Lodges, Ranger Stations and Visitor Centers Sites

The Gasquet Ranger Station was used by the Forest Service to manage the southwestern portion of the Siskyou National Forest, until it was transferred to what it now called the Smith River National Recreation Area in 1947. Today it used both as an office for the Forest Service staff and as a visitor center. The ranger station is part of a larger complex of structures built by the CCC during the 30's, of which seven buildings remain today along with a rock wall. The ranger station is also the only building that is directly visible from the road. Collectively, the...

Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Parks were created separately, but because they are contiguous they are administered today by the National Park Service (NPS) as a single unit. Sequoia was the third national park, created in 1893, while Kings Canyon became a national park in 1941, under the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.   During the New Deal of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did extensive work in both national parks, building campgrounds, trails, roads, ranger stations and other facilities.  More specific information is needed on these projects.  

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Vermont's Gifford Woods State Park during the 1930s. "Development of Gifford Woods State Park began in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps ...  In 1933 and 1934, CCC crews constructed the park office and ranger’s quarters, picnic area, stone restroom building, trails, the park entrance and parking area. In 1939 the CCC constructed a camping area."

"Glacier National Park is a national park located in the U.S. state of Montana, on the Canada–United States border with the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The park encompasses over 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), over 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals. This vast pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem", a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2)... The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New...

" The Cut Bank Ranger Station in Glacier National Park was one of the first buildings built in Glacier by the National Park Service. Built in 1917, the design is in keeping with park hotel structures built by the Great Northern Railway in a Swiss chalet style that predated the fully developed National Park Service Rustic style. The station was manned year-round until the late 1930s when it became a summer-only station. It was one of the first National Park Service-built facilities in Glacier. The design pre-dates the standardized National Park Service Rustic style, using a similar but simplified construction technique resembling...

The Civilian Conservation Corps Company 2915 (F-12) built a ranger station in the vicinity of Glacier, Whatcom County.

"Pre-dating 1910, the station is one of the oldest U.S. Forest Service administrative sites in Colorado. Extensively remodeled by the Civilian Conservation Corps during 1935-36, the station was part of the campaign of natural resources enhancement undertaken during the New Deal era. The five wood-frame buildings comprising the station reflect the Forest Service’s ideals of simplicity, harmony with nature, and use of natural materials."   (www.historycolorado.org)

The Gold Beach Ranger Station is located at the southern part of town just off of Hwy 101. The Gold Beach Ranger Station is a CCC-built complex of multiple buildings completed in 1937. There is a bronze plaque located at the base of a flag pole in the center of the visitors' parking lot that recognizes the Ranger Station in the National Register of Historic Places on April 8, 1986. The buildings at this site were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Companies 2523 and 1652 as well as Forest Service employees. They were designed by W.J. Turner and officially opened to...

The CCC expanded the Gold Creek Ranger Station of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest NV in northern Nevada. "The root cellar was expanded in the 1930s by CCC labor, using faced stone from the nearby Hammond Mine."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 3822(V) was assigned to Goliad, Texas from 1935 to 1941 to work on project SP 43-T, Goliad State Park. The CCC built a custodian's complex for Goliad State Park between 1936 and 1937. The complex consisted of a five-room, one-bath, 1-1/2 story residence for the park caretaker, plus maintenance and storage buildings, all located about one mile north of the park. A stone wall surrounded the complex. The CCC built most everything in the house by hand as the house was also an experimental studio, testing the methods they would use to reconstruct Mission...

Goose Island State Park is on Aransas Bay near Rockport, Texas. The 321.4-acre park was acquired in 1931-1935 by deeds from private owners and a legislative act setting aside the state-owned Goose Island as a state park. The park is currently administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1801 performed initial development work on Goose Island State Park during two six-month periods in 1934 and 1935. The CCC worked in clearing undergrowth, planting trees, and caring for "Big Tree," a 1000 year old coastal live oak thought to be one of the largest in the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a variety of structures at Gooseberry State Park: “the refectory, concourse, caretaker’s cabin, and entrance portals.” These sites show excellent stonework in red, brown, and black granite. The work was overseen by “John Berini and Joe Cattaneo (also spelled Catanio), Italian American stonemasons from Duluth, and Axel Anderson, a Swede.”

"Camps were set up at several locations in the valley, at Leigh Lake, Lizard Point, and "Hot Springs" near Colter Bay. In 1934, Camp NP-4, the most prominent camp, was built at the south end of Jenny Lake. CCC crews manned this camp through 1942. Civilian Conservation Corps laborers worked on a variety of projects. The Superintendent's Report for August 1936 listed the following: landscaping headquarters; improvement and development of a campground at Jenny Lake; construction of fireplaces; construction of barriers at Jenny Lake campground; construction of table and bench combinations at Jenny Lake; construction of permanent employees' dwellings headquarters; extension...

Miami and the surrounding Dade County were effectively without city or county parks until the 1930s.  The city got its first park in 1925, after which the city was devastated by a hurricane the following year. The county received its first donation of land for a park in 1929, which became Matheson Hammock Park.  In 1930, the park system got its own director and a beach park, Surfside, was added in 1932. The county began improvements on the parks using mostly convict labor and men sent by the Charity Office once the Depression hit, as well as starting a Roadside...

"On Oct. 3, 1933, tragedy struck in the Mineral Wells area of Griffith Park. More than 1,500 public-relief workers in the park came rushing to put out a brush fire. Some climbed down into the steep canyon to fight the blaze, but having no firefighting experience, 29 of the workers were engulfed by fire and died. Two years later the WPA rebuilt the clubhouse that had burned in the fire." - https://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-22/local/me-59618_1_wpa-art-projects/2 "Following the fire which destroyed the original clubhouse, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration built the current Clubhouse in 1937. Constructed in the Spanish Revival Architectural Style, the Clubhouse...

An onsite marker commemorates the extensive work of the CCC at this site, reading in part: "This park was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal program sponsored by President Roosevelt. It was administered as a division of the U.S. Army to reclaim unusable farm land, create recreational areas, and teach young men a skill or trade. Enlistees of the CCC were paid about $30 for a six-month enlistment, $25 of which was automatically sent to the enlistee’s family. There were two CCC camps housed at the Park. The first camp, District “B” Company 450 Ga. SP-8,...

Increased the space and facilities for the public use by building a golf club house with concrete floors, frame construiction with stucco exterior and plastic interior and tile roof, installing plumbing, heating and electric equipment, painting inside and out. Private clubs have no better appointments. This is a very popular golf course and the new facilities ahve added materially to the enjoyment of players--Healy, p. 55.

The land that makes up Harold Parker State Forest was formed by the action of glaciers thousands of years ago, and the area has undergone numerous man-made changes since then. The Pentacook Indians were the first people to reside on the land and they called this place home for a few thousand years before it was settled by colonial English farmers in the 1650s. By the mid-nineteenth century many people abandoned the land for agricultural purposes, and moved closer to the towns of North Andover, Andover, North Reading, and Middleton, and the forest area reverted to a more wild character....

This adobe structure in Hart Park was built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in concert with Kern County and the California State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) – using funds provided by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) to hire unemployed workers.  It is also known as the "Peacock House" for all the resident peacocks. Designed by local architect W. Francis Parsons, it is somewhat unusual in that it has a 24" raised foundation and wood floor, likely to get it above a flood plain. The original construction drawings identify it as a "Service Building", although it was designed as...

"Much of the park's development came to a halt in October 1929 when the Great Depression gripped the country. Work did not resume until the spring of 1933 when the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived at Hartwick Pines. The CCC Boys did a lot of work in the park: They finished the interior work of the Memorial Building, built the two buildings of the Logging Museum, expanded the campground, planted several thousand trees, eradicated the white pine blister rust within the park, built roads, and added a number of visitor amenities such as a campground, picnic area...

According to the National Park Service: “Within Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, as well as many other parks and forests, much of the work that the CCC did is still evident and still in use.  From the research offices to the hiking trails, the CCC laid the foundations for much of the infrastructure that we see and use today in the Park. In addition, a 200-person Emergency Conservation Work camp was set up for a period of six months. The allotted monthly pay per enrollee amounted to $25. These relief measures brought employment and much needed income to local families, some of...

Hawthorn Glen is a park and nature and education center administered by the Milwaukee Public Schools recreation division. The twenty-three acre site includes a long curving bluff, ravines, and a deciduous forest, as well as a soccer field, several nature trails with interpretive signs, and a small “nature museum” with limited hours. Potawatomi and the Menomonee Indians lived on the site before European settlement, and part of the park was a gravel pit at the turn of the twentieth century. The WPA constructed the building that now houses the nature museum, as well as a small stone amphitheater and a picnic...

The Log Lodge at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from pine and white oak logs harvested on-site.  Construction of the lodge was started in 1934 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but little advanced when work halted. It was completed in 1937 by the CCC. "Construction of the lodge was started in 1934 by the Works Progress Administration, but work stopped when the structure was four logs high. It was completed in 1937 by the CCC. The building was modeled after lodges in Yellowstone National Park. All logs and lumber used...

"Heyburn State Park is the oldest state park in the Pacific Northwest, created by an act of Congress in 1908. Heyburn includes approximately 5,800 acres of land and 2,300 acres of water. Much of the early construction was performed by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. Today, many of these facilities are still in use the CCCs proud legacy." (www.reserveamerica.com) Between 1934 and 1941, the CCC built roads, trails, bridges, campgrounds, picnic areas, picnic shelters and the Rocky Point Lodge. CCC work includes the Chatcolet picnic and camping area, the Plummer Point picnic and hiking area, and Rocky Point properties.

This ranger station on the Kaiser Pass Road is in remarkably good shape considering that the buildings are all original CCC built according to the elderly ranger there. There was a visitor center with maps and information for the public, a public toilet, a residence for the elderly ranger couple there, a couple of other houses that used to house head rangers, and a barrack further down the trail used by firefighters that I didn't have time to go see.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted multiple projects in Highland Park in Pittsburgh. "In Highland Park, WPA workers built stone steps throughout the park and modernized the main zoo building." Another article notes that the WPA built a "rhino quarters" at the zoo in 1939.

The rustic styled main building in Highland Park was built by the National Youth Administration (NYA) between 1937 and 1938. It houses the world's largest sycamore stump, a local tourist attraction.

"Opened in 1938, Hillsborough River State Park is one of Florida's first state parks; this original CCC Park is divided by the swiftly flowing Hillsborough River with a set of Class II rapids. The river provides opportunities for fishing, canoeing, and kayaking..."   (www.floridastateparks.org) "Land acquisition for Hillsborough River State Park began in 1934, and the park officially became part of the Florida state park system in 1935. The CCC began work at Hillsborough River State Park in 1934, when Company 1418 was transferred from Sebring to the small community of Sulphur Springs, northeast of Tampa. CCC Camp SP-71 served primarily as...

"Holly River State Park retains its rustic style, WPA-built administrative building, which also houses a restaurant."

From 1936 to 1941, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Honeyman State Park, just south of Florence, Oregon, under the supervision of the National Park Service (NPS).  The parkland had been purchased by the state from 1930 to 1936. Honeyman Park covers over 500 acres along Highway 101 (the Oregon Coast Highway), tucked behind the Oregon Dunes National Seashore.  It includes two freshwater lakes, Cleawox Lake within the dunes and the much larger Woahink Lake east of the highway. There is a day-use area on the north side of Cleawox Lake, a large campground south of that lake and water sports...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Hubbard Park Lodge in Shorewood WI. the structure was built for use by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. WPA crews also graded the land, built pathways and a spring-fed pool and fountain.  The records indicate that two buildings in Hubbard Park in Shorewood, WI, were built by the WPA in 1936: Hubbard Park Lodge (originally called Scout Craft Cabin) and Shorewood River Club (originally called Hubbard Park Community Lodge). The two venues, at present, are under the same management. According to one history, "Hubbard Park saw a lull in activity until the 1930s when Shorewood secured...

From Elmo Richardson, Natural Resources Journal, April 1966: The construction of Hyde State Park afforded the first, as well as the best, example of the role of the CCC in state recreation programs. Activities and problems encountered in constructing Hyde State Park were illustrative. Of work projects elsewhere in the New Mexico and in the five-state CCC area. During the first two years, the shortage of local enrollees kept the company at the Hyde site short of the desired 200 total; not until 1938 was that figure attained. Two years later these boys were combined with a company of workers...

Also known as the Log Cabin Literary Center, this rustic log building was constructed in 1939 utilizing the labor of the Civilian Conservation Corp. Each interior room is finished with indigenous Idaho lumber donated by the State’s timber companies. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cabin is now used to support artistic and literary endeavors under the direction of The Cabin organization. A quote from their website explains: "The City of Boise purchased the building from the state in 1992 and signed a long-term lease with the Log Cabin Literary Center in June 1996. Today, The Cabin...

Built in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Imnaha Guard Station is located in Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. It was originally used to house patrol and fire crews. Unlike other guard stations, the Imnaha Guard Station has been used every summer since it was built, even before similar guard stations were rented out to the public.

"Within Davis Mountains State Park is the Indian Lodge, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the early 1930s. Indian Lodge has 39 rooms, a restaurant and a swimming pool (for Indian Lodge guests only), meeting rooms, a Texas State Park Store, and 24-hour staffing."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the International Peace Garden during the 1930s.

"In August 1935, the the first members of Company 2699 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived on Isle Royale... The CCC, made up of very young men, spent seven summers as the manpower that constructed much of the young park's infrastructure. They built the park headquarters on Mott Island, created boat campgrounds, and improved the few resorts that the park service had selected to retain. They also erected a fire tower and constructed miles of trails."

Between 1933 and 1942, relief workers stationed at two Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps and one Works Progress Administration (WPA) camp carried out extensive development of Itasca State Park at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  They constructed 45 buildings in the Rustic Style, and myriad other structures, as well as creating campgrounds, picnic areas and a trail system. Buildings were constructed under the supervision of the Minnesota Central Design Office of the National Park Service and Edward W. Barber and V. C. Martin were the principal architects. According to the Minnesota Historical Society “Log construction was generally used because timber...

"The Forest Inn is one of the largest buildings constructed by the CCC in the state park system, with overall dimensions of 144-foot by 50-foot. The T-shaped combination building features both split stone and log construction and is covered by an intersecting gable roof supported by log rafters and purlins. The principal facade includes a central entrance as well as north and south wings. The entrance projects from the main facade and is flanked by massive 7-foot by 7-foot-6-inch stone pylons. The north wing consists of a split stone wall which rises to the sill level with 13-inch to 14-inch horizontal...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed Itasca State Park’s Old Timer’s Cabin in 1933-1934.  It was the first structure built at the park by the CCC. This rectangular log cabin with gabled roof ranks is composed of logs so large that “just four of them made an entire wall.”  The logs were hand-shaped from downed trees, but the idea was to remind people of what the northern American forest was like before the age of mass timbering in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.