Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park: Softball Field - Big Sur CA

City:: Big Sur, CA
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Athletic Courts and Fields
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Started:: 1933
Completed:: 1941
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Marked:: No
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 always specify exact dates for each improvement.

Although Engbeck (2002) does not mention it, the softball field next to the Group Picnic Areas must have been built by the CCC enrollees. It is typical of ball fields built in parks all over the country by the CCC and WPA, and the stone drinking fountains and old wood bench outside the fence are a dead giveaway of New Deal-era work.

The field is in good shape, as is the fence and backstop. One drinking fountain works and the other is defunct.

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 20, 2023.