Arches National Park – Moab UT

Description

Arches National Monument was established in 1929 with only 4,500 acres and enlarged dramatically to over 33,000 acres by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 (Arches became a National Park in 1971).  Some of the first improvements to the monument were made by workers of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  CCC camp NP-7 was established in nearby Moab UT in April 1940 and lasted until March 1942, one of the last in the country to be closed. CCC ‘boys’ worked on roads, trails and erosion control, and notably a headquarters building and bridge over the wash that often blocked access to the park (Firmage 1996, pp. 272, 283).  

The Arches National Park website has this to say:

“[The CCC] managed to complete an impressive amount of work in just a few short years: improving the entrance road, building drainage culverts, constructing headquarters buildings and starting work on a new scenic park road… Today, the lasting contributions of the CCC can be seen in a distinctive rock culvert and historic red sandstone building near the visitor center.”

The little bridge is still there, close to the entry road, but the headquarters building has disappeared.  Many of trails to the park’s chief attractions, like Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch, appear to be typical CCC work, as shown below.