Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park: Trails - Orick CA

City:: Orick, CA
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Paths and Trails
New Deal Agencies:: Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Work Relief Programs
Started:: 1933
Completed:: 1937
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Yes
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made the first improvements to the newly-acquired Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Company 1903 worked out of a CCC camp established at the north end of the ‘prairie’ at the present park entrance in 1933.

The first order of business was to develop Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park itself, after which teams from Company 1903 worked at other state parks along the north coast of California. The CCC camp closed in 1937.

Among the many other improvements the CCC ‘boys’ (young men) made to Prairie Creek park was a 70-mile long network of trails for visitors to enjoy the redwoods and the park’s natural beauty. That trail system is still very much in use.

There is a charming wooden foot bridge across the creek behind the Visitor’s Center that is a replacement of an earlier CCC bridge, according to Engbeck (2002). That earlier bridge might either have deteriorated with time (like most of the trail signs, which are also recent) or have been washed out in the great North Coast floods of 1955 and 1964.

Source notes

Engbeck, Joseph Jr. 2002. By the People, For the People: The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in California State Parks, 1933-1941. Sacramento: California State Parks.

Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on June 17, 2021.
Additional contributions by Joan Greer.