US Forest Service (USFS) Sites

The Land's End road up the western end of Grand Mesa was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933-34.  The main builders were 200 veterans enrolled in the CCC, who worked out of a CCC seasonal tent camp at the foot of the mountain; so, the project was long known as "the Veterans' Road". The road climbs up 9 miles up switchbacks to the rim of the mesa.  The hardest section, from Wild Road picnic area to the top, was completed by U.S. Forest Service employees in 1934-35. The road is still in use.

Originally named the Longbow Forest Camp, the Longbow Organization Camp is a group facility constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Sweet Home Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest (WNF).  Starting during the winter season of 1937-1938, the CCC workers completed the campground during the winter season of 1938-1939. Their work was supervised by the US Forest Service. CCC workers from nearby Camp Cascadia (Co. #2907) improved the ten-acre campground along the banks of the South Santiam. They built six sleeping shelters, a community kitchen with attached dining, an amphitheater that seats seventy-five people, and a water system...

A 10 by 12 foot relief map of the Los Padres National Forest was made in 1934 by enrollees of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The map is based on Forest Service and US Geological Survey maps of the area and was intended to be used in support of fighting forest fires. The plaque on the map tells us it was constructed at the CCC Camp at Castella CA near Mt. Shasta. The relief map was first displayed at the California International Exhibition in San Diego in 1935, then installed in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in 1936...

From 1936 to 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a large operational compound for the U.S. Forest Service's Malheur National Forest division. The site has had several names: John Day Compound, Government Hill, Malheur Forest Warehouse Shop.  The CCC men who worked at the site were stationed at CCC Camp Canyon City, a few miles south of John Day. The compound has about a dozen buildings, including offices, garages, shop, warehouse, gas station and residences.  The buildings are all rustic wooden clapboard or shingle structures and are in relatively good condition but showing their age.  There is excellent signage on...

In 1935, according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times, residents of Benton County requested that a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp be placed "on the shoulder" of Mary's Peak to build a road. Although such roads served forest management needs, this proposal emphasized the winter and summer recreational opportunities that they wished to develop with improved access to the upper heights of the tallest peak in Oregon's Coast Range. Road improvement and construction finally began in 1938 with the work of 50 CCC enrollees from a side camp of CCC Camp Nestucca and 25 Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees of the...

In 1935, enrollees from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Applegate began construction of a forest camp on the banks of the Applegate River near the McKee Bridge. The site already served as a popular local swimming hole and the CCC work would build on this popularity to open new public recreational opportunities in the Rogue River National Forest. The McKee Forest Camp opened in 1936 with privies, a bathhouse, a playground, and a community kitchen shelter as well as camp stoves, fire rings and picnic tables for day use. By the late 1930s, the Forest Camp served as a...

The Community Kitchen Shelter is the largest Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built feature at the McKee Bridge Picnic Ground. The 18' x 35' structure demonstrates the rustic-style design work that CCC enrollees used in the development of many US Forest Service campgrounds in Oregon. During 1935-1936, CCC enrollees from Camp Applegate learned the carpentry and masonry required that went into the kitchen shelter, using local stone and wood. The entrance to the kitchen shelter faces the Applegate River to the south. That elevation highlights the low-pitched wooden roof covered in wood shingles, and use of parallel, flattened logs that enclose the...

In the Rogue River National Forest, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Camp Applegate learned the techniques of masonry construction through various projects at the McKee Bridge Picnic Ground. A 200 foot long rock retaining wall along the riverbank was the largest masonry project. It separates the picnic grounds from the beach adjacent to the Applegate River. The wall, made of local bedrock and river rock, reinforces the terraced picnic area and provides stone steps to the beach as well. There are three staircases in this project. The retaining wall is five to eight feet high, adjusted as required by...

Also referred to as the McKenzie River Campground, the McKenzie Bridge Campground was among the first campgrounds built with Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor in the Willamette National Forest (WNF). The forest supervisor prioritized recreation projects in the WNF, setting a goal that 25% of CCC time be spent on recreational development with the remainder be spent on fire fighting and forest management responsibilities. CCC enrollees from Camp Belknap constructed the McKenzie Bridge Campground, laying out the site's roads and campsites, providing water, and constructing picnic tables as well as the needed facilities for camping and picnicking. Today at McKenzie Bridge...

The historic Mingue Mountain fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) working under the supervision of the US Forest Service. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The NRHP Nomination Form gives details: "Located on the Uerde Ranger District, this 59 ft steel x-brace tower with a 7 ft by 7 ft steel cab was erected in 1935, The lookout tower was designed by the Pacific Coast Steel Company. The wood frame cabin, a simple gable roofed structure with an overhanging front porch was also built in 1935. Study of historic photographs...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working out of Camp Soapstone, developed Mirror Lake Highway (now Highway 150) east of Kamas up into the Uinta Mountains.  The new highway opened up the entire western flank of the Uintas along the upper Provo River and over Bald Mountain Pass for public access and recreation. The high country here is dotted with small lakes and campgrounds, which are very popular with the Utahns today. The CCC men also developed facilities at Mirror Lake and Scout Lake, and probably some of the campgrounds along the highway. We do not know further details about the highway in...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working out of Camp Soapstone, developed Mirror Lake in the Uinta Mountains for recreation. This included a creating a picnic area with a lovely rustic shelter and building a forest service guard station near the entrance. Both still stand. A campground, boat launch and parking have been added to the area, which is very popular for families. The picnic shelter is notable for back-to-back wooden panels on which are etched a map of the Uinta mountains on one side and a description of the resources of the Wasatch National Forest on the other. It is almost certain...

The Mono Debris Dam was Built by CCC Co. 2928, Camp Mono, in Los Padres National Forest CA, in the vicinity of Santa Barbara. This debris retention dam was built to protect the Gibraltar Reservoir from sedimentation. Gibraltar Reservoir, on the Santa Ynez River is a major source of municipal water supply for the City of Santa Barbara.  

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of Wyoming constructed the Monument Ridge Fire Lookout in 1941. The structure is the only remaining fire lookout in Wyoming assembled with precut logs. The wooden cabin looks over the Hoback Ranger District and has a sweeping view of the surrounding mountain ranges. The lookout was used to identify and fight forest fires until the 1970s, when it was decommissioned by the U.S. Forest Service. Today, the Monument Ridge Fire Lookout is a common destination for hikers, bikers and ATV-riders who traverse the Hoback Mountain Range. It remains in relatively good...

Building or improving forest roads proved to be one of the most important forest management activities for enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), along with fire fighting and reforestation. That was the case with members of Company #622 from CCC Camp Hebo in the Siuslaw National Forest when they arrived in 1933. As one enrollee described the company members' earliest jobs, they improved the forest road up the hillside of Mt Hebo by "rocking" the road and cutting snags along the right-of-way. Mt Hebo Forest Service Road was an eight-mile road that began approximately a quarter mile from the junction...

The Mount Shasta Ranger Station was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935 in classic rustic park style.  The original Ranger Station consists of several buildings, including the main office/visitors' center, timber management office, guest house and auxiliary buildings – which remain in pristine condition. The ranger station was the headquarters of the Shasta National Forest (1905) until it was unified with the Trinity National Forest in 1950. It is now one of four management units of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, whose headquarters is in Redding.  A sister station is located in McCloud CA. A relief map of the Shasta-Trinity area hangs...

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s.   There are almost one hundred buildings and other facilities in the Union Creek Historic District, almost all of which conform to the Forest Service plans of the 1920s and 30s.  Roughly a third were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 to 1942, working out of the Upper...

Navajo Lake in Kane County, UT is a natural lake formed by a prehistoric lava flow.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) added a dike to raise the lake level and extend the recreational boating, swimming and fishing season.  This is one of several projects undertaken by the CCC in Dixie National Forest during the 1930s, under the supervision of the US Forest Service.

During development of the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC) Camp Agness, enrollees also began work on a Ranger Station for the Rogue River National Forest. When work began on a new ranger station in Gold Beach, the compound was renamed a guard station. The Agness Guard Station consisted of five buildings when built between 1933 and 1937. All structures drew upon the rustic design style used by the US Forest Service. These included: the Guard Station Office (1934), a one and one-half story ranger's residence (1937), the crew-house, a washhouse and a warehouse (1934). An onsite storage shed predated the Guard...

The Oregon State Forester’s Office was designed by a US Forest Service architect and constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers after preparation of the site by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this structure is considered one of Oregon’s best examples of a building in the National Parks style. Timberline Lodge heads the list in this category but the Oregon State Forester’s Office, although significantly smaller, shows a remarkably high quality of workmanship as well. Linn A. Forrest, the US Forest Service Architect associated with Timberline Lodge’s floor plan and elevations, produced the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Overlook shelter on Brian Head Peak in the Dixie National Forest in 1935.  The rustic stone shelter at 11,300 feet provides a panoramic view of the Cedar Breaks, which were declared a national monument by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.  The CCC team also built the road up to the overlook. A CCC camp had been established at Zion National Park in 1933, and in 1934 the CCC set up a 'stub camp' (closed in the winter months) at Cedar Breaks. In 1935, work teams were sent into Dixie National Forest where they worked...

The Oregon Skyline Trail, a portion of today's Pacific Crest Trail, was established in 1920. Its popularity among hikers and climbers grew to such an extent that a 1934 study of trail conditions produced a detailed report. Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees provided much of the labor for the recommended improvements. Improvements included relocation of stream fords due to hazardous or inconvenient conditions, alternative routes over portions of the trail, evaluation of campsites, recommendations for building of shelters, latrines, and garbage pits, and new trail signs and maps. Construction of shelters on the Skyline Trail was one notable priority facilitated by CCC...

Paradise Day Use Area is just a mile and a half from the McKenzie Ranger Station on the south bank of the McKenzie River. This picnic area was laid-out and improved by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from CCC Camp Belknap in 1937. When constructed it included both the current day use area and the adjacent Paradise Campground. At the time, "Paradise Camp" was meant to serve as many as five-hundred campers. In addition to the picnic areas with stone fireplaces/stoves, an amphitheater is located in the day use area. The log benches with back rests, laid out in two columns of...

In the early 1930s, the Civilian Conservation  Corps (CCC) made improvements to an experimental fire station established by the U.S. Forest Service in the Shasta National Forest, at Pilgrim Creek just east of McCloud Ranger Station. Pilgrim Creek had long been the site of a tree nursery for reforestation projects, but in 1930 an experimental fire station was added to the site. According to a former forest service fire control officer, the experiments concerned fire detection, control and prevention (see document in photograph below).  The same officer recalled that the CCC built a lab and office, a house and a barn, and it...

In 1933, U.S. Forest Service workers constructed a ranger residence at 243 West Pine Street in the city of Pinedale, Wyoming. The Colonial-Revival style building follows standard architectural plans created by George L. Nichols, a prominent regional architect whose designs were utilized by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) throughout the 1930s. The building was originally used as both an office and a dwelling for USFS rangers to administer services in the nearby Bridger-Teton National Forest. Today, the Pinedale Ranger District uses the dwelling for storage and occasional employee housing.

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s.   There are almost one hundred buildings and other facilities in the Union Creek Historic District, almost all of which conform to the Forest Service plans of the 1920s and 30s.  Roughly a third were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 to 1942. CCC enrollees worked during summer...

Around the turn of the 20th century, the Wasatch Mountain forests on federal lands were added to the national forest system and came under the supervision of the U.S. Forest Service.  The USFS began a process of reforestation in Big Cottonwood Canyon (among other areas), which had been completely denuded of trees in the 19th century to supply mines in the canyon, aqueducts and lumber for building Salt Lake City.  The Forest Service established a tree nursery at the site of the present Spruces Campground to supply seedlings for the reforestation effort. When the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) set up a...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out road and trail construction in the Chugach National Forest. Chugach NF covers most of coastal southern Alaska (the Chugach Mountains) and was created in 1907.   Alaska was distinctive in that the CCC camps were operated by the US Forest Service, not the Army as elsewhere.  "Forester Charles E Burdick headed the CCC program in Alaska, and by the end of 1934 the Forest Service had several camps in operation, with 325 men enrolled. Most of the camps were in Southeast Alaska, but small camps were also located in the Prince William Sound and...

After the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC) Camp Brice Creek in 1933, the enrollees undertook development of the Rujada Forest Camp. They constructed the forest camp to provide a recreation facility for visiting family, friends and local residents. CCC workers built the campground's registry and information booth in 1934. It's rustic design includes large diameter peeled logs and poles, a flagstone platform and split shake gable roof. The forest camp's current configuration provides twelve single- and three double-campsites.

In July 1939, work began on construction of the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge, using a design developed by Wesley "Buzz" Gilmore under the supervision of William Parke. Gilmore, a former Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee, and Parke were US Forest Service employees in the Willamette National Forest. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Mary's Creek Camp and Fish Lake Camp built the structure over the course of eight months. Made with local materials, the rustic-style lodge is an excellent example of CCC construction and the favored aesthetic of the era. Stone from nearby Hogg Rock makes up the first floor of Santiam...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working for the US Forest Service, constructed four fire lookout towers around Rocky Mountain National Park.  The one on the summit of Shadow Mountain, overlooking Grand Lake CO in the southwest corner of the park, is the last survivor of the four. Completed in 1933, the three-story lookout was built in the classic Rustic style favored by the US Forest Service and National Park Service at the time.  It consists of a concrete foundation, two stories of stone masonry, and a wooden upper story. It remained in use until 1968 and is today a scenic destination for...

In 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed three new buildings for the Sherman Guard Station, including an office, garage/shop, and an outhouse. Originally used as a yearlong headquarters for the Sherman Ranger District, the ranger station became a seasonal work center by 1933. The site was used intermittently throughout the 20th century, and has most recently served as the staging area for fire crews fighting the Mule Forest Fire in 2002. Six buildings remain onsite at the Sherman Guard Station today, and all three of the buildings constructed by the CCC remain in use by...

The Sims Flat Campground on the Sacramento River occupies the site of a former  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp, known as the Castella Camp (Castella is a larger town just to the north).  The CCC camp operated from 1934 to 1939. It is unknown to us when the US Forest Service opened the campground at this site.  Traces of the CCC camp still remain, such as the stone steps that led up to the former commanding officer's house and administration building. A plaque at the bottom of the steps reads: "CCC Camp (1934-1939). With its wooded valley and beautiful river setting, Sims was...

The fire lookout tower and associated outbuildings at Sinking Creek were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934, probably under the supervision of the US Forest Service (USFS). The complex includes various buildings including a house, garage, and outhouse. Also on site are a water well and presumably a pump beneath concrete tops.   Access to the fire lookout tower is by a metal ladder rather than the stairs that were subsequently used by towers.  Currently, it is not in active use, but is near the sinking Creek Trailhead and part of the extensive Ozark trail system. The complex is located...

During the summers of 1936 and 1937, enrollees from Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Applegate constructed a forest service road along the Siskiyou Crest linking the Beaver Creek area of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest with the Mount Ashland area. The approximately forty miles of road opened up the high forestlands of the eastern Siskiyous for management purposes and increased recreational use of this mountainous area. Although portions of Forest Road 20 on both the eastern and western sides are paved today, the majority of it remains unpaved and much of it is single lane as it was when constructed....

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the South Fork Ranger Station on the Alpine Loop Road (Highway 92), near the intersection of Highway 144, in 1933-34. The CCC enrollees who did the work were from Company 940 stationed in Camp F-5 at Granite Flat. The work was begun in the Summer of 1933 and a small CCC crew remained through the winter to finish work on the ranger station and the Timpanogos Cave trail and tunnel (Baldridge, p. 164). This is one of around three dozen ranger stations built by the CCC across Utah in the 1930s (Roper 2021).  South Fork Ranger...

Civilian Conservation Corps workers from Camp Canyon Creek constructed a warming cabin to the south of Starr Ridge and just to the east of Highway 395 sometime between 1937 and 1940. The log structure with its impressive fireplace and chimney sits adjacent to a groomed sledding hill.

A marvelous amphitheater graces the Storm Mountain picnic area.  It was created in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The amphitheater is built from local stone and backs up against a striking stone cliff, part of the dramatic geology of lower Big Cottonwood Canyon. A path and bridge lead to the amphitheater. The site was renovated by the US Forest Service and Chevron Corp workers in the early 1990s and is still actively used. It is marked by a plaque added at that time and an informational sign, which speaks proudly of the CCC "Forest Army" of the New Deal era...

Located in the Umatilla Forest of northeastern Oregon, the Summit Creek Guard Station provides an early example of the US Forest Service's development of such forest management complexes. Overtime, guard stations replaced lookout towers. Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees began construction of the complex in 1933. Other sources attribute development of the complex to work completed in 1938. The Depression-era bunkhouse and warehouse still stand. The bunkhouse is available for rental use.    

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working out of Camp Soapstone, built cabins for Camp Steiner on Scout Lake.  Camp Steiner was the Salt Lake City Boy Scout camp in the Uinta Mountains established in 1930.  Its development was given a boost in the Great Depression by the arrival of the CCC. This work was one of several recreational projects of the CCC in the western Uintas from 1933 to 1937, including the Mirror Lake Highway and facilities at Mirror Lake.  Today, Camp Steiner is known as Sunrock High Adventure Camp, a private non-profit.  The Sunrock Camp website mentions work cutting timber for...