Mount Diablo State Park: Trails & Other Improvements – Mount Diablo CA

Description

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked at Mount Diablo State Park for nine years, 1933-1942. Along with such notable features as the Summit Building, campgrounds and picnic areas (see linked project pages), the CCC ‘boys’ made many other improvements to the park.  These include hiking trails, entrance gates, retaining walls, drinking fountains, comfort stations, turn-outs and observation areas, residences for park staff, barracks for fire crews, a mess hall and other service buildings, and a water supply system. 

The State Parks Department is quite cognizant of its debt to the New Deal for improving all the parks existing in the 1930s, as noted in Joseph Engbeck’s (2002) official history of the parks and on the State Parks website – which includes a “CCC heritage adventure” page to guide New Deal enthusiasts.  The state parks website observes that:

“The CCC worked for nine years in Mount Diablo. The work accomplished in the park demonstrates the variety of CCC activities in state parks in general. As visitors travel up the main road which winds to the mountain top, they pass through areas developed for day-use and trails, both of which illustrate the skill and fine craftsmanship of the CCC. Upon reaching the top, the experience is culminated by the fine views and vistas of the surrounding valleys and crowned by the Summit Building one of the largest and most important CCC building in the park system.”