Erosion Control Sites

Stabilization of Clatsop County's coastal dunes was the primary work project of CCC enrollees from Camp Warrenton from 1933 to about 1940. Soon after the completion of the south jetty on the Columbia River in 1913, beach erosion became a significant issue on the county's coastline as far south as Gearhart, Oregon. Soil scientists encouraged experimentation with planting Holland Dune Grass to stabilize dunes and to prevent road closures and property damage due to blowing sand. By 1936, soil scientists and local residents already noted improvements. In 1940, the success of the experiment was established. A 1940 article in The Oregonian reported: "There...

Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and became a national park through an act of Congress in 1928. The park covers 35,835 acres in south-central Utah. The New Deal greatly improved Bryce Canyon National Park.  Along with the National Park Service, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided special funds, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked continuously in the park, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was also active. The National Park Service recognizes the CCC's contribution on its website for Bryce Canyon NP, but not that of the PWA or WPA:  “During the 1930s...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp near the town of Callao, west-central Utah. It is unknown to us which years the camp operated. From their base of operations in the camp, CCC workers constructed a road over Sand Pass and erosion terraces, fences, and reservoirs on range lands. They also built campgrounds (possibly in what is now Big Basin National Park). When the camp closed, one of the camp buildings was moved to the town of Callao UT, where it was used first as a Mormon Church and later as an elementary school.  A site presently known as 'CCC campground', lying...

CCC Camp Frederick Butte (DG 68) was one of seven Civilian Conservation Corps camps established in Oregon to work with the US Grazing Service in the implementation of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The Taylor Act created grazing districts as a means to regulate use of public lands by Western ranchers with the goal of improving livestock management and the management of watersheds. CCC enrollees arrived at Frederick Butte in Deschutes County in 1937. As with other DG - or Public Domain Grazing - designated camps, the CCC men planted grasses, eliminated pests believed detrimental to the rangeland, managed the...

CCC Camp Warrenton housed companies of Civilian Conservation Company (CCC) enrollees with a special mission. Although called upon occasionally to fight fires, their primary charge was stabilizing beaches along Clatsop County's coastline. As reported by the Daily Astorian, the Columbia River south jetty had "played havoc on the beaches as far south as Gearhart" since its completion in 1913. Planting Holland Dune Grass along with wooden fences was, at the time, an experiment to halt beach erosion. One report suggests the commitment to this soil conservation project began with the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. By June 1936,...

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.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp 23 miles north of Monticello  in San Juan County, in the southeast corner of Utah. CCC teams worked around Dry Valley, Indian Creek, Blanding, Monticello and La Sal, building fences and corrals; flood control and erosion works, including reseeding, revegetation and cultivation; telephone lines; and  campgrounds.  The CCC men also built the road through the Abajo Mountains from Monticello to Blanding.  Nothing remains of the camp except ruins of the camp gate, building foundations, the access road and an old Pontiac -- all of which are well documented by Mary Cokenour on her blog site...

Until World War II, the site of present-day Camp Bowie was privately owned agricultural land. It is presently the site of Camp Bowie, a military installation owned by the Texas Military Department. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp 3818(V), active in Brown County from 1935 to 1936, was composed of 250 local veterans (hence the “V”) and was tasked with erosion control and drainage projects on privately owned land around Brown County. A few structures (now in ruins) likely built by CCC Camp 3818(V) remain on what became part of Camp Bowie, a military installation, at the start of World War...

Shelterbelts were natural windbreaks planted to protect land from the dust storms of the 1930s. The Great Plains Shelterbelts spans several states. The agency that started the project is unknown to the Living New Deal, but the project was transferred to the Works Progress Administration because of a dispute over the source of funding. Today, very few of the Depression-era shelterbelts are left, but a few trees remain of the shelterbelt built on the McFarland Ranch.  McFarland Ranch is a private property southwest of Cimarron. The ranch is south of the Arkansas River and the trees were originally irrigated by the Arkansas...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park occupies large areas of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The park’s creation was a decades-long process, including advocacy in the late 19th century; legislation signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926; and donations and land acquisitions from small donors, the governments of North Carolina and Tennessee, and charitable organizations, such as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. Once the park’s existence was firmly established, funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made it both accessible and accommodating to the public. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park on...

Seawall constructed on Hope St. Built by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1939.

The first tree of the Great Plains Shelterbelt, an Austrian pine, was planted at the Ed Curtis farm near Willow, Oklahoma, on March 18, 1935. The state forester of Oklahoma, George Phillips, did the honors. The Great Plains Shelterbelt was designed to mitigate damage from the 1930s dust storms.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in Rock Creek park, as well as the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, during the 1930s.  Among other work, the CCC enrollees cleared Rock Creek of brush, deepened the channel and added rip-rap and stone retaining walls to stabilize the channel at various places along the stream. The exact dates of the creek stabilization work are unknown, as the CCC had a camp in Rock Creek Park for most of the 1930s. Much of the CCC work appears to remain in place, though distinguishing it from earlier and later stonework is not certain.  

The UMN Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC) is the primary research and demonstration forest for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, currently a research and outreach center (ROC) for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences. The Cloquet Forestry Center was called the Cloquet Forest Experiment Station when the CCC was active in providing skilled labor to the University. Projects completed at the CFC by some of the men stationed at Big Lake Camp S79 from July 1933 to June 1937 include: - the construction of five and a half miles of fire break and truck trails. - brushing and improvement of 15...