Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park: Campfire Center - Big Sur CA

State:: CA
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Amphitheaters and Bandshells
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Started:: 1933
Completed:: 1941
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Yes
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive improvements to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park on the central California coast, developing it for public recreational use. The state parks commission acquired the land in 1933, but had no funds for development. The CCC worked in the park from 1933 to 1941, but the sources do not specify exact dates for each improvement.

CCC enrollees built a campfire center, or amphitheater, close to the entrance to the park and accessed from day-use parking lot #1. It features split-log bench seating, a wooden stage, a stone fire circle and two stone drinking fountains.

The campfire circle is still in use for evening presentations and the whole ensemble appears to be intact, along with a (possible) original ticket booth. One drinking fountain still works, the other does not.

Source notes

Joseph H. Engbeck, Jr., By the People, For the People: The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in California State Parks, 1933-1941. (Sacramento: California State Parks, 2002), pp. 89-94.

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on February 19, 2023.