- City:
- Mill Creek Canyon, UT
- Site Type:
- Paths and Trails, Parks and Recreation, Campgrounds and Cabins
- New Deal Agencies:
- Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1936
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Minimal
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Mill Creek Canyon lies east of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Mountains and is a popular recreation area for city dwellers. It is part of the Unita-Wasatch-Cache National Forest
In 1936-37, crews paid under the Employment Recovery Act made extensive improvements to Mill Creek Canyon Park (whether state relief workers or Works Progress Administration crews is unclear). It is likely that Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crews were also involved in Mill Creek Canyon, since they were active in the vicinity, working out the Big Cottonwood Canyon CCC camp.
New Deal workers built an extensive system of trails, campgrounds and stone supporting walls. It is unknown exactly what work was done during the New Deal and what was added later. Maple Grove and Elbow campgrounds and the Mount Aire trail stonework are mentioned by Keller (2001). The stone work on walls and pedestrian bridges at Box Elder and Terraces campgrounds appear to be of that era, as well, so are included in the photographs below.
Source notes
Charles Keller, The Lady in the Ore Bucket: A History of Settlement and Industry in the Tri-Canyon Area of the Wasatch Mountains. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2001.
Salt Lake Tribune, December 8, 1936, July 3, 1937.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/uwcnf/recarea/?recid=81101
Site originally submitted by Joan Greer on March 15, 2017.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
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