- City:
- El Cerrito, CA
- Site Type:
- Military and Public Safety
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1938
- Designer:
- Captain Thomas Fowler
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
The WPA was involved in construction work in Wildcat Canyon.
“State of California, National Guard – Construct new rifle range on Wildcat Canyon in Contra Costa County, near Berkeley, by excavating; clearing and grading site; surfacing roads; erecting pit timbers, target frames and rifle racks; constructing superintendent’s house; reconstructing buildings; fencing; and performing appurtenant and incidental work. Project also includes dismantling existing rifle range at Leona Heights in Alameda County, near Oakland and moving to new location. Project will operate on East Bay Municipal Utility District owned property under lease to the State of California until 1947. In addition to projects specifically approved. Continuation of O. P. No. 165-06-8117”
Approval was granted March 29, 1938. 90,147 man hours went towards construction, $84,445 was spent in total, with $65,288 spent by the WPA, $16,906 by the sponsor, and 266 men were employed.
There is one mention of the range on a political forum by a former CCC member in use in 1951.
An event posting on Facebook in 2013 lists a hike to the remains of the range ruins and a place called Fowler’s Ranch
Source notes
WPA job card
El Cerrito Historical Society, Samuel R. Dows, "Ready on the Right...Ready on the Left," 1939: (https://www.elcerritohistoricalsociety.org/riflerange.pdf), accessed December 27, 2017.
Debate Policy: (https://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?41811-California-Cadet-Corps), accessed December 27, 2017.
Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on December 29, 2017.
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