Sign to camping & picnic areas, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
Description
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out major work at Colossal Cave and the surrounding park north of Vail AZ (now a suburb of Tucson, but far to the east in the 1930s). They improved access to the cave itself, built a large visitors’/administration center, laid out a campground and picnic area, opened roads and trails and built a water supply system. The Arizona State Park Service oversaw the work.
CCC workers constructed La Selvilla campground and El Bosquecito picnic area below the hillside, as well as a pump house to take water up the hill to the cave and visitors’ center. La Selvilla campground has very minimal improvements and a poorly maintained road, but El Bosquecito picnic area is quite nice and features concrete tables, stone stoves and a stone water fountain (now a faucet).
The former well and stone pump house are at El Bosquecito picnic area.
(Note: It appears that the original CCC camp SP-10 was sited at the current location of the El Bosquicito picnic area, but we cannot confirm that).
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Sign to camping & picnic areas, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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La Selvilla campground, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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La Selvilla campground, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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La Selvilla campground, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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Entrance to La Selvilla campground, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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Pump house, El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
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El Bosquecito picnic area, Colossal Cave Mountain Park - Vail AZ
Source notes
Audretsch, Robert and Sharon Hunt, 2014. The Civilian Conservation Corps in Arizona. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 18-19.
"The New Deal in Arizona: Connections to Our Historic Landscape," University of Arizona, The New Deal in Arizona Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association.
https://www.library.arizona.edu/newdeal/map.htmlHistoric photos can be found at: https://content.library.arizona.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/NewDeal/id/210
Project originally submitted by Richard A Walker on November 12, 2019.
Additional contributions by Joan Greer.
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal project site.
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