Start Year: 1933

Trail Ridge Road is the main route across Rocky Mountain National Park It is a marvel of highway engineering and provides stunning views of the park, particularly as it traverses the alpine regions above timber line. The road is 48 miles long and its summit near the Alpine Ranger Station is over 12,000 feet.  It is the highest continuous paved road in North America and is now a National Scenic Byway. Trail Ridge Road was built by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) and its contractors in 1929-32, to replace the old Fall River road.  It was a fully engineered, graded and...

The New Deal contributed many residential buildings for park staff at Rocky Mountain National Park, particularly in the large cluster of housing next to the utility area – the main maintenance station for the park which is near the Beaver Meadows entrance. The National Park Service began construction of the area in the 1920s and completed it in the 1930s with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor.  The New Deal agencies built four residences,  renovated six others and left behind some CCC camp buildings. The overall style of the buildings is national park rustic,...

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...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park during the whole of the program's lifetime, 1933 to 1942.  There were four main camps in the park. The CCC participated in a fish-restocking program, which the National Park Service had initiated in 1931 to deal with depleted lakes and streams due to years of unregulated fishing.  The main contribution of the CCC was to build four fish-rearing ponds, at Horseshoe Park, near Endovalley campground, at Hollowell Park, and near Grand Lake. The ponds were roughly 200 x 100 feet and 10 feet deep. (Brock, p 42). Fry from the Estes...

Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915 to preserve a spectacular section of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains.  Several new additions to the park have been made over the years, until it reached its present size of 415 square miles. The park saw considerable recreational development in the 1920s under the National Park Service (NPS), but it benefitted enormously in the 1930s from the New Deal.  Most notable of the New Deal agencies was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), but the \ park also gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), road work by the Bureau of...

In 1933, U.S. Forest Service workers constructed a ranger residence at 243 West Pine Street in the city of Pinedale, Wyoming. The Colonial-Revival style building follows standard architectural plans created by George L. Nichols, a prominent regional architect whose designs were utilized by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) throughout the 1930s. The building was originally used as both an office and a dwelling for USFS rangers to administer services in the nearby Bridger-Teton National Forest. Today, the Pinedale Ranger District uses the dwelling for storage and occasional employee housing.

In 1933, Company 832 of the Civilian Conservation Corps built CCC Camp F-17-W at Chimney Park in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest. CCC enrollees at the Chimney Park camp worked on ranger stations, trails, and roads in addition to establishing and measuring timber research plots. Some of the CCC enrollees went on to study forestry in college following their service. One sent a letter to the U.S. Senate that was cited in government discussions of deforestation in 1971 (“Statement of Hon. Teno Roncalio”).   Camp F-17-W operated continuously until July 20, 1942 and was one of the last CCC camps to close...

In 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed three new buildings for the Sherman Guard Station, including an office, garage/shop, and an outhouse. Originally used as a yearlong headquarters for the Sherman Ranger District, the ranger station became a seasonal work center by 1933. The site was used intermittently throughout the 20th century, and has most recently served as the staging area for fire crews fighting the Mule Forest Fire in 2002. Six buildings remain onsite at the Sherman Guard Station today, and all three of the buildings constructed by the CCC remain in use by...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park during the whole of its lifetime, 1933 to 1942.  There were at least six camps in the park, three of which were permanent and three seasonal. The camps were labeled NP-1, 3, 4, 7, 11 and 12. The first camp was NP-1 at Little Horseshoe Park in the northeast part of the park.  The second camp was NP-3 located about 12 miles north of Grand Lake at Phantom Valley, a tent camp that only lasted 1933-34. Camp NP-4 built in 1934 in Hollowell Park was the first permanent camp with...

Guy W. Talbot State Park, also known as Latourell Falls State Park, entered the Oregon State Park system in 1929 when the Talbot family donated 125 acres of land adjacent to Latourell Falls. Significant development of the park, however, began in 1933 when Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from nearby CCC Camp Benson initiated work. CCC projects improved the park during the second period of the CCC (October 1933 to Arpil 1934), the third period (April to October 1934), and the fifth period (April to October 1935). As noted in a report completed in 1946 under the supervision of the Oregon State...