Paths and Trails Sites

"Starved Rock State Park is a state park in Illinois, characterized by the many canyons within its 2,630 acres (1,064 ha). Located just southeast of the village of Utica, in Deer Park Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois River, the park hosts over two million visitors annually... Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation in the 1930s called for the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs for young men. The focus of this group was to preserve natural areas in the rural United States. CCC Camp 614 was deployed to Starved Rock State Park...

The West Virginia historical marker program began in 1934 with the beginning research for the markers with the intention of placing markers around the state to encourage tourism. Dr. Roy Bird Cook, a Charleston druggist, a longtime commission member, and avocational historian worked on the project. 5,000 sites were collected with 440 markers selected by the commission for placement. Most of these along 44 state and federal highways. The money came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In addition to the markers, a book of the 440 markers was published in a format easy to...

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from France in 1886. It was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War. In 1937, FDR proclaimed the entire island a National Monument administered by the National Park Service. From 1937-1941, the WPA and PWA carried out extensive renovations of the statue and Bedloe (now Liberty) island. In his history of the Statue of Liberty, Berenson (2012) elaborates on the federal government's role: "the NPS devised an ambitious plan to remove all structures save for the statue itself, shore up the...

W.P.A. project description: 1937 Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual report: "Stony Brook Reservation; 8 miles of bridle roads in the reservation were improved by widening, grading and the application of gravel"

Located in Dansville, NY, this waterfall-lined oasis eventually became complete with trails and stone-stacked bridges as a result of work done in the 1930’s by Works Progress Administration and CCC employees through the Finger Lakes State Parks Commission. Unfortunately, specific details were inaccessible -- making it difficult to determine which agency contributed to specific work done on the park. The most notable aspect of the trails are the concrete stairs that appear at some of the steeper points, which have worn over with time – some having nails broken off. When going off the trails, there were additionally some concrete structures...

"Among most impressive projects was the C.C.C.’s construction of the first ski trails on the mountain in Mt. Mansfield State Forest. Charles Lord, a civil engineer overseeing a twenty-five-man work crew from the Moscow camp, carved out several trails, among them: the Ski Master, the Overland, the Perry Merrill, Lord, the S-53, and the Nose Dive. At the base of Nose Drive, the C.C.C. crew constructed a large parking area to accommodate several hundred cars." Lift serviced skiing at present day Stowe started when Sepp Ruschp and the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club opened a rope tow on the Toll House slope...

According to the West Virginia Department of Commerce: “Completed and opened in 1937, Stuart Recreation Area is one of four developed recreation areas built by the CCC. Known locally as “Stuart Park,” it became the centerpiece of a large recreation complex built with CCC labor that also included Bickle Knob. Designed by MNF recreation planner H.T. Stoddard, Stuart’s landscaping plan called for large open grassy fields, winding wooded trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, rustic picnic shelters with the central swimming area found along the banks of Shaver’s Fork. Today, the open fields and the historic CCC-built administrative building along with two CCC-built...

On October 1, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the completion of significant developments in Stuyvesant Square park: "At Stuyvesant Square Park the south half of the rectangular section west of Second Avenue and bounded by Second Avenue, East 15th Street, Rutherford Place and East 17th Street has been redesigned and reconstructed, with the exception of the central portion, comprising eight percent of the west half of the park. The area developed includes wide, semi-circular walks, with continuous rows of benches." In December of the same year, the Department announced further work on the northeast section of the square, including the construction...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did major work developing the former Patrick's Point (now Sue-Meg) State Park, which had just been purchase by the new State Parks Commission in 1929. The work was carried out between 1933 and 1937 by the men of Company 1903 at Camp Prairie Creek. Joseph Engbeck (2002) reports that the CCC enrollees carried out a number of basic improvements to the park, such as a new entry road, a campground and day-use picnic area, and a protective firebreak around the perimeter of the park  (Engbeck, p. 24). Evidently, the CCC crews did more than that, as rangers at the...

Sunset Park in Brooklyn was improved by the WPA in 1935 (when a small children's playground was added) and, more extensively, in 1940. A press release announced the completion of the later project: "In Sunset Park, the westerly portion located at Fifth Avenue, 41 to 42 Streets, has been redesigned and reconstructed. The new work consists of the rearrangement of new bituminous walks, curbs, concrete stairs, entrances, concrete walls, new overlooks, benches, chain link and wrought iron fencing, a small children's play area with sand pit and play apparatus, and a new modern comfort station. The opening of these park areas designed...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) undertook forest conservation work in Superior National Forest under the supervision of the U.S. Forest Service.

Workers from the Camp Sisters Civilian Conservation Corps (Company #1454) provided the necessary labor for improvement to US Forest Service land on the south shore of Suttle Lake over a number of years (approx.. 1935-1937). The CCC workers constructed campgrounds, trails, picnic spots, and outdoor fireplaces.  In 1936, the CCC members built the Suttle Lake-Camp Sherman road. On the south shore of Suttle Lake, a natural lake located within the Deschutes National Forest on the east side of the Cascades, are three large campgrounds and two day-use areas.

Sutton State Forest is located in Sutton, Massachusetts. Portions of the forest area were owned by the state of Massachusetts prior to the creation of the New Deal programs, but the Civilian Conservation Corps made large scale improvements to it. Sutton State Forest is most well-known for Purgatory Chasm, a natural rock feature, and Purgatory Chasm State Reservation is located within the boundaries of Sutton State Forest. However, Purgatory Chasm had already been transformed into a sightseeing destination in the early 1900s, so the CCC did not work on that attraction. CCC Camp S-84 came to the forest in the fall...

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "On a misty, dismal day last April, a WPA crew started work on the wild and undeveloped 70-acre Bemis tract of land in the rear of the Chicopee High School, which is being converted into the city's first public recreational field. Today the physical change of a large part of the land is decidedly noticeable. Here workmen have graded, leveled and filled this area into a huge flat field which will contain a football and baseball field, a running track, eight tennis courts, three basketball courts, a field house and service building, a grandstand and a parking...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved Lake Temescal Park, now known as Temescal Regional Recreation Area, one of the original units of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD). When the EBRPD was created in 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and WPA were called upon to make the first parks of the system ready for public use.  Temescal Park opened to the public in 1936. Along with the well-known beach house and cascade (see separate pages) at Lake Temescal, WPA workers made several other improvements to the park – not all of which can be pin-pointed.  They created a large...

President of the City Council Pomeroy Powers, persuaded the city in 1904 to construct a park along Alvarado Terrace. Originally called Summerland Park, the park was soon renamed Terrace Park. The park included a fish pond, rosebeds, an underground tool shed, and a full-time gardener. The park was later remodeled with only grass and trees. There is a small strip of brick-paved street at the north end of the park known as "Powers Place" that holds the distinction as the "shortest street in Los Angeles." The park and brick-paved street were declared a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #210) in February 1979....

The community of Mineral Wells hoped for the State of Texas to establish a new state park near where the Bankhead Highway crossed the Brazos River. That plan failed to materialize, so the city offered its existing 70-acre city park to the state. Known as Millings Park at the time, it was designated SP-8 for development. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1811 arrived in Mineral Wells on June 17, 1933 and divided its time between the park and the nearby National Guard facility at Camp Wolters. The company left on January 2, 1934. The CCC built entrance portals, roads, stone stairs, a...

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial was created in the 1930s with the aid of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and National Park Service (NPS). Theodore Roosevelt Island sits in the middle of the Potomac between Arlington and downtown Washington, just within the District of Columbia. The island covers some 88 acres and is both a forest park and a memorial to President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1931, Mason's Island was bought by the Roosevelt Memorial Association, which presented it to the federal government in 1932 to be developed as a memorial to the former president and ardent conservationist, Teddy Roosevelt. Congress authorized the...

Timpanogos Cave was designated a national monument on October 14, 1922 and was initially developed and maintained by the U.S. Forest Service and volunteer organizations.  The National Park Service took over responsibility for the monument in 1933 but did not undertake full management until 1954. (Wadsworth 2018) The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camp F-5 in the National Monument, at Granite Flat, in the summer of 1933 and worked on trails and other improvements for public use of the monument. The most important trail work by the CCC enrollees of Company 940 was to extend the original trail up the sheer cliff...

Timpanogos Cave was designated a national monument on October 14, 1922 and was initially developed and maintained by the U.S. Forest Service.  The National Park Service took over from the Forest Service in 1933 as part of the Roosevelt Administration's reorganization of national parks and monuments. Timpanogos NM was administered from Zion NP until 1955. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) sent the first New Deal workforce into the monument for the summer of 1933.  The Company 940 established a camp at the site now occupied by the Granite Flat campground. Mostly notably, CCC enrollees built a new trail to provide better access...

“By the spring of 1936, the CCC continued where they left off in 1934. Crews built a water system for the Kyle Canyon Campground, the Rainbow Canyon summer-home area, the Kyle Canyon Guard Station, and the Air Force Base Rest Camp. Considerable time was also spent cleaning up collapsed CCC barracks destroyed by devastating storms during the previous winter…Once the camp was operational, the CCC began constructing Deer Creek Road into Lee Canyon and building trails to Little Falls and Mount Baldy.” --The Civilian Conservation Corps in Nevada

According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, “The CCC improved the nation’s natural and human resources and also created opportunities for the public to recreate and appreciate a healthy outdoor experience. At Tolland ‘Pinecone Johnnies’ built access roads, bridges, trails, the peninsula campground, beach, picnic area and parking lot. Visit the beach and see the bathhouse they built in 1939.”

The CCC carried out road and trail construction in the Tongass National Forest.

Between 1933 and 1939, crews of Civilian Conservation Corps workers built a trail from the Old Kasaan to the park. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the trail: "A trail, cut by the CCC, starts at the west end of the original Kasaan town site, goes through woods and, in several places, emerges close to the shore. After crossing awooden bridge over Son-I-Hat Creek, the trail passes the nine free-standing totems and the Whale House. It continues to the southern cemetery and turns north to access the northern cemetery."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Vermont's Townshend State Park  during the 1930s. From the Vermont State Parks Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation: “The park was constructed during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a public works program aimed at putting young men to work… As visitors enter the park property today, they are greeted by lush green lawns leading to the park office, a CCC-built building constructed with stones quarried from the surrounding forest. The park looks basically the same as it did when constructed between 1934-1938. It includes a picnic area, hiking trails and the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made many improvements around Yosemite National Park during its time there, 1933-42.  Enrollees worked out of two major hub camps and a dozen or so seasonal and 'spike' (temporary) camps. One of the typical activities of the CCC in national and state parks was building and upgrading trails.  Because Yosemite is the second oldest national park, the trail system was already well developed before the CCC arrived.  Nevertheless, CCC teams did extensive maintenance and improvement work on the far-flung trail system of the park.   In particular, after the damage done by the floods of winter 1937,...

Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) company 3340 worked out of camp F-38 at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County UT, from the summer of 1935 through 1942. The hundreds of CCC enrollees assigned to camp F-38 during those years built many trails in lower Big Cottonwood Canyon.  These are the ones locally attributed to the CCC: On the south side moving up the canyon, there are two short and three long trails up the ridge between Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons: Storm Mountain trail (short, unmarked); Lake Blanche trail (formerly Mill B South Fork); Donut Falls/Cardiff Pass/Kessler Peak trails...

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. During their time in the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built many trails in the Umpqua National Forest, working under the US Forest Service out of several CCC camps (e.g., Steamboat, Illahee). Mention is made of these trails in some information panels around the national forest, but the only one definitely identified is a portion of the North Umpqua River trail between Steamboat and Panther Creek. We will add more information on these trails as it is uncovered.

Wupatki National Monument was established in 1924, following decades of plunder of artifacts by American settlers.  Archaeological excavation and restoration of the main pueblo began in 1933.  In 1939-42, a contingent of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees (from Mt Elden camp at Flagstaff) began development of the monument for public use, building trails, a ranger residence, a utility building, and water supply system. (NNDPA 2012) The trails wind go from the visitor center across to the main pueblo, along both sides of the ruins and down to the two ball courts below.  They include extensive stairways, supporting rock walls and metal...

During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and improved trails throughout Rocky Mountain National Park, working on such things as rock wall construction and trail alignment.  The CCC was active in the park for the entire life of the program, 1933 to 1942.   The CCC 'boys' built around 100 miles of trails – one-third of the total. It is uncertain exactly which trails the CCC enrollees improved, but "the enrollees were largely the driving force behind creating, maintaining, and reconstructing many popular trails."  (Brock, p 40)   Several trails are included in the National Historic Registry listings for Rocky Mountain...

Tucson Mountain Park, created in 1929, was opened to general recreation use in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working with the Pima County parks agency.  The northern half of the original park was added to the Saguaro National Monument in 1961, which became a national park in 1994, and this portion of the park was renamed Saguaro National Park – Tucson Mountain District (TMD). (See also Saguaro NP (TMD) project pages) The CCC 'boys' set up Camp Pima, SP6A, in December 1933 at the northwest corner of what was is now Saguaro NP.  Working from there, they carried out extensive...

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)began improvements at Turtle Creek Park in Dallas TX.  The project was one of many undertaken in the area by the WPA and other New Deal agencies. “Widespread park improvements costing $34,000 have been announced at Dallas, Texas,” a writer for Parks & Recreation reported in January of 1939. “Included in the developments will be a new South Dallas community center, a golf course for Negroes and additional work in Robert E. Lee Park and also on the White Rock beautification program.” Dallas’s Robert E. Lee Park was renamed Turtle Creek Park after a vote by...

ParkRec.nd.gov: "Established in 1934, Turtle River State Park was one of a number of new parks built in North Dakota under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. ... In 1935, a CCC transient work camp, SP-5, was built in Larimore. It initially housed 185 young men, along with their commanding officers. They were assigned to build a new park nearby, originally called Grand Forks State Park. CCC construction projects in the park included bridges, roads, parking areas, foot paths and a number of stone and log buildings, many of which are still in use today. One of their notable achievements was the...

Tuzigoot is an ancient hilltop settlement of the Sinagua people, c 1100-1400 A.D.  It is one of the largest of scores of such settlements throughout the Verde River valley of Northern Arizona.  By the 20th century, the buildings on the site, made of stone and adobe, had fallen completely to ruin.  The New Deal aided in the archeological reconstruction of the site in the early 1930s.   Following on the restoration work, the New Deal helped open the site to the public. In 1936, the museum and visitor center were built by local relief workers hired by the Works Progress Administration...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 845 built facilities at Tyrrell Park. The CCC camp at Tyrrell Park began operations on November 24, 1935. CCC personnel worked on building drainage ditches, roads, nature trails, picnic tables, a horse stable, recreational buildings, entrance portal and a public golf course. The park is still in use, but most of the CCC structures have been neglected then torn down one-by-one. Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike damaged the CCC-built clubhouse, and the damage has not been repaired.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built paths and rock walls in the University of California Botanical Garden, including a rock bridge over Strawberry Creek.  The CCC enrollees worked out of a camp in Strawberry Canyon in 1933-34.

Underhill State Park is one of nearly two dozen state parks in Vermont that was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression era. "Between December 1933 and August 1940, the Underhill State Park was the base of operations for Camp-S-60 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Companies 1291 and 1135. The primary focus of Camp S-60 within the Underhill State Park was the upgrading of existing and additional construction to the Mountain Road on the west side of Mount Mansfield. Other accomplishments included the development of skiing and hiking trails and the establishment of the lower, public camping...

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s. The United States Forest Service (USFS)  began planning the recreational development of Union Creek in the 1920s, as outdoor recreation by automobile expanded rapidly. Subsequent development of the area followed forest service plans and the USFS has maintained the integrity of the district for the last century. There are almost one hundred...

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...