Camp Tuna Canyon (demolished) – Tujunga CA

Description

Camp Tuna Canyon (P-233) in Tujunga, California was established in 1934.  For most or all of its existence (1934-1941) it was the home of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 902.

Company 902 installed telephone lines for the Los Angeles County Forest Department, constructed several fire lookout towers, and fought numerous fires, including “the Brown Mountain fire of 1934, the Malibu fires of 1935 and 1936, the Tehachapi fire of 1936, the Bouquet Canyon fire of 1937, the Big Pines fire of 1937, and the Oakmont Country Club fire of 1937” (CCC Annual, L.A. District, 1938).

The young men of Company 902 also carved out several truck trails, some of which might be used as hiking trails today.  These included “the Linda Vista Motorway in the San Rafaels, the Haines Canyon truck trail in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest, and the Saddle Peak motorway in the Malibu Mountains” (CCC Annual, L.A. District, 1938).

In December 1941, Camp Tuna Canyon was taken over by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and, with the assistance of the Department of Justice and the FBI, converted into a detention center for Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants determined to be a danger to national security (this appears to have been a more high security facility than the Japanese Internment Camps that were used to remove Japanese Americans from the West Coast).

According to the Wikipedia entry for the “Tuna Canyon Detention Station,” the area eventually became the Verdugo Hills Golf Course.  The location of the CCC camp (and subsequent detention center) is described as being in “the southeastern area of the golf course, where the driving range and overflow parking were built.”