Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Description
Between 1933 and 1939, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided labor for the construction of the Virginia Kendall Park Reserve, now Cuyahoga Valley National Park (est. 2000), in Peninsula, Ohio during the Great Depression. 530 acres of land willed and transferred to the Akron Municipal Parks Board and under the leadership of Harold S. Wagner and F.A. Sieberling petitioned the CCC in August 1933 for a camp. It was granted and in December of that year Unit #576 arrived with 208 recruits first under the command of of Lt. JR Tobin and soon replaced by Captain AW Belden.
The CCC camp reconstructed the area and by the time it was disbanded in 1938 it had completed 3 shelters, 8 latrines, a dam which created Kendall Lake, a bathhouse, 17 footbridges, trails throughout, 40,000 gallon well, 600 foot toboggan slide, 208 tables and benches, graded and developed 5 acres of campground, moved over 15,000 plants and trees, and planted 122 acres of new trees.
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CCC men in the Virginia Kendall area constructed the gorgeous stone steps that still stand near the towering Ritchie Ledges.
Ritchie ledges trail
CCC men in the Virginia Kendall area constructed the gorgeous stone steps that still stand near the towering Ritchie Ledges.
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CCC Company 576
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Kendall Lake
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CCC stones at edge of parking lot and Kendall lake today
CCC Stones, Kendall Lake
CCC stones at edge of parking lot and Kendall lake today
Source notes
Kenneth J. Bindas, The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Construction of the Virginia Kendall Reserve, 1933-1939 (Kent State University Press, 2013)
Project originally submitted by Kenneth Bindas on December 15, 2014.
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This is great! One part is a little misleading– Virginia Kendall Park was incorporated into a much larger Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, later renamed Cuyahoga Valley National Park.