• Mount Diablo State Park: Campgrounds - Mount Diablo CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built several campgrounds in Mount Diablo State Park.  Live Oak, Junction, and Juniper campgrounds come with individual campsites, while the five Group Camps – Buckeye, Barbecue Terrace, Wildcat, Stagecoach and Boundary – provide larger areas without individual sites.  Barbecue Terrace is equipped for equestrian use. Camp sites usually come with tables and stoves done in rustic style – wood planking on stone or concrete pillars and stone fireplaces or metal ring fire pits. The stone stoves built by the CCC were dubbed "Diablo Stoves" and their design was copied all over California. The campgrounds were part of...
  • Mount Diablo State Park: Picnic Areas - Mount Diablo CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built over fifty picnic areas in Mt. Diablo State Park. Most are small sites tucked into the trees along the roads up the mountain, each with a couple tables and stoves done in rustic style – wood planking on stone pillars and stone fireplaces ("Diablo Stoves").  Every picnic area is named, with clear signage, and they appear to be well maintained.  The photographs below are just a sample, descending from the summit to the North Gate (taken in mid-winter). The picnic areas are one element of the extensive works projects undertaken by the CCC at Mount...
  • Mount Diablo State Park: Roads & Drainage - Mount Diablo CA
    Both the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out projects at the Mount Diablo State Park from 1933 to 1942.  The CCC work is well-known, and it is acknowledged by the State Parks on their website and in signage at the Summit Building. Less recognized is the WPA work in the park, which was mostly on roads.  There is also extensive drainage work alongside and under the roads that features lovely rustic stonework.  The State Parks website attributes drainage works to the CCC but they may well have been done by WPA workers, too. WPA job cards in...
  • Mount Diablo State Park: Summit Building - Mount Diablo CA
    The Summit Building at the peak of Mount Diablo was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939-42.  It is a beautiful example of CCC rustic stonework, built for the ages using local sandstone quarried on the mountain. The Summit Building serves as a visitor center, observation platform and museum.  The museum contains displays about the natural history of Mt. Diablo, including a set of paintings of local wildflowers by WPA artists (shown below). The observation platform on top provides visitors with one of the grandest panoramas in California, if not the entire country; a 360º unimpeded view from San Francisco...
  • Mount Diablo State Park: Trails & Other Improvements - Mount Diablo CA
    Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked at Mount Diablo State Park for nine years, 1933-1942. Along with such notable features as the Summit Building, campgrounds and picnic areas (see linked project pages), the CCC 'boys' made many other improvements to the park.  These include hiking trails, entrance gates, retaining walls, drinking fountains, comfort stations, turn-outs and observation areas, residences for park staff, barracks for fire crews, a mess hall and other service buildings, and a water supply system.  The State Parks Department is quite cognizant of its debt to the New Deal for improving all the parks existing in the 1930s, as noted...