Orick Sites

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided the bulk of funding for a new school for the small town of Orick in Humboldt County. Orick was a lumber town when the school was built in 1935-36 and much in need of school facilities.  The style of the building is Mission Revival, much in vogue in California at the time but not so frequent along the North Coast where wood frame building were most common. The PWA report by Short and Stanley-Brown provides more details about the site:  'The new building contains two large and two small classrooms with a stage at the...

The Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery near Orick was one of the first local hatcheries developed in California to improve sport and commercial fishing. It was constructed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the 62-acre site of a previous hatchery.  The work included the hatchery ponds, five water tanks, a pipeline, superintendent's house, assistant's house, sidewalk, garage shop, and shed. The hatchery operated until 1992 and the site is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

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 enrollees made to Prairie Creek park was a lovely amphitheater, or what is called in this instance...

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. According to Engbeck (2002, pp. 21-22), the CCC enrollees laid out a day-use picnic area and a new campground with tables, benches, cupboards, and stoves,...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp in October 1933 at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, north of Orick, California. CCC company 1903 operated out of what was known as Prairie Creek Camp while working on improvements to all the state parks along the coast of Northern California. The state had just created a state park system in 1928, which took over management of a handful of older beach parks and newly-acquired redwood parks purchased by the Save the Redwoods League in the 1920s. There were few, if any, public facilities in any of the parks when the CCC came in. The...

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...

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.  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 most notable legacy of the CCC's presence in the park is the Visitor's Center, which originally served as the Warden's (or Custodian's) Residence. It is a single-story rustic building, somewhat modified...