Watoga State Park – Marlinton WV

City:
Marlinton, WV

Site Type:
Parks and Recreation, Lodges, Ranger Stations and Visitor Centers, Paths and Trails, Campgrounds and Cabins, Lakes and Ponds, Bathhouses

New Deal Agencies:
Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Started:
1933

Completed:
1942

Description

“The largest of West Virginia’s state parks, at 10,100 acres, Watoga is also among the oldest, dating back to the first land acquisitions by the West Virginia Game and Fish Commission in the 1920s. The park is located in southern Pocahontas County on the Greenbrier River. It was named for Watoga, a nearby town…

Two Civilian Conservation Corps camps were established, Camp Watoga in 1933 at the park’s present maintenance area and Camp Seebert at the mouth of Island Lick Run in 1934. Also in 1934 Watoga was changed from a state forest to a state park. A third CCC camp, Camp Will Rogers, was opened in 1935. By the time the camps were closed (Seebert and Will Rogers in 1937 and Watoga in 1942), the CCC had constructed 22 cabins, a superintendent’s residence, stable, restaurant-administration building, an 11-acre lake, horse and foot trails, 14 miles of roads, and a swimming pool. Deer, turkeys, raccoon, ducks, and pheasants raised at Watoga had been stocked in a seven county area. An area for an arboretum was set aside in 1938 as a memorial to Fred E. Brooks (1868–1933), a noted naturalist.

Watoga State Park was opened to the public on July 1, 1937. Later improvements include eight additional cabins, a bathhouse, the first state park campground in West Virginia, a second campground, a recreation building, paved roads, water and sewer improvements, and upgrading of the original cabins.

The Civilian Conservation Corps legacy at Watoga and other state facilities is remembered in an annual CCC reunion at Watoga State Park, a museum, and a statue of a CCC enrollee.”   (https://www.wvencyclopedia.org)

Source notes

https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/916

Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on May 1, 2014.

Location Info


4800 Watoga Park Road
Marlinton, WV 24954
Pocahontas County

Coordinates: 38.2234533, -80.09450

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2 comments on “Watoga State Park – Marlinton WV

  1. Charles seplocha

    My dad was a CCC member in the early to late thirties.
    I believe he worked in Watoga State Park but I have no record of this. I remember as a small child seeing a photo book titled “happy Days at CCC.” Is there a record of the men who served at Watoga available?

  2. One possible source of information: The West Virginia CCC Museum (https://www.wva-ccc-legacy.org). To research your dad’s CCC records checkout https://ccclegacy.org/research.html.

    Good luck!

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Contribute to this Site

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2 comments on “Watoga State Park – Marlinton WV

  1. Charles seplocha

    My dad was a CCC member in the early to late thirties.
    I believe he worked in Watoga State Park but I have no record of this. I remember as a small child seeing a photo book titled “happy Days at CCC.” Is there a record of the men who served at Watoga available?

  2. One possible source of information: The West Virginia CCC Museum (https://www.wva-ccc-legacy.org). To research your dad’s CCC records checkout https://ccclegacy.org/research.html.

    Good luck!

Join the Conversation

Please note:

  • We are not involved in the management of New Deal sites and have no information about visits, hours or rentals.
  • This page shows all the information we have for this site; if you have new information or photos to share, click the button above.

Your email address will not be published, shared, or sold.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.