Picnic and Other Facilities Sites

Cove Lake State Park, originally planned as Fort Mountain Park, was the third joint effort of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the National Parks Service (NPS). The initial 668-acre park was built along the banks of the lake created by the Caryville Dam (1936). The dam was built to minimize the flooding to Caryville from the Norris Dam (1933-1936) project down stream. Even with the Caryville Dam, some 70 structures including the First Baptist Church and a high school were demolished. In addition, Tennessee Highway 63 and US Highway 25 (Dixie Highway) required relocation....

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the Crab Meadow Beach Pavilion. "In 1937, the old pavilion was finally replaced with a Mediterranean style brick and concrete building designed by Huntington architect David Dusenberry that featured men’s and women’s locker rooms, showers and lavatories. The locker rooms would be in the two wings of the building that were joined by an open-air court. On the roof of the center portion was a sun deck. The cost of the building, which was a WPA project, was split between the State and the Town."

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) conducted multiple work projects at Crowe Park in Maynard, Massachusetts in 1934, including removing rocks and stumps; grading land for parking space; painting its grandstands; and constructing tennis courts. In 1935 F.E.R.A. labor "erected a new back stop, cut brush and graded behind the grand stand. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) continued work at the park, which included construction of a band stand in 1939.

Established as the Cuivre River Recreation Demonstration Area in 1934 by the National Park Service. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 3771 built roads and structures throughout the park. The park was turned over to the state of Missouri in 1946 to become Cuivre River State Park. The park features many CCC structures still in use such as a one-lane stone bridge, a stone picnic shelter, and group camps. The structures are included in 2 National Historic Districts.

Between 1933 and 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided labor for the construction of the Virginia Kendall Park Reserve, now Cuyahoga Valley National Park (est. 2000), in Peninsula, Ohio during the Great Depression. 530 acres of land willed and transferred to the Akron Municipal Parks Board and under the leadership of Harold S. Wagner and F.A. Sieberling petitioned the CCC in August 1933 for a camp. It was granted and in December of that year Unit #576 arrived with 208 recruits first under the command of of Lt. JR Tobin and soon replaced by Captain AW Belden. The CCC camp...

The Daniel Boone Homestead is a 579-acre park with multiple historic structures including the birthplace of famed pioneer Daniel Boone. The site is owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The National Youth Administration (NYA) played a key role in the development of the site. Over 100 NYA workers graded the landscape, built roads, trails, fences, and campsites, installed picnic tables and planted trees. They excavated the Daniel Boone Lake, constructed the Wayside Lodge, and a few of the most skilled workers assisted in the restoration of the homestead. Architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh and landscape architect Markley...

"Dawley Memorial Park a 200-acre tract of woodland that was given to the State in 1933 by Mrs. Mary W. Dawley of the village of Wyoming. It is a memorial to her husband, Amos J. Dawley, a descendant of one of the early Colonial families. The area left of State 3 has suffered heavily from fire. Nothing was done to develop the park until 1936 when members of the C.C.C. camp at Beach Pond cleared the burned area and planted about 70,000 seedling trees. Truck trails and water holes have been constructed to aid the control of forest...

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed improvements at, and helped beautify, De Mores Memorial Park in downtown Medora ND. The city park improvement project was one of several beautification initiatives around Medora that depended on WPA work crews. “WPA labor is being used with Ben Lantz acting as landscape architect,” a journalistic commentator remarked at the time. “Scoria walks are being built through the park. A fountain will be constructed and the whole area nclosed with a stone wall fence, surmounted by iron grill work.” The park remains an attraction and site of leisure and recreation for town residents.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built recreational structures, rock walls along roads, and other features at Rosario Beach at Deception Pass State Park on Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands in WA. The structures are classic stone and timber CCC picnic structures and rock walls along roads.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed recreational facilities for Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, near Crescent City, California.  Del Norte Park was one of the newly-formed State Park Commission's first acquisitions c. 1930.   According to Engbeck, "CCC Company 1903, working out of Camp Prairie Creek, built a park entrance road, a campground and day-use picnic area, and coastal access trails." While Engbeck doesn't specify, the only campground in Del Norte Coast Redwoods is at Mill Creek, east of Highway 101 and it has a two-mile entrance road; both are surely the work of the CCC. It was closed when we...

Dells of the Eau Claire County Park has significant New Deal resources in the areas of recreation, conservation, landscape architecture, and architecture thanks to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Between 1935 and 1942, the CCC greatly enhanced the park as it designated and constructed the north park entrance; constructed two small trail-side shelters, a set of stone steps, a stone stairway, a foot bridge, a pumphouse, an overlook, and the Combination Building. These resources are still extant and contribute to the historic character and significance of the park. The CCC also designated parking areas with massive boulders;...

In the 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the Devil's Punchbowl day-use area for public use.  The improvements included picnic tables, fireplaces, restroom, drinking fountain, water supply, a foot trail and steps to the beach. The majority of these improvements have been repaired or changed over the years, but the popularity of this distinctive viewpoint remains. Visitors are drawn for whale watching and views of its distinctive geology.

Devils Tower is a dramatic igneous rock formation rising 1,267 feet above the surrounding area. It and the surrounding area were declared a national monument in 1906. "From 1935-1938 a CCC camp was located there. Practically all the improvements on the area at the present time are the results of their efforts. New roads were built, modern water and electrical systems installed, footpaths were laid out, picnic areas were established with tables and comfortable benches, and trailer and overnight camping areas were provided the visitors. Residences for employees, workshops and machine shops were erected. In 1938 a museum of sturdy log...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the impressive Recreation Area in Dimond Park at the foot of the Sausal Creek canyon in East Oakland in 1936. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 in grants for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. WPA workers laid out a recreation area where the Sausal Creek flood plain widens as it exits the canyon, laying out fields, picnic areas, amphitheater seating, benches and retaining walls.   There is a lovely redwood grove where the two main picnic clusters (with BBQ pits) are located, and...

"The Dockton King County Park was created during the Great Depression as a project of the Works Progress Administration. Theo Berry was the local storekeeper and WPA administrator. The original structures, which included a bathhouse, a kitchen building, a bandstand, toilet facilities and a lifeguard residence, have since been replaced."

"C.C.C. Company 2725 established camp DSP-3 (now SP-6) in Dolliver Memorial State Park on August 7, 1934, and immediately set to work constructing a series of barracks (Fig,.10) and a shop (Fig. 11). Aerial photography of Webster County from 1939 by the A.A.A. (Agricultural Adjustment Agency – a New Deal program to pay farmers to reduce their crop production) captured the area of the C.C.C. camp at Dolliver shorly after the barracks were constructed (Fig 12a). It shows the loge, cabins, the mess hall, rest room facilities, shortly after they were constructed and the remains of a baseball diamond. It...

Sam Houston National Forest comprises three counties—Montgomery, San Jacinto, and Walker—that have been occupied for millennia. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed Double Lake Recreation Area, on the east side of the land, and surrounding a 24-acre lake, in 1937. Its facilities include “family camping units, group camping, picnicking units, a picnic shelter, swimming area and beach, and a concession stand with bathhouse. Each family camping unit has a table, fireplace, tent pad, parking spur, and lantern-holder post. There are units with water, sewer, and electrical hook-ups. Picnic units have tables and fireplaces” (fs.usda.gov).

From the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs: "CCC features at Douglas include a picnic pavilion, administration building, stone culverts and well maintained water holes."

J.D. Sutton, a private in the 10th West Virginia Infantry, was a veteran of the Battle of Droop Mountain. As a visionary he began the movement to preserve Droop Mountain. He and other veterans began to worry in the aftermath of World War I that their role will be forgotten. In the 1920s the veterans of the battle began to meet at the battlefield making locations of the engagement. In 1928, Governor Howard M. Gore accepted the first 141 acres for the state from the veterans. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop West Virginia's Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park. "A...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) prepared Dry Lagoon State Park for public use. The work was carried out between 1933 and 1937 by Company 1903 at Camp Prairie Creek, from where the CCC worked on state parks all along the north coast of California. The CCC enrollees built a park boundary fence and demolished the remains of the derelict Dry Lagoon Farm (Dry Lagoon had become a meadow and marsh after being drained for farming in the 19th century). They returned the area to a more native landscape by planting rhododendrons, ceanothus and other coastal vegetation and clearing the beach of...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built East Park in Connellsville, Pennsylvania between 1936 and 1940.  “In January 1936, Connellsville came together for suggestions to transform the dump back into a more recreational attraction….This transformation started in 1936 and continued until 1940. One of the first things to happen at this site was a fence being built to keep out trucks from dumping. One of the first improvements created as a playground area. By August 1939, many were starting to use the playground area for recreation and even boxing exhibitions.” “As the East Park improvements continued, they were also put on hold with...

The Works Progress Administration built the entrance gates and wall around the Eastland City Park. The project also included the building of picnic tables and restrooms. Abilene Daily Reporter, September 3, 1935, p. 5. District 13 WPA Office Sends Application for 26 Projects to San Antonio State Headquarters. "City of Eastland: Concrete wading pool and swimming pool in Eastland park; 236 months; $8,739.50 federal; $9,949.55 total" Abilene Morning Reporter News, October 6, 1935, p. 1 and 12. New Projects Get Approval: Benefit 15 Communities in This District Blanton Wires. "Eastland park was approved for park  $3, 320, and for park improvement $1,055" Abilene Daily Reporter,...

This park surrounding Echo Lake in the Colorado Rocky Mountains contains two structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): a stone pavilion and a concession stand. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, along with the Echo Lake lodge, an older building that is not from the New Deal era.

Ecola State Park offers one of the most widely recognized views of the Pacific on the Oregon Coast. Development of the four miles of coastline for park began in 1934 with the work of CCC enrollees from CCC Camp Saddle Mountain (#1258). A number of CCC workers from Company #1258 were located in the 450-acre park from fall 1934 through the spring of 1936. During that time, under the direction of the National Park Service, they completed improvements including an access road, a water system, and a picnic area. They also constructed new trails through rugged terrain and engaged in forest...

At Elk Neck State Park, visitors can enjoy swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, boating on the Elk River, fishing, crabbing, camping, hiking, and biking. Hunting is also allowed, in-season. Of course, this recreational resource did not always exist. It was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (Camps S 5, Company 1363) beginning in 1937. The CCC boys built trails, roads, parking areas, water fountains, and fireplaces. The work of the CCC continues to serve people who visit and enjoy Elk Neck State Park today.

Located between Pendleton and La Grande, Oregon, near the summit of the Blue Mountains along Interstate -84, Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area offers an interpretation of the significance of this location on the Oregon Trail as it provides camping, picnicking, and hiking opportunities. While land acquisition for the park area began in 1925 and continued for nearly fifty years, significant improvement of the park for day use activities took place in the mid-1930s. A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was located at the site and assigned to the State Park Commission. From 1935 to 1937, CCC enrollees improved the area...

The CCC did extensive work to build Erving State Forest. From Wikipedia: “The property is largely wooded and hilly with an extensive network of park roads and hiking trails, the majority of which were created by the Civilian Conservation Corps.”    

The Works Progress Administration constructed a stone masonry lookout house at the pinnacle of Ethan Allen Park in 1938.

F. D. Roosevelt State Park is the largest state park in Georgia: "Many facilities within the park were built by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, including stone cabins overlooking the mountain, a Liberty Bell-shaped swimming pool, and the arched bridge at Hwys. 190 and 354. A small lake is open to fishing and canoeing, and picnic shelters are available for group gatherings."   (www.pinemountain.org)

National Youth Administration (NYA) completed improvements at Fair Park in Childress TX. A small marker on the lake next to picnic table says "1937 NYA." On site are several picnic tables, a small amphitheater, and a fountain with a lighthouse in the middle. All items that appear to be created by the NYA.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped create the old Forest Dale city park in the Sugarhouse section of southern Salt Lake City UT in 1935-37. The name was later changed to Fairmont Park (the adjoining Forest Dale golf course kept the old name). The park has been renovated and altered in recent years, especially the addition of a pond create on the little creek that runs through it (a branch of Parlays Creek), new pickleball courts, a skate park and a modern aquatic center.  But elements of the WPA-built park remain, including, no doubt, many of the old trees. At the northeast...

Federal funds supported the construction of the Falls County Roadside Park in Marlin TX, on highway No. 6, south of Big Creek.  They most likely came from the Bureau of Public Roads to the Texas Highway Department, but that needs to be verified. "Shrubs, ornamental bushes and flowers will be placed along the highway for almost a quarter of a mile in the vicinity of the park, according to present plans. The park is being put in by the highway department with funds allotted by the federal government. The ground for the park was donated by J. G Bargnier, owner of...

"The Ann Arbor Farmers Market began in 1919 in front of the old courthouse and moved to its current site (formerly a lumber yard) in 1931. Permanent sheds were designed and built by the WPA between 1938 and 1940. Today the market has nearly 100 permanent spaces under the original sheds and adjacent areas."

Farnsworth Park is a Los Angeles County park established in Altadena, CA, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, 4 miles north of Pasadena in 1934. Its 15 acres contain covered and open picnic tables, barbecue pits, baseball diamonds, a basketball court, tennis (now pickle ball) courts, a bocce ball area and a children's playground. The park's northeast corner features its original 1934 recreation building and a wooden bench amphitheater added in 1938; both are still actively in use. After serving first as a reforestation nursery run by the LA County Forestry Dept. from 1916 until 1929, the Altadena Citizens'...

Ferry Point Park is a large park in the Bronx located at the site of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge on the East River. New York City acquired the land in 1937. It was planned under Robert Moses and constructed by the WPA. A NYC Parks Department press release from August 11, 1941, announced that the park had been completed. The release describes several of the features constructed by the WPA, including: an overlook above the water, "a combination comfort station and storage building," "two baseball diamonds," picnic areas, tree plantings and more. Unfortunately the large portion of the park West of the...

The Brenham Fire Department established Fireman's Park in 1884.The Fire Department gave the park to the City of Brenham in 1917 "for cancellation of the department's indebtedness to the city." The Works Progress Administration made improvements to the park consisting of a two-story hut, a kitchen, a beer garden, an American Legion Hall and a sixteen-sided building that houses an antique carousel.

In 1941-42, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) made major improvements to the Municipal Park in Ferndale, today known as the Firemen's Park.  According to the WPA project card, the improvements consisted of building a softball field with bleachers, reconstructing a recreation hall, adding picnic tables and fireplaces, and changing the channel of Francis Creek. The baseball field, bleachers and recreation hall are all still in place, though altered through the intervening years.  The ball field is dedicated to local sports hero, Carl Oeschger, who enjoyed success as a pitcher in the major leagues in the 1920s.  The recreation hall appears to...

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 2896 resided at White Rock Lake in Dallas from 1935 to 1942. The CCC Company also built neighboring Flag Pole Hill between 1936 and 1937. Improvements constructed by the CCC included a picturesque overlook surmounted by a tall flag pole and accessible by sixteen wide stone steps from a newly-paved parking area. They also constructed an 81-foot long open-air picnic shelter, a small stone latrine, and an all-purpose stone building that was afterward used for many years to house transmitting equipment for city-owned radio station WRR. At the bottom of the hill, the CCC built a...

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the WPA built several stone structures that visitors can still enjoy today. The Wikipedia page for Flandrau State Park indicates that both the WPA and CCC engaged in extensive work in the park, e.g., creating trails, planting trees, and building a dam.

NYA plaque found at entrance of roadside park on TX-6 in Foard County, approximately 3.3 miles south of Crowell. Found a unique octagonal picnic table, a regular picnic table, and rock around garden at base of trees.