Historical Marker

Lucy Lepper Shaw

Side 1

Camp Capitan for underprivileged young women flourished at the site of a short-lived CCC camp for young men near here, thanks to the enterprising Lucy Lepper Shaw. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia University, and was the first woman investment counselor at Bankers Trust Co. in New York. In five years, 2,000 girls from New Mexico and Arizona, many from Hispanic families left destitute by the Great Depression, lived here.

Side 2

The girls became skilled in stenography, furniture restoration, flag making, colcha embroidery and the performance arts through Lucy’s curriculum. She and her husband ran Camp Capitan on a shoestring and it outlived other girls’ camps of the era. Her students’ work is treasured by family members. Tin light fixtures the girls crafted for White Sands National Monument still are in use today.