Work Relief Programs Sites

Silver Falls State Park's current North Falls day-use and group camp contains the site that once served the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Silver Creek Falls. CCC enrollees occupied this site from 1935 through 1940, working to improve the state park established in 1933. The first company of CCC enrollees to arrive included 215 young men, mostly from Illinois. The Oregonian reported that their quarters were completed at a cost of $10,000. Later enrollees arrived from Tennessee. As acknowledged on the plaque marking the site: " The young men of Camp Silver Creek Falls constructed trails, roads, bridges, buildings and planted thousands of trees....

A wooden sign marks the site of former CCC Camp Bluemound, Company 2606, which operated in the vicinity from 1933-1942.

Soon after the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in March 1933, CCC Camp Skinner Butte was established in Eugene, Oregon to serve as the headquarters of CCC camps in what was then the Eugene District. Within a year, regional administrators reconfigured the districts and closed Camp Skinner Butte. During its year of operation, Camp Skinner (as it was dubbed) served as the headquarters for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA) as well. The Camp occupied the former car camping and picnic area in Eugene's Skinner Butte Park. Although the City of Eugene established a...

CCC Company 1713 established Camp Smokey in Roaring River State Park in the 1930s and used it as a base from which to make extensive improvements throughout the area. The large CCC camp itself  is still remarkably well-preserved. The camp is within the state park, but it is well-defined as its own area, Camp Smokey.  The buildings are still used at this time.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp SP-10 in Strawberry Canyon in the hills behind the main campus of the University of California, Berkeley.   Camp SP-10 was home to CCC Company 751 from October 5, 1933 to May 31, 1934. H.C. Merrick was the Commanding Officer. This was an integrated CCC camp, based on photographs of the enrollees. It is believed that the camp was at current location of the parking lot across from the university botanical garden.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) maintained a camp on French Creek east of Custer State Park in South Dakota from 1934 to 1941.  It was officially camp SP-3 (meaning State Park #3).  The recruits worked on projects in region under the supervision of Custer State Park rangers and the National Park Service (NPS). The CCC enrollees built many miles of road, telephone lines and boundary fences. To this they added 20 bridges.  They constructed a fire lookout on Mt. Coolidge, along with a ranger's residence there, and fought fires and bark beetle infestations. They developed the Blue Bell Lodge and cabins...

In the  winter of 1935, members of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) #1629 began construction of camp administrative and barracks buildings near Squaw Butte to facilitate CCC work related to the 16,000 acre Squaw Butte Federal Experimental Range Station. Today some of those building survive to support work at the North Great Basin Experimental Range Station and continued research on the ecology and  management of rangelands. CCC Company #2504 arrived in October 1936 to further the work associated with the Squaw Butte Experiment Station and its efforts to improve grazing conditions in this very dry, sagebrush area of Harney County, Oregon. The...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.)'s Camp Toumey was stationed at Mohawk State Forest from June 25, 1933 to July 26, 1941. "Named for James W. Toumey, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry, CCC men from this camp lived among the rugged hills and panoramic vistas of northwestern Connecticut. This camp was originally designed as a camp exclusively for veterans of World Was I and, as such, the enrollees were older. But as the veterans' need for employment waned, younger enrollees were gradually added to the camp." Among other projects linked to from this page, accomplishments included: "fighting forest fires; making improvements...

From 1935 through May 1941, the area now occupied by the Trask River County Campground served as the site of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Trask. The enrollees stationed at the camp worked primarily on truck trail construction and other activities related to "fire hazard reduction" on private forest land. As described in the Vancouver Barracks report (1937): "Camp Trask is built in a grove of fir and spruce trees on the bank of the river and affords a very attractive site. The buildings are arranged into a square, with parade grounds and flagpole in the center. Electric lights are provided...

The CCC built camp facilities near Lindbergh Bay in St. Thomas. The Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands for 1938 describes the CCC's effort to expand enrollment and camp facilities across the islands: "The senior camp in St. Thomas has maintained an enrollment of approximately 75 persons, and the junior camps in St. Thomas and St. Croix have maintained their authorized enrollment of 100 men each. In the next fiscal year it is proposed to increase the enrollment of the St. Croix camp from 100 to 150 men" In 1939, the Lindbergh Bay camp moved to make way for a Marine Corps...

The CCC built camp facilities at Estate Grand Princess (La Grande Princesse) near Christiansted. The Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands for 1938 describes the CCC's establishment and planned expansion of the camp in St. Croix, "the junior camps in St. Thomas and St. Croix have maintained their authorized enrollment of 100 men each. In the next fiscal year it is proposed to increase the enrollment of the St. Croix camp from 100 to 150 men."

Built in the summer of 1935 and operated through October 1940, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Vale served as the base for CCC enrollees working on the Vale Project's irrigation system. The Bureau of Reclamation's Vale Project involved construction of the Agency Valley Dam, located along the Malheur River and Willow Creek in east-central Oregon. At the dam's completion, the work of the enrollees at Camp BR-45/Camp Vale began. They finished the necessary means of furnishing irrigation water to area ranchers by building the lateral irrigation system to farm tracts in the area. These "soil soldiers," as the Bureau of Reclamation...

Camp Wawona, at the south end of Yosemite National Park, was one of two hubs for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the park during the New Deal era, 1933-42 (the other hub was at Camp Cascades in Yosemite Valley).  The Wawona area had only been added to the park in 1932 and there was much work to be done to improve that part of the park. The first two camps at Wawona, YNP #1 and 2, were established in May 1933 and were the first CCC camps in the West. These early camps were located at the far end of...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (C.C.C.)'s Camp White, which housed Company #106 at American Legion State Forest in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, operated from Dec. 28, 1933 to Jan. 1, 1942. C.C.C. Museum: This camp was named for Alan C. White, who was a leader in the campaign to purchase the land that would become Peoples State Forest. The original site of Camp White is now used as a youth group camping area and the building site and camp roads are still visible. The camp had a tree nursery and built the Stone Museum as a natural interpretive center. The museum, nursery building, and camp office are...

MP4 Camp Wilderness was one of 4 CCC camps in the Fredericksburg area set up to develop locations of major Civil War battles, Camp Bloody Angle (MP-1) was at the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Camp Wilderness (MP-4) was at the Battle of the Wilderness, and Camp Chancellorsville (MP-3) was at the Battle of Chancellorsville. One camp was on private property centered between the other three. It was Camp Malcomb McArthur (P-69) along Catharpin Road. The Wilderness camp was established Oct 14, 1933 and was abandoned Apr 3, 1941. First, it was home to the boys of Company 282. On...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)'s Company #176, Camp Wolcott, was based at Paugnut State Forest in Torrington, Connecticut. It operated from 1933 to 1937. Work accomplished included construction of 8 miles of truck trails and many miles of cross-country ski trails.

Located approximately five to seven miles east of Cascade Locks, CCC Camp Wyeth/Cascade Locks (Camp F-7) was one of the longest operating Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the Columbia River Gorge. The US Forest Service's Wyeth Campground currently operates on the site of the former CCC facility. In the summers of 1933 and 1934, tents provided shelter for 200 enrollees put to work on road, trail and campground construction projects. In the summer of 1935, a more permanent commitment to the camp was made when construction of CCC Camp Cascade Locks began on the site located south of Wyeth Road and...

Camp Zigzag, near Zigzag OR in Clackamas County, was the chief Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the Mount Hood National Forest, operating from 1933 to 1942 when the CCC was terminated.  Several of the CCC buildings are still in place and in use at the site, which is now one of four US Forest Service district Ranger Stations in the Mt. Hood NF. Some of the buildings at Camp Zigzag predate the CCC, but most were built by CCC workers and are still standing and in use: the Ranger's Office, Carpenter Shop, Bunkhouse Residence, Ranger's Residence, Gas House, Fire Warehouse,...

Starting with 1933, the CCC built multiple camps in the Tongass Forest, among which was a camp on Annette Island. Initially, the Alaska program consisted of builiding small camps in the Tongass and Chugach forests, with an enrollment of 325 men. The program expanded in 1937 outside of the National forest boundaries. The Annette Island camp was part of this expansion: "As a result of the additional enrollment and work load, the Forest Service began a cooperative program with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The expanded program made special efforts to enroll Eskimos and other native Alaskans....

From 1933-1937 a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp operated within the Blue Hills Reservation, south of Boston. Over that time the CCC made numerous improvements to the Reservation, including two lookout towers, ski trails, a toboggan run, and any number of road and trail enhancements. Bare remnants of the CCC camp remain today, but are noted with historical markers. Description of C.C.C. activities in the Blue Hills Reservation, per the Metropolitan District Commission 1938 annual report: "The camp work crews assigned to the creosoting of gypsy moth egg clusters continued the work started in the fall of 1936 until the spring hatching...

Several CCC camps performed extensive work in the Chequamegon National Forest: F-11 Camp Beaver at Clam Lake F-43 Camp Cable, Company V-1676 at Cable F-10 Camp Chippewa River at Loretta F-15 Camp Clam Lake, Company 653 Just east of Clam Lake on Hwy 77 F-14 Camp Ghost Creek, Company 652 about 7 miles south west of Clam Lake on Hwy 77 on the south side of the highway. F-24 Camp Loretta, Company 652 3 miles north of Loretta on Conuty Road GG, then Left on Forestry Road 621 for .4 Miles to a trailhead. f-12 Camp Mineral Lake, Company 638 at Marengo F-13 Camp Moose River, Company 3606...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in the Coronado National Forest during the 1930s. Coronado National Forest is discontinuous across southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico because the forested areas occur only on isolated mountain ranges called "Sky Islands" – a type of landscape similar to the Basin and Range in Nevada. Segments of the national forest are found in five counties: Cochise, Graham, Santa Cruz, Pima, and Pinal Counties in Arizona, and Hidalgo County in New Mexico. There were five CCC camps in  Coronado National Forest south-central Arizona: F-42 Tanque Verde in the Rincon Mountains; SP-11, Box Canyon...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was extremely active in Grand Canyon National Park from 1933 to 1942.  There were six CCC camps on the North Rim, South Rim and in the canyon itself and seven companies active over the decade: #818, 819, 847, 2543, 2833, 3318 and 4814.   Grand Canyon National Park received more development funds and labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps than any other location in Arizona. CCC enrollees built many of the recreation facilities still in use today, such as paths, trails, roads, shelters, and campgrounds, along with basic infrastructure, such as telephone lines, electric lines, water pipes and sewer...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park was established in 1921 with purchases of some of the last remaining Old Growth stands of Coast Redwoods by the Save the Redwoods League. It has since been expanded several times and now includes over 51,000 acres, of which 17,000 are old growth redwood stands.   California did not establish a state parks system until 1928, and little improvement work had been done at Humboldt Redwoods before the New Deal.  When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived at Dyerville camp in 1933, the young men got to work right away developing the state park.  There were three CCC...

On January 29, 1935, the Emergency Conservation Work was inaugurated on the Virgin Islands and the CCC was established along with two camps. The CCC built camp facilities across the islands, on St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. The Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands, published betweeen 1935 and 1942 describes the CCC’s effort to establish and expand the camps: “Substantial and well-equipped camp buildings have been constructed, the necessity to provide against hurricanes making it desirable to provide sturdy housing units. The enrollees (limited to the ages between 18 and 25 years) are benefiting by improved food and...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park during the whole of its lifetime, 1933 to 1942.  There were at least six camps in the park, three of which were permanent and three seasonal. The camps were labeled NP-1, 3, 4, 7, 11 and 12. The first camp was NP-1 at Little Horseshoe Park in the northeast part of the park.  The second camp was NP-3 located about 12 miles north of Grand Lake at Phantom Valley, a tent camp that only lasted 1933-34. Camp NP-4 built in 1934 in Hollowell Park was the first permanent camp with...

"The Civilian Conservation Corps played an important role in helping establish the Nicolet National Forest as a viable and productive area... CCC enrollees working on the Nicolet Forest performed many duties, including forest fire control, tree planting, road construction, recreation area construction and maintenance, installation of telephone lines, fish and wildlife habitat improvement, timber stand improvement and surveying. Much of the work done by the CCC is still evident today. Many roads, recreation areas, ranger stations, the Trees for Tomorrow training center and countless timber plantations exist because of the corpsmen's hard work. At the peak of the CCC program, the Nicolet...

"There were 17 permanent CCC camps on the White Mountain National Forest. After establishing their campsites, the men constructed ski and hiking trails, high country shelters, roads, campgrounds and parking areas. Where there was only a foot trail before, the CCC built the road through Evan's Notch. The planting of new trees was not as necessary on the White Mountain as it was in the 1930's on other National Forests. The lasting impact of the CCC camps in the New England National Forests may be seen today as it is on other Forests in the Eastern Region. The CCC work...

Hawk’s Nest State Park began as 31 acres bought by the state of West Virginia and is now an 838 acre park southwest of Anstead, Fayette County, West Virginia. The park overlooks the New River along the Midland Trail (US 60). Ten New Deal era resource types are identified in the park including “stone work; water fountains; fireplaces and picnic pads; trails; a culvert; a multi-use building with a museum, observatory, and residence; a concession building; storage building; picnic shelter; and restroom buildings.” The CCC operated two camps in Hawk’s nest. Camp Lee SP-6 Project 532 (10 July 1935-1942) and Camp...

A CCC monument erected in 1987 commemorates CCC Company 884 which worked out of Rush Springs, Oklahoma. This camp focused primarily on "soil conservation due to the nature of the soil in this area. The work performed here consisted of terracing and other work to deter soil erosion...A granite monument is erected east of the municipal pool on the east side of Jeff Davis Park, on the east side of Rush Springs. CCC Company 884 camp was located in this area between 1933 and 1942." (waymarking.com) The monument inscription includes: "To all the young men who served and to future generations that...

"SCS-10 Camp Cabell was located in Cabell County about two miles east of Milton on bottom land of the Thomas Joseph Berkeley farm, south of US Rt. 60 and between the highway and the railroad tracks... Due to its location, the camp was able to obtain water service from the Town of Milton. The camp was occupied July 31, 1939 by CCC Company 1512 which had been transferred from Camp Crawford, SCS-2, Elizabeth, WV. Work on local farms included fence construction, gully treatment, surveying and land preparation for strip cropping. A major project was the construction of a dam, creating a one...

The CCC carried out a forestation project that involved planting hardwood trees at Clabash Boom, at Johnson Bay on St. John.

The 159th Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps under the command of Lieutenant Leon Jeffers had a camp at Hay Lake outside Patten, Maine from June 1933 to September 1937. The camp's main function was fire protection. From Michael Earl Williams in a tribute to his father, a member of the 159th, on the Maine State Archives website: On October 16, 1936, Mac was assigned to the 159th Company at Fort Williams, Maine and into Hay Lake Camp, about twenty miles north & west of the town of Patten. Very remote and rugged, these wooded, mountainous forests were where work began...

From Our Mark on This Land (2011): "If you have driven, hiked, or slept in the Chisos Mountains, you have experienced CCC history. In May 1933, Texas Canyons State Park was established; it was later renamed Big Bend State Park. Roads and trails were needed for the new park, and the CCC provided an ideal workforce. A year after the park was established, 200 young men, 80 percent of whom were Hispanic, arrived to work in the Chisos Mountains. The CCC's first job was to set up camp and develop a reliable water supply. The CCC boys faced many challenges, living...

Beginning in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working from NPS regional office designs, built new structures and cleared “unneeded or undesirable” buildings, lakes, and ponds. Corpsmen also did landscaping work to improve the camp- and picnic grounds, overlooks, and places for parking. Corpsmen also helped restore historic buildings.

Utah had two Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID) camps, both on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the eastern part of the state. The Ute Tribal Council helped select the projects, which were typical of arid region works by CCC teams: erosion control, catch-dams for watering livestock, roads and fire trails, and telephone lines.

“In 1935 CCC Camp Conner was established at the present site of the Shenipsit Forest Headquarters and CCC Museum." What is now the CCC Museum was originally the camp office and officers' quarters. "The Museum is located in the only remaining CCC barracks building in the State and pays homage to the dedicated men who worked in Connecticut camps. The museum features a large collection of tools, equipment, photographs, and memorabilia from the former Camp Conner and 21 other camps in the State.”

In 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed at Camp Fremont in Pinedale, Wyoming built a large system of ponds for environmental and recreational purposes. Additional camp work included a variety of other projects such as reforestation, flood control, and road building. Following the closure of Camp Fremont in 1942, the CCC Ponds went out of use and became derelict. The ponds were reconstructed in the 1990s, however, and were given thematic names after resident wildlife, including the Fish Pond, Duck Pond, Beaver Pond, and Frog Pond. Today, the CCC Ponds are a popular recreation area for fishing, walking, biking and watching...

CCC crews (Camp G-31) conducted work in the vicinity of Vernal, including building this small reservoir, or "CCC Tank."

This smaller, concrete CCC project from 1940 is located at the west side of the junction of Lincoln Street and N 11th Street in Klamath Falls, OR. This smaller, CCC-built project is located along what's known as the 'A-Canal', one of many 'lettered' irrigation canals that make up the Klamath Water Project. The A-Canal serpentines its way through Klamath Falls and is THE first of the lettered canals to divert water from Lower Klamath Lake to other lettered canals throughout the Basin. The CCC camp responsible for creating this concrete retaining wall in 1940 was either Camp 19 (Project BR-41 / Co....