CCC Camp Gap Ranch (former) – Burns OR

Description

From 1934 to 1942, CCC Camp Gap Ranch operated in Harney County under the direction of the US Grazing Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Enrollees at this 200-person Civilian Conservation Corps provided labor on projects designed to manage range land. As noted in a BLM brochure, this included building range improvements such as fences and reservoirs, drilling wells, building roads, and cutting large quantities of juniper posts for fencing projects.

CCC Camp Gap Ranch (DG-5) was one of seven Civilian Conservation Corps camps established in Oregon to work with the US Grazing Service in the implementation of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The Taylor Act created grazing districts as a means to regulate use of public lands by Western ranchers with the goal of improving livestock management and the management of watersheds.

Several of CCC Camp Gap Ranch’s original structures remain on-site, including a stone cold storage building, the stone South House, a windmill that provided water for the camp, and a rock fence. The Burns District BLM office works to preserve the camp structures and encourages hikers to “use, share, (and) appreciate” the area as part of our federal public lands.