it over to him. The prisoners were treated very well and they knew it. They had no desire to escape. Some of them later returned to the United States and lived out the rest of their life here.
In the years that followed many of the buildings were moved to other locations and used for other purposes. One of the buildings, or it may have actually been part of a larger building, rested just a couple feet west of an alley in Hebron between 3rd & 4th, and Jefferson & Holdrege Streets. This building has been mostly restored and now donated, by Bob and Becky Reinke to the Thayer County Historical Society grounds in Belvidere NE. On Monday, April 16, 2018, Ball and Sons Moving transported it to the Museum Grounds for permanent display. It has been re-sided with exact duplicate wood siding, has the original windows, and the original type of rolled asphalt roofing. The floor will be replaced after it is set down on the foundation, with flooring Richard Reinke salvaged in about 1978, from a 2 story house in Deshler that stood at 215 Bryson Street. Most of that salvage work from that house was done by Clarence Shoof, and a refugee named Dua Lee, and Bob Reinke during the summer. The building where Kathy Taylor has her beautician shop in Deshler is also a former CCC/POW building. The north side still has the original windows and siding on it."
"This CCC building was originally on the CCC grounds in Hebron NE. where is was also used to house POW's. It was moved to 3rd street between Holdrege & Jefferson, in Hebron and used for living space and later storage. From 2017 - 2018 it was restored and donated by Bob & Becky Reinke. Ball and Sons moved it to the museum grounds April 17, 2018.