Forestry and Agriculture Sites

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Civil Works Administration (CWA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted extensive development work at Massachusetts's Blue Hills Reservation. Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual reports detail the work of the CCC over time. 1933 report: "In the latter part of June a Civilian Conservation Camp was established by the National Park Service for Emergency Conservation Work for State Parks in the Blue Hills Reservation near Randolph Avenue. The camp was in charge of U. S. Army Officers. The enlisted men in the camp varied from 212 to 145. The work of the men in the reservation has been handled by a...

The historic Bluewater fire lookout tower in Lincoln National Forest was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. NRHP Nomination Form: "Located on the Mayhill Ranger District, this 45 ft high steel tower with a 7 ft by 7 ft steel cab represents an Aermotor LX-E4 type or an International Derrick Company tower. The Forest Service records are not clear on this point. Research efforts have not been able to clarify this. It appears that while the International Derrick Company did manufacture steel towers, they did not differ much from the more common Aermotor towers. Other Forest Service records cited...

The Boise National Forest CCC Camp (F-78) was located near Atlanta, and left permanent structures there and in Garden Valley. From the National Forest Service: "In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Boise National Forest to protect timber and watershed resources in southwestern Idaho. The Forest Service added lookouts, campgrounds, and roads, assisted by hundreds of young men enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression, Deadwood Lookout and Atlanta Ranger Station were built by the CCC—now available for overnight rental." Also from the Forest Service: "Atlanta Cabin is located in the old mining town of Atlanta, Idaho, at an...

"In 1937, 12,000 acres (49 km²), mostly tidal salt marsh stretching eight miles (13 km) along Delaware Bay, were purchased to establish the Bombay Hook Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. The land was purchased with duck stamp funds. On April 1, 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) based at Leipsic, Delaware started work on the refuge. They cleared wooded swamps and built a dike to create Raymond and Shearness Pools and a causeway to separate Shearness and Finis Pools, creating three freshwater impoundments; they planted over fifty thousand trees; and they built a headquarters building, a boathouse and marine railway, an observation tower, and houses...

This camp operated out of the location of an abandoned hotel in the former mining town of Bootjack in the Mother Lode area of California. According to various articles written for the local newspaper by the camp members, tasks performed were road construction, water infrastructure, and fire fighting. In late 1936, the camp was transfered to Tehachapi. I haven't had the means of determining yet if they returned to the location, since that was hinted at in the newspaper articles by officials of the New Deal.

In 1936 the Bureau of Biological Survey (BBS) determined that Bosque del Apache site was suitable for a migratory bird refuge. Condemnation of the land was initiated through the 1931 Migratory Bird Conservation Act and concluded in December 1936. The landowner  was paid around $12/acre for about 57,000 acres. The refuge was formally established by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. Between 1939 and 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Work Progress Administration (WPA) sent in teams of relief workers to restore the refuge land under the guidance of the BBS, which became the US Fish &...

Bradbury Mountain State Park is a public recreation area in the town of Pownal, Cumberland County, Maine, managed by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The state park covers 730 acres. The park was created in the 1940s as one of Maine's original five state parks after the land was acquired from the Federal government in 1939. This Park land was acquired by the Government under the Soil Conservation Land Utilization Program. Purchased from the owners in 1936 to 1938, it was developed by WPA labor in 1939. It is leased to the Maine State Park Commission and administrated by...

The Civilian Coservation Corps (C.C.C.) was active at the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, Mass. 1934 Metropolitan District Commission annual report: "Under Chapter 338, Acts of 1934, the Commission were authorized to purchase about 650 acres of land in Saugus and Wakefield, adjacent to the Lynn Fells Parkway, near the junction of the Newburyport Turnpike. This area, which has been named Breakheart Reservation, will be developed into one of the most attractive recreation parks in the Metropolitan District. Application has been made for establishing a Civilian Conservation Camp by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior." 1936 report: "About 3,000 man hours...

The Breckenridge Lookout is in the Greenhorn Ranger District: "Breckenridge Lookout, elevation 7,548 feet, is the southern most lookout on the Sequoia National Forest. It is located approximately 50 miles east of Bakersfield off of the Caliente-Bodfish Road on Forest Service Road 28S62. This fire detection location was established in 1912; the original lookout being a crows nest observation platform in a tree on the top of the mountain. The current lookout a C-3 style live-in cab, was built in 1942 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and as such is considered a historically significant structure. Breckenridge...

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the Bridgton CCC Camp Co. 1124 in Bridgton ME. "History of the 1124th Company. Civilian Conservation Corps. On June 1st, 1935, Lt. J. L. Fearer arrived in Bridgton with a cadre of 23 men from the Rangeley Camp No. 2107, and Bridgton Camp No. 11005 was officially begun. For a time the Cadre was quartered in the "Exposition Building" of the Bridgton Agricultural Association. The members of the cadre worked diligently, and under Lt. Fearer' s direction civilian carpenters rushed the construction of the buildings. Lt. F. R. Blaisdell, Jr. was assigned to the Company on June 23,...

The West Lookout Tower was completed by CCC laborers in 1936. The building is a two story structure overlooking a valley. The style of the lookout is classified as parks rustic.

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 historic Buck Mountain fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). NRHP Nomination Form: "Located on the Long Valley Ranger District, this 30 ft high CT-2 wooden x-brace tower has a 14 ft by 14 ft L-4 wood cab on top. It was built in 1933, probably by a CCC crew. The steps were slightly altered in 1953. The timbers were treated for preservation in 1957 and the roof was reshingled in 1983. These modifications have not had a negative impact on the property. This represents the best example of a surviving CT-2 type tower in the...

"Bunker Tower is an observation tower on the peak of Cheaha Mountain in Cheaha State Park located in Cleburne County, Alabama, U.S.A. The tower is located at the peak of Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama. The tower is a large stone building completed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It originally had park offices and a gift shop in the wings on either side of the observation tower. The tower is immediately adjacent to the very tall Alabama Public Television WCIQ transmitter tower which aids it being a central meeting place that can be easily found despite...

"During the 1930s, taking advantage of the public works programs offered by the Depression-era New Deal, Burlingame became home to the 141st Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was the first, the state headquarters, and one of five such camps in Rhode Island. Beginning in 1933, out of work young men, in their late teens and early twenties were put to work making roads and trails. In addition they built fire places, camp sites, and picnic areas, while making recreational improvements to the beaches of Watchaug Pond. Forest management activities went on throughout Rhode Island, particularly in the aftermath of...

"Cahaba Homestead Village (usually Cahaba Village, listed as the Cahaba Homestead Village Historic District). is a planned residential development located on the banks of the Cahaba River north of downtown Trussville (map). It was constructed between 1936 and 1938 by the Resettlement Administration on the site of the original Trussville Furnace. Originally called "Slagheap Village" because of the large slag piles covering the site, Cahaba Village became a distinct and active community during World War II. It was incorporated, along with "Old Trussville" into the City of Trussville in 1947... The design was approved in 1936 and constructed over the following...

Originally known as Slagheap, "Cahaba Homestead Village (usually Cahaba Village, listed as the Cahaba Homestead Village Historic District), is a planned residential development located on the banks of the Cahaba River north of downtown Trussville (map). It was constructed between 1936 and 1938 by the Resettlement Administration on the site of the original Trussville Furnace. Originally called "Slagheap Village" because of the large slag piles covering the site, Cahaba Village became a distinct and active community during World War II. It was incorporated, along with "Old Trussville" into the City of Trussville in 1947."   (wikipedia)

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an administration and residence building for the fire-fighting arm of the California Division of Forestry in Humboldt County in 1941.  This is now a unit of Cal-Fire, the statewide forest and wildfire agency. The four or five building complex appears to have been constructed all at the same time and in the same style.  It is not clear if the WPA work went beyond a single building or the Division of Forestry added the rest of the structures.

Camas National Wildlife Refuge lies in southeast Idaho along the Camas River and just west of the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.  Its 10,000 acres are half lakes, ponds, and marshlands and half grass sagebrush uplands, meadows, and farms.  It is a major viewing site for swans, geese and curlews, among other birds and wildlife. Camas NWF was created under the New Deal in 1937.  Lacking further details, we can only say it is likely to have been enacted by a presidential Executive Order and carried out by the Bureau of Biological Survey, as were most wildlife refuges of the New Deal....

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Angeles Crest (F-384) was established in Oak Grove Park, in Pasadena, California, July 1936 (Oak Grove Park is now called “Hahamongna Watershed Park”).  The camp was in operation until at least 1941, and for much of that time (perhaps the entire time) it was the home of CCC Company 903. Camp Angeles Crest and Company 903 were chosen by the CCC’s Ninth Corps Area to create an education model for the Corps.  “Such courses as erosion control, road building, surveying, U.S. Forest Service training, mechanics, etc., were included in the curriculum, and through this vocational training...

This camp was located on the boundary line of the south side of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Mountain Range. Originally a side camp constructed by Company 4759 based at Camp Red Fir. Permanent occupation by the 1493rd Company, Camp Buckeye SNP-9 was October 13, 1937. The Company was organized at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, April 1933 where they were involved in reforestation of 200,000 acres. In late 1934 the company was moved to Camp Maestri, located 9 miles NE of Bogalusa Louisiana. The move to California was October 9, 1937. Work accomplished by the 1493rd was highway improvement on...

Located on CCC Road, the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Greenbrier was set up on private land in Hines, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Camp Greenbrier was under W.V. Division of Forestry and occupied by Company 1539, 6/23/1933 - 8/30/1935 and Company 2593, 7/1/1935 - 1/11/1936.

Situated near Greenwood Lake in upper West Milford, NJ, Camp Hope was initially developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1201 as Camp S-68 to house workers working at the Newark Waterworks. Following the closure of the worker’s barracks, the cabins sat abandoned for roughly two years. Freedmen Ernest T. Scheidemenn pushed for the County of Passaic to grant them access to the cabins at Smith Mills (now West Milford) instead of demolishing them to turn them into a children’s summer recreation camp “for the undernourished and underprivileged children of Passaic County.” (Paterson News, February 7, 1938, 1) After being...

Located on the original Bankhead Highway, also known as the Villa Rica-Carrollton Road (1917 route) the Williams Family farm is southwest of Villa Rica, Georgia. The farmhouse was built in 1891 and the farm remained in business in the Great Depression. In the 1930s, Felix Williams with the assistance of the Carroll County Commissioner went to Washington, DC to lobby for a CCC camp on the farm. Their efforts were award a camp on 18 August1935. A portion of the farm was leased to the CCC. In 1936 the CCC built a road from the Carrollton-Villa Rica Road to the...

A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established at Capitola, just east of Santa Cruz,  for the purpose of working on nearby California beach state parks, such as New Brighton, Capitola, and Sea Cliff.  The California state parks system had only been created c 1930, so all these beach parks needed work on recreational facilities.  It was officially camp SP-24 (for State Parks) and was active in the late 1930s, but we do not have exact dates.  We know that Company 5447 arrived there in late 1937, when the camp already existed, and worked there for some time on local parks....

Located on the outskirts of the Sequoia National Park, Camp Salt Creek was constructed on October 12, 1937 by Company 5449, SNP-10. The type of work done at Camp Salt Creek was fire prevention, construction of horse and truck trails, highway maintenance, & building and maintaining communication systems. Company 5449 of note captured 117 rattlesnakes that were sent to the Biological Survey in Washington DC. The Company was originally formed in May 1936 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. After training, moved to West Augusta Virginia May 27, 1937 to take over Camp NF-3-VA from the 2357th Company in Ramsey's Draft in George Washington...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Sisters (F-110, Company #1454) at Camp Sherman, Oregon operated near the headwaters of the Metolius River in Jefferson County from 1933 to 1942. It was just one of the average 60 CCC camps that worked each year in the state during that period. Originally planned to be near Sisters, Oregon rather than at the unincorporated Camp Sherman site, its name tends to confuse Oregonians. The CCC, however, found this position on the Metolius more in keeping with project needs so located it where the (Camp Sherman) Riverside Campground is found today. The CCC men constructed...

Camp Tuna Canyon (P-233) in Tujunga, California was established in 1934.  For most or all of its existence (1934-1941) it was the home of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 902. Company 902 installed telephone lines for the Los Angeles County Forest Department, constructed several fire lookout towers, and fought numerous fires, including “the Brown Mountain fire of 1934, the Malibu fires of 1935 and 1936, the Tehachapi fire of 1936, the Bouquet Canyon fire of 1937, the Big Pines fire of 1937, and the Oakmont Country Club fire of 1937” (CCC Annual, L.A. District, 1938). The young men of Company 902 also...

Located on private land about 5 miles east of War and on the edge of Cucumber (town, likely a coal camp at one point) in McDowell County along WV Route 16. Occupied on 11 July 1935 with CCC Company 3538-C. The C at the end notes this was a colored CCC camp. McDowell county was a heavily black community noting several entries in the Negro Green Book for decades. This is the only black CCC Company to serve in West Virginia although they worked also at S-77 (Camp Carver/Panther State Forest) and S-76 (Camp Kanawha). This camp worked on fire protection and...

This 1935 Colony House was built as part of the New Deal resettlement program that brought colonists from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to Palmer Alaska in 1935. The building has recently been restored and accepted to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the recent Recipient of the 2013 Alaska Association for Historic Preservation Award of Excellence.

Located in the Payette National Forest, this lookout tower were built by the CCC in 1934. A sign near the site (pictured at www.advrider.com) reads: "In 1934 and 1935, Aeromotor Company of Chicago manufactured the 85-foot tall galvanized steel lookout tower. The USDA Forest Service in cooperation with the Civilian Conservation Corps assembled the prefabricated framework on the granitic ridgetop toll, known as Carey Dome."

In 1936 the WPA developed the area of Carlos Avery Game Farm, now the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area, and constructed several buildings on the site. From the National Register of Historic Places nomination: Located within the 23,000 acre Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area, the district includes eleven buildings, three structures, and one non-contributing building. The buildings at the Game Farm are designed in the Colonial Revival Style. All buildings and structures are considered contributing unless otherwise noted. 1. Entrance Gateway - The entrance to the Carlos Avery Game Farm is defined by an elaborate gateway flanked by stone pylons. Each gate...

"Located on picturesque countryside in western Onondaga County, the Hatchery was originally developed and operated as a joint venture between Onondaga County and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under a Works Project Administration Grant. One of only four county run hatcheries in the state, Carpenter's Brook has been in continuous operation since its inception in 1938 and produces 80,000+ Brook, Brown and Rainbow Trout annually." (Onondaga County Parks) The WPA wrote of the project in 1940: "One of the many far flung stations of federal government for rearing game fish, Elbridge hatchery has been reconstructed with series of new concrete...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) had a camp in Golconda NV during the 1930s (though we are not able to determine the exact years).  While in Golconda, the CCC enrollees constructed "community cattle corrals and scale house".  These facilities were still standing in 1992, but seem to have disappeared, as of a visit in 2020. The corrals and scale house might have been in a site near the railroad, as shown in the photograph below.  Golconda has fallen on hard times, and it appears to no longer serve the cattle or mining industries.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Camp Nehalem were charged with constructing a truck trail, or fire road, along the lower Nehalem River to create greater access to the forested land in that part of Tillamook County. One of the first requirements involved building a bridge to cross the Nehalem River just north of their camp. Construction of the bridge near Camp Nehalem drew attention since it was judged to be one of the largest bridges in the northwest built as a CCC project. The Oregon Journal reported: ". . . the boys cut the trees, hewed the timbers, mixed and 'applied' the...

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...

The 1933 town report includes a photograph of a CCC camp, which was CO.132nd P-59 and operated from June 1933 to May 1937 for the Maine Forest Service in protection from insects & disease. It was located on the property of the Town Farm in the far SE of the city.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a camp on Molokai for 36 enrollees. The expenditure was $23,545.48. The CCC worked in forested areas, known today as the Palaau State Park, in the vicinity of this camp: “In 1936, a nursery was started as part of the Emergency Conservation Work project, or the Civilian Conservation Corps and trees were grown for outplanting at Palaau." The caption of a photo file in the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife "reads, ‘1,665 ft. elevation CCC tree planting. Type of cover shrub guava, lantana and akia’ In 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps began to...

According to a plaque: "In 1935 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp Harrison on the site . This camp was one of 67 in West Virginia during the New Deal era." There is now in this location a museum dedicated to the CCC in West Virginia.

In July 1934, the Kearney Daily Hub announced that a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp would be developed at Ravenna. The camp would be responsible for soil erosion projects in northern Buffalo County and southern Sherman County. Two hundred young men would build land dams, terrace fields, plant trees, and do other conservation work on the land in this portion of the state. They would also be responsible for improving the lake. The camp would be set up at the state lake site at Ravenna. At first, a temporary camp was set up with tents. If the camp was to be...