- City:
- Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Campgrounds and Cabins
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Conservation and Public Lands, National Park Service (NPS), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
- Started:
- 1933
- Completed:
- 1941
- Designer:
- E.P. Meinecke
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made improvements to three of the existing campgrounds in Rocky Mountain National Park: Endovalley, Aspenglen and Glacier Basin. These three were the most popular campgrounds at the time and their facilities were antiquated, so CCC stepped in to upgrade them (later, they would add a new campground at Timber Creek on the west side of the park). (Brock, p 40)
The campgrounds were all renovated according to National Park Service standards embodied in the writings of E.P. Meinecke – Camp Ground Policy (1932) and Camp Planning and Camp Reconstruction (1934).
In 1933-34 CCC enrollees deployed logs and boulders to mark off parking areas, camping spaces, and other important spaces in the campgrounds. In 1936-37, they constructed brick fireplaces and picnic tables; as one CCC veteran Dean McMurphy remembered, “We built hundreds of them – and we built them darn good.” (Brock, p. 41).
In later years, CCC enrollees added comfort stations and water supplies to these, and possibly other, campgrounds (Brock, p. 41).
[The entrance station and comfort stations at Aspenglen Campground, shown here, could be CCC work, but we do not have verification]
Source notes
Julia Brock, A History of the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park. Report to the Rocky Mountain Nature Association and Rocky Mountain National Park, 2005. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rmnp/ccc.pdf
Site originally submitted by Richard Walker on August 14, 2022.
At this Location:
- Moraine Park Museum - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Trail Ridge Road Completion - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Bear Lake Comfort Station - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Fall River Road to Trail Ridge Road Connector - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Fall River Entrance Ranger Station - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Shadow Mountain Lookout - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Timber Creek Campground and Comfort Stations - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Recreational Development - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Trails and Trail Renovation - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Gem Lake Trail Improvements - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Utility Area - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Moraine Park Amphitheater - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Trail Ridge Road Rock Walls - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- CCC Camps (former) - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
- Trail Ridge Store - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
View all sites at Rocky Mountain National Park - CO (19 Sites)
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