Moraine Park Amphitheater - Rocky Mountain National Park CO

City:: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Amphitheaters and Bandshells
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Conservation and Public Lands, Work Relief Programs, National Park Service (NPS)
Started:: 1935
Completed:: 1936
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

Moraine Park, a large valley in the southeastern portion of Rocky Mountain National Park, was purchased in 1931 by the National Park Service, which cleared the area of most of its former private resort structures.

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a thorough remodeling of the building to convert it into Rocky Mountain National park’s primary museum.

In 1935-36, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was called upon to build an amphitheater, designed by the National Park Service, next to the museum. It an seat 500 people. (Brock, p 43). It was added to the national register listing for Moraine Park Museum in 2005. (Wikipedia)

It is one of three amphitheaters built by CCC enrollees in Rocky Mountain National Park; the others are at Aspenglen and Glacier Basin (Brock, p 43).

Source notes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine_Park_Museum_and_Amphitheater

Julia Brock, A History of the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park. Report to the Rocky Mountain Nature Association and Rocky Mountain National Park, 2005. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rmnp/ccc.pdf

Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on July 24, 2022.
Additional contributions by Joan Greer.