Paths and Trails Sites

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...

"Hemenway State Forest/Big Pines Natural Area Consisting of glacial carved foothills, this state forest includes Great Hill, Duck Pond and the 135-acre Big Pines Natural Area. The park’s many trails provide great hiking, mountain biking, snowmobiling and cross country skiing opportunities. Don’t miss the outstanding view from Great Hill fire tower, -- a short hike from the parking area on Great Hill Road." Camp 10 was once the location of the Hemenway CCC camp #117 built 5/5/1933.

"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.

"In 1935, the National Park Service purchased Hickory Run to create a national recreation demonstration area. These areas were placed near large urban centers to provide fresh air recreation for lower class urban dwellers. In 1936, Works Progress Administration workers arrived and began building roads, trails, fire roads, water lines and the group camps. In 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp NP-6. The CCC camp was adjacent to the current campground by the CCC Dam. A playground and open field now occupy the site where 200 young men had their camp. In 1945, the Hickory Run National Recreation Demonstration...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) drastically impacted New Jersey's High Point State Park. In 1933, when "the CCC boys first arrived at High Point Park, they found a relatively undeveloped 11,000-acre parcel of land. ... By the time the CCC boys were done working eight years later, they had built 25 miles of roads, two lakes, repaired the badly damaged forest, fought forest fires, cleared trails, built campgrounds and shelters, and partially completed an athletic complex. The park, as visitors enjoy it today, is largely the fruition of their efforts."

"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...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) ran two camps at Hocking Hills State Park in Logan OH. The CCC built Hiking Trails and Old Man's Cave Unit.

The Los Angeles Board of Park Commissioner 1932–33 Annual Report describes federal involvement in the development of Hollenbeck Park: "With Reconstruction Finance corporation and County Welfare labor it was possible to improve this park by resurfacing 4,050 square yards of old walks, as well as renovating and grading four acres of sloping hillsides. The park was further improved with the moving of six large trees, planting 28 new trees, 314 shrubs, and 1600 flowering plants. Fifteen hundred square feet of new lawn was also sown. All of this work greatly improved the appearance of Hollenbeck Park and added to its usability by...

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...

Montpelier Annual Report, 1937: "In the early summer of 1933 the C. C. C. started improvement work at Hubbard Park under the direction of the Vermont Forest Service cooperating with the Montpelier Park Board. From that time until the fall of 1936, they have accomplished projects which have materially enhanced and made more usable our beautiful park. All of the interior park roads have been regraded, widened, drained, and graveled. Many of the crooks and formerly muddy spots have been eliminated and all roads are now usable during all of the seasons. The entrance road from Clarendon Avenue to the Tower road...

  In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) initiated the development of Humbug Mountain State Park. From their camp, located on park property, the CCC enrollees undertook construction of roads and a trail to the top of Humbug Mountain, benches and fireplaces, park buildings, and provision of a water system. At the time, the trail to the top of the 1750-foot-tall Humbug Mountain distinguished the park and the CCC enrollees' accomplishments there.    

In the early 1930s, at a meeting of the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce, it was suggested that a park be built around Huntsville. The Chamber of Commerce took the proposal to the Texas State Parks Board. The board required that the community provide the land for the park. Twenty thousand dollars in bonds would have to be sold by Walker County to pay for the land needed. In early 1936, the bond issue passed with more than four to one in favor of selling the bonds. From 1937 to 1942, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1823(CV), an experienced company of...

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...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made various improvements in the Dixie National Forest in 1935, including lookout shelters, roads, trails and comfort stations (restrooms) at Blow Hard Mountain and Brian Head Peak. A CCC camp had been established at Zion National Park in 1933, and in 1934 the CCC set up a ‘stub camp’ (closed in the winter months) at Cedar Breaks National Monument. In 1935, CCC works teams were sent into nearby Dixie National Forest to carry out various building projects.    

The CCC first arrived at the park in 1933. Quarters were soon built for 250 CCC boys. The CCC would help build "trails, bridges, camps, shelter, and more." (https://friendofindianadunes.org/historic-page/) The CCC also built roads, gatehouses and other facilities. "A CCC camp was located at the site of Dunes Creek upstream from the Pavilion. The Company 556 was at Dunes for a short while before being moved to Pokagon State Park as Company 1563. Wilson Shelter is one of their projects. Other projects of theirs, such as the Group Camps, have been removed. A flag pole near the Nature Center is from the...

"With its dependable water source, abundant fish and game, and natural beauty, the region of Central Texas around the Colorado River and present Inks Lake has been an inviting location for centuries, attracting Native American and German and Anglo settlers. In 1937 while running as a candidate for the surrounding Congressional district, Lyndon Baines Johnson promised voters that he would create a “Tennessee Valley Authority” type of transformation for the Colorado River, including dams for flood control and electricity, bridges and highways, and recreational facilities along the river. Johnson’s victory soon brought into being the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA)...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built facilities and completed structural improvements at Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. “The ten CCC/WPA/Rustic Style historic resources at Interstate State Park are included in two historic districts: a six-acre area known as Glacial Gardens and a 22-acre campground. The park buildings and structures were constructed of local basalt stone, which was probably quarried near the boundary of the park at a site where Highway 8 cut through a section of rock in 1931. A CCC crew may have quarried the stone for the WPA. Architects for the...

During the Great Depression, the WPA radically transformed this large park at the Northwest tip of Manhattan, making accessible what is now the only largely non-landscaped park in all of Manhattan. WPA workers built roads, trails and overlooks throughout the hilly park. A Department of Parks press release from January 26, 1939 summed up the ongoing work: "The fine native woodland will be made thoroughly accessible by means of a network of footpaths with many benches for strollers... The Authority provided a further sponsors' contribution to the WPA for toilet facilities, benches, drinking fountains and overlooks along the high...

Before the 1930s, the large area of Inwood Hill Park north of Dyckman Street, between the New York Central Railroad tracks and the Hudson River was a literally a dump. Through the efforts of the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, the Department of Parks and the Works Progress Administration, this area was transformed into an extensive landscaped area full of baseball and soccer fields, archery ranges and more. A January 1939 Parks press release explained that the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority contributed to this not only through landscaping the new Henry Hudson Parkway and providing foot-bridges between the waterfront area and...

Payson Playground, in the Southeast corner of Inwood Hill Park, is one of three playgrounds in the park. The current Department of Parks website says the playground was built by Robert Moses in 1939, but Parks Department press releases from the New Deal period show that the park was originally built in 1934 and completed in 1941. A 1934 press release announced the opening of the playground in August of that year. The release describes the new playground as containing a "Field house, comfort station, play area, basketball courts and the usual playground equipment for children." The labor and materials...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked to improve the conditions at Island Park in Green River, Wyoming. Cassity: "In Green River, Island Park was leveled with traditional cut and fill methods to raise the low spots so that flood water from Green River would no longer stand, and this was followed by installing lawn, roads, and paths."

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from the Mt. Elden Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp near Flagstaff worked at Walnut Canyon National Monument from 1938 to 1942.  The most important contribution made by the CCC men was construction of the Island Trail, which descends the cliff behind the visitors center and encircles a promontory ("island") in the canyon to allow visitors to view the ruins up close.  The trail is about one mile long and descends almost 200 feet via 273 steps.  The trail is lined with stone and, in many places, rock support walls were required. The Island Trail was quite elegantly...

"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 CCC conducted substantial development work at J. W. Wells State Park in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: they constructed roads, signs, kiosks, a pump house, a comfort station, a laundry facility, a bath house, Bay Stone Lodge (was staff residence), cabins, and trail shelters.

The spacious Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem, originally called Colonial Park and known for many years as Bradhurst Park, first opened in 1911, but was only fully developed under the New Deal. When the Department of Parks announced the planned reconstruction in August 1935, they gave an unusual level of detail about this important project: "The Department of Parks has determined the location and completed the development plan of a major recreational center in Harlem. For over a year the Department has been searching this section of the city for an area large enough to provide space for the active play...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) pursued a variety of improvements at Chicago’s historic Jackson Park.   “The WPA to town in the park,” the Jackson Park Advisory Council opines. WPA work crews built “comfort stations at the golf driving range,” a “children’s playground,” and “a maintenance building and an overpass at 63rd Street.” The WPA “shortened lagoon shoreline and did other rehabilitation work on Wooded Island and at the Japanese Garden. The 1888 ladies comfort station was rehabilitated.” Moreover, golf course “inlet bridges and the Perennial Garden” were installed. “As part of the WPA work, E.V. Buchsman design...

The New York City Parks Department website provides a brief history of Jacob Riis Park: "260-acre Riis Park, stretching over a mile on the western section of the Rockaway Peninsula, was acquired by the city in 1913. In 1914, the beach was named for Danish-born photo journalist and social reformer Jacob August Riis, once a Queens resident. The original bathing pavilion was built in 1932 and could handle up to 8,000 users. In 1934, Commissioner Moses announced plans to upgrade Riis Park with a $1.7 million investment, including a new bathing pavilion, parking field, pitch-'n-put golf course, and a 40–foot wide...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did the initial development of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in the 1930s. The area where the CCC did its work is along state highway 199, just west of the village of Hiouchi and a few miles east of Crescent City, California.  This remains the only significantly developed part of this large park, with its many groves of enormous, first-growth redwoods, such as Stout Grove. Engbeck (2002) notes that, "CCC Company 1903, of Camp Prairie Creek, built a new entrance road and a park custodian's residence. They built a campground near the Smith River with a...

With establishment of the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) program in 1933, better know as the Civilian Conservation Corp. (CCC) resources became available to develop facilities for the park. Civilian Conservation Corp. Co. 553 SP-16 arrived at John Bryan in June 1935 to begin six years of work.  The men laid out roads and blazed miles of trails (including the Pittsburgh–Cincinnati Stagecoach Trail preserving portions of a 19th century wagon-road). Also, enrollees built two foot-bridges across the Little Miami River.  One bridge featured a dam that, when closed, created a “swimming hole.” The workers also erected the park office, two picnic...

“In 1930, the Henderson Audubon Society requested $100,000 from the Federal government to help construct an Audubon Museum. The Society had a large and growing collection of Audubon artifacts that needed proper housing. National interest in the works of Audubon had increased through the years and now seemed the right time to involve the government in helping preserve and promote the Audubon collection. A bill introduced in Congress to appropriate money for the Audubon project failed to pass. Undeterred, local citizens continued to raise funds for the proposed museum. By 1934, 275 acres had been acquired through donations and purchase....

Lehman Caves National Monument was established in 1922 and put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1933. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived in 1934, setting up a camp and going to work on improvements to make the monument more welcoming for visitors. One of their tasks was to construct part of the Johnson Lake Trail.  We have no information on what other trails the CCC enrollees built in the park. The monument was incorporated into a new Great Basin National Park in 1986.  

A 1935 New York City Department of Parks Press release announced a: 'plan for the reconstruction of Joyce Kilmer Park, north of the Bronx County Court House between Walton Avenue and the Grand Concourse and extending from 161st Street to 164th Street... The new plan calls for the continuation of the Grand Concourse through these small triangles. The panels planted with Linden trees will be also carried through to 161st Street, The diagonal street through the south end of the Park will be closed and the open well on 161st Street in front of the Court House will be covered over... It will...

This large park in the Middle Village neighborhood of Queens provides a wealth of leisure and recreational attractions to local residents. Before it became a park, "it was used variously as a farm, a cemetery, a source for peat moss, the property of a racketeer, and a garbage dump...In the early 1930s the City of New York acquired the bog to settle a $225,000 claim in back taxes against the estate of the infamous Arnold Rothstein (1882-1928), who had been accused of fixing the 1919 World Series" (nycgovparks). The WPA greatly transformed the park, first in 1936 and again in...

Kabetogama Lake CCC Camp number S-81, Company 724 was active in the Kabetogama State Forest from 1933-37. A marker at the site today describes CCC activity in the forest: "In 1934 a CCC camp of 400 men was established a mile south of Lake Kabetogama. This most northerly camp in the US had all its facilities under one roof and the lowest sickness rate.The CCC boys worked on forest and building projects in Kabetogama State Forest. In 1936 they fought and 18,100 acre forest fire saving the Kettle Falls Hotel from destruction. A few structures remain to memorialize this depression era program....

Kendall State Park, plus park land from the cities of Cleveland & Akron, were formed into a National Recreation Area in 1974 and then Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The story of its establishment highlights the impact local citizens and political leaders can have when they work together with passion and common purpose to protect aspects of America's heritage. This story is rooted in the environmental and social movements of the 20th century. It is about the desire to have scenic open spaces near to home, especially for recreation. It is about not only saving significant features but restoring a landscape to...

Among other work, such as "construction of a new road to access the upper portion of Kent Falls State Park," the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the picnic area and the trail that climbs alongside the falls at Kent Falls State Park.

“Lincoln County was not far behind Clark County sites in terms of federal funds spent on park developments. The county received approval for a fair share of state-operated recreational facilities that’s to the collective efforts of the county commission, the Caliente Chamber of Commerce, state senator L.L. Burt, and Congressman Scrugham. Lincoln County was anxious to promote its little-known natural attractions, including the intense red spires and erosional features at Cathedral Gorge. After purchasing park properties with federal Public Works appropriations funds, Congressman Scrugham and Senator McCarran secured a CCC camp for Panaca to build new parks. A full company...

The extensive Kissena Park was first established in the early 1900s and now forms part of the "Queens Corridor" park system. In addition to building a golf course at the east end of the park in the mid 1930s, in 1941, the WPA completed extensive work on the main section of the park surrounding Kissena Lake in 1941: "Included in the new improvement is a new modern one story brick boat house and boat landing constructed on the east shore of the lake replacing the old outmoded frame boat house and dock formerly located on the south bank adjacent to the...

“The Klamath National Forest (KNF) was sponsor to numerous CCC projects and played host to many camps. Throughout the nine years of the CCC program, the Klamath National Forest had ten base camps and numerous spike camps – many of which were forgotten over time. KNF activities assigned to the CCC enrollees included vegetation clearing and CCC camp construction; administration building construction and building improvements (includes ranger stations, guard stations, lookouts, garages, etc.); livestock tanks and troughs; corral construction, drift fence construction; erosion control; trail construction (including the Pacific Crest Trail); waterline construction; well construction; fire fighting; blister rust control;...