Start Year: 1934

Interest in winter sports, particularly skiing, grew in Oregon during the 1920s. Given the Willamette National Forest (WNF) management's commitment to recreation and the availability of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor, US Forest Service Staff worked with local outdoor groups such as Eugene's Obsidian Club to identify locations within the forest for ski areas as early as 1934. The White Branch Recreational Area was  one of the first such projects. A survey crew from CCC Camp Belknap located land for the White Branch project and CCC enrollees began work in the summer of 1934. They built a two-story lodge, ski and...

Pearl City was an area of Vincennes that was described by the newspapers in the 1930's at the time as an area next to the Wabash River that was filled with hovels made of crates and tin and occupied by barely recognizable humans living in squalid conditions after shell fishing by squaters declined. With labor supplied by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), 20 houses were constructed in a 4 acre area called Sunset Court. From the look of the photograph, the small houses can be compared to the popular tiny houses today. Still, considering that the people who moved...

Also referred to as the McKenzie River Campground, the McKenzie Bridge Campground was among the first campgrounds built with Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor in the Willamette National Forest (WNF). The forest supervisor prioritized recreation projects in the WNF, setting a goal that 25% of CCC time be spent on recreational development with the remainder be spent on fire fighting and forest management responsibilities. CCC enrollees from Camp Belknap constructed the McKenzie Bridge Campground, laying out the site's roads and campsites, providing water, and constructing picnic tables as well as the needed facilities for camping and picnicking. Today at McKenzie Bridge...

Among the first of their recreation related construction projects, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Camp Belknap laid out and built the Horse Creek Campground in 1934. The group campground is located one-and-a-half miles south of McKenzie Bridge on the banks of Horse Creek. The campground can accommodate approximately 100 people and 23 vehicles. An interesting bit of CCC history in the Willamette National Forest (WNF) is associated with Horse Creek Campground. Forest Supervisor Perry Thompson hired landscape architect William Parke as a recreational planner for the WNF, instructing him to prepare site plans for campgrounds, picnic areas and organization camps...

A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) side camp, also known as spike camp, operated at Fish Lake in the Willamette National Forest during the from 1934 to 1939. Side or spike camps allowed the CCC to locate its workers closer to their job sites on special projects and forest fighting. In the case of the Fish Lake CCC camp, workers from CCC Camp Mary Creek (Company 2907) and CCC Camp Belknap (Company 927) were moved to the area during the construction season to improve the operation of the Fish Lake Guard Station for its packing operation. This involved building additional corral space...

Contributing improvements in forest management and recreation development, CCC Camp Belknap operated in the Willamette National Forest for five years. From spring 1933 to summer 1938, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees strung phone lines through the forest, and constructed roads and trails. They built lookouts and guard stations with water systems, and fought several major fires. They opened new parts of the forest to camping and other recreation opportunities, building campgrounds, picnic areas, and ski lodges and ski runs. Perhaps the most distinctive of the projects completed by Camp Belknap's "CCC boys" is the Dee Wright Observatory near McKenzie Pass. Although...

Trail Ridge Road is the main route across Rocky Mountain National Park, built in 1929 to 1932 to replace the old Fall River road.  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. In building the road, the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) and its contractors built several miles of low guard...

In 1934, Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) railroad, “negotiated a $900,000 Public Works Administration loan which would be used to make B & O’s New York-Washington line an industry-wide proving ground for various types of lightweight train construction and high-speed steam and diesel power” (Harwood, 1990). Among the equipment constructed with this loan was the Royal Blue, a streamline train set consisting of eight cars made out of aluminum and lightweight steel. The Royal Blue was a reincarnation of a popular B&O train service from the turn of the century plus “a quarter of a century of...

In 1934-35, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed five new buildings to create the Goosewing Guard Station, including a central dwelling, two gashouses, a barn and a garage. Originally built as a winter shelter for rangers monitoring elk grazing conditions, the U.S. Forest Service utilized Goosewing Guard Station until it fell into disrepair in the early 2000s. All five buildings were built following standard architectural plans created by U.S. Forest Service regional architect George L. Nichols. Because of Nichols’ contributions to the region in the 1930s (made possible through New Deal funding and labor), the majority...

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) lent $900,000 to the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad, which used it to buy 16 streamlined, lightweight train cars and a new diesel locomotive (see our project page, “Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Locomotive No. 50 – St. Louis MO”), with, “The remainder... set aside to rebuild a steam engine to develop an exceptionally high speed… covered with a streamlined jacket to cut down wind resistance” (The Bangor Daily News, 1934). The rebuilt locomotive was the Lady Baltimore, which played a prominent role in the B&O’s experiments during the 1930s to determine whether the company’s...