CCC Camp Brice Creek (former) – Umpqua National Forest OR

Description

The Brice Creek Civilian Conservation (CCC) Camp was established north of Layng Creek in the Umpqua National Forest in the spring of 1933. Company #731, the first company to occupy the camp comprised of enrollees from Kansas. Later CCC workers came from Illinois and Oregon to provide support primarily to the lumber industry.

As noted on the commemorative plaque located at the nearby Rujada Forest Camp:

“The CCC enrollees of Camp Brice Creek planted trees and maintained roads, trails, telephone lines and buildings. They fought forest fires and built fire lookouts – Fairview Peak, Holland Point, and the still-standing, Musick Guard Station, a Forest Service administrative site that provided fire protection for the Bohemia Mining District. They build Rujada Forest Camp as an outdoor recreation facility for visiting family, friends, and local residents. They also build log picnic tables, stone fireplaces, a bathhouse and . . . registry booth.”

When funding for the camp ended in 1940, local business interests protested its discontinuance, saying that “if this camp goes, the lumber industry will suffer, since the Brice Creek camp is located in an undeveloped forest area.”