Coos Bay Sites

Land for Cape Arago State Park was donated to Oregon State Parks in 1932 but lay undeveloped until Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees began improvements in 1934. Over a two-year period, they completed a considerable amount of work.  As noted in a 1965 history of the Oregon State Parks, their tasks included: constructing roads, trails, fire breaks and fire hazard reduction, clearing a picnic area, setting up tables and stoves, constructing a water system and erecting a park foreman's cottage. A CCC camp operated at Cape Arago for the period of time required to provide basic amenities for day use at...

The Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay was originally constructed in 1936 as the post office for what was then Marshfield, Oregon. Marshfield changed name to Coos Bay on Feb. 15, 1945. The Coos Art Museum (CAM) acquired the building in the 1970s and after fund-raising and renovation work moved the CAM collections. Public Works Administration (PWA) Federal Project No. 324.

In 1937, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees constructed four buildings to serve the Oregon Forestry Department and its work in nearby forests. The buildings associated with the State Forestry Complex, as it was known at the time, included a warehouse building, a crew quarters building, a gas house and a residence. As is the case with other structures built by CCC workers, the buildings are simple wood structures with limited decoration. The cedar lap siding and board and batten gables provide some texture and definition. Only the "pine tree" logo cutout provides ornamentation. The pine tree became a symbol of CCC...

With the provision of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding, the City of Marshfield, Oregon replaced its crowded, thirty-year-old high school in 1939-1940 on the same site. Local funds covered 55% of project costs. The New Deal era campus construction included the main classroom building, an auditorium, and a new gym. At the time, the new gym was referred to as the west gym. Portland architect Francis Marion Stokes designed the concrete Art Deco structure. Additional buildings were added later to accommodate the high school's growth and changing needs but the Marshfield classroom building and Auditorium still dominate the eastern facade. Residents voted...

As noted on a history plaque at the Marshfield IOOF Cemetery: "The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds improvements to Ingersoll Avenue, including a 490-foot-long rock wall at the southern end of the cemetery." The WPA improvements occurred in 1938 and represent a significant improvement in shoring up the steep slope bordering Ingersoll Avenue.

Built in 1940-41 to serve as a multi-purpose community center for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, this tribal hall is the last known intact New Deal Indian Community Building left in Oregon. Its funding came through the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA), and the Indian Division of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC-ID). The hall was designed to support what was then an unorganized group of Indians in southwestern Oregon in addressing economic, social, health and political needs. The functional building provided an auditorium to seat 300, a kitchen for canning...