1062 - Lantis Springs
This photo shows the entrance sign for Lantis Spring National Forest Campground in Montana. The brown-and-white sign stands prominently in a grassy landscape with rolling green hills and scattered trees stretching into the distance under a bright sky.
During the height of the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps was founded to provide jobs for young, unemployed men. Between 1933 and 1942, 40,868 individuals were assigned to CCC projects in Montana. While there, valuable contributions to forest management, flood control, conservation projects, and the development of state and national parks, forests, and historic sites were made.
In the early 1930s, a temporary camp near the border between Montana and South Dakota was established, a camp that would become known as Lantis Spring. In the tip of the Custer Gallatin National Forest, there was nothing in sight of the camp but wide open spaces, occasionally interrupted by a ridge, plateau, or eroded hill. The workers and their camp were out among the rattlesnakes, cactus, and grasshoppers, in a relatively secluded corner of the state, contributing to projects that today’s visitors can still appreciate.
The spring of 1935 brought major changes to the Lantis Spring camp. It was dismantled and relocated to other territories, including Long Pines, Montana and to neighboring Harding County across the border in South Dakota. A few buildings were left at the camp, in the hopes that the campsite could be used by the public for recreational purposes.
Encompassing six acres and sitting at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the Landis Spring campground welcomes visitors looking for a chance to unplug and unwind while exploring Carter County.