- City:
- Phoenix, AZ
- Site Type:
- CCC Camps, Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
- Started:
- 1933
- Completed:
- 1940
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
South Mountain Park in Phoenix AZ was the site of two Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps from 1933 to 1940, labeled SP-3A and SP-4A. Around 4,000 CCC enrollees passed through the camps over that time, in Companies 864, 874, and possibly others.
The camps appear to have been located on level ground near the entrance to the park, perhaps near the present site of the Environmental Education Center. It is not clear from historic photographs and their labels if the camps were at a single site or were separate. Remnants of CCC barracks are said to be still visible (NNDPA 2012).
The CCC enrollees carried out extensive improvements to South Mountain Park, which had been created by the city of Phoenix in 1924, but had not been developed for public use until the CCC arrived. The 15,000 acre park was far outside the city then and is now surrounded by urbanization of the metro area.
Major works were the the structures at the entrance station, ramadas (picnic shelters), and lookouts; and the enrollees also built roads and trails and erosion control works. There is a statue to the CCC ‘boys’ at the Environmental Education Center and historic panels on the CCC there and at the entrance station.
Source notes
"The New Deal in Arizona: Connections to Our Historic Landscape," The New Deal in Arizona Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association, 2012.
https://content.library.arizona.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/NewDeal/id/195/rec/39
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Mountain_Park
Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on July 31, 2012.
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I was wondering if any lists of full names are listed for men working in the Tempe, or Phoenix area for the CCC during the 1936 through 1937 time period.
Thanks
We don’t have that list, but perhaps City Hall does?
Would it be possible to get a copy of the photograph of CCC Company 864 camp SP-4-A. My father was there at the time and most likely in the picture.
Thanks
April Baker