Storm Mountain Picnic Area - Big Cottonwood Canyon UT

City:: Big Cottonwood Canyon, UT
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Picnic and Other Facilities, Comfort Stations (Restrooms)
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Work Relief Programs
Started:: 1935
Completed:: 1942
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Storm Mountain Picnic Area in the lower reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, a major recreational area for Salt Lake City. The CCC young men, supervised by the US Forest Service, laid out picnic sites, built a footbridge over Big Cottonwood Creek and rip-rapped the creek. They also constructed two stone comfort stations (restrooms), which are no longer in use.

The Storm Mountain picnic area includes a beautiful stone amphitheater. The picnic area is not marked as CCC in origin, but the amphitheater is.

The small dam just above the Storm Mountain picnic area is part of the hydropower system in the canyon and not related to the CCC.

There are other picnic areas and campgrounds in Big Cottonwood Canyon that were probably created by the CCC, such as Jordan Pines and Legedemere. We need further confirmation on those, however.

Source notes

Kenneth Baldridge, The Civilian Conservation Corps in Utah: Remembering Nine Years of Achievement, 1933-1942. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Site originally submitted by Joan Greer on July 18, 2019.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.