Oregon Sites

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...

One of three Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps located in the Columbia River Gorge, CCC Camp Benson occupied what was then the City of Portland's Benson Park between 1933 and 1935. Enrollees at this early CCC camp made significant contributions to the development of recreational amenities in the Columbia River Gorge. Camp Benson provided workers for much of Eagle Creek Campground's construction in the Cascade Locks area, as well as improvements at the picnic areas at Wahkeena Falls and Benson Park itself.  Commenting on the progress of Camp Benson enrollees at Benson Park, The Oregonian reported: "Crews of CCC workers assigned to...

A spike or side camp of CCC Camp Vale, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Beulah served enrollees during 1939 when they built the basalt stone wall at the crest of the Agency Valley Dam. As indicated by the company number (CCC Co BR-45), the enrollees worked on this Bureau of Reclamation (BR) project that was part of the larger Vale Project's (#45) irrigation plan. A bureau report indicates that in the spring of 1938, Reclamation negotiated the transfer of buildings from the the abandoned Soil Conservation's CCC Camp Beulah (Co SCS-3) to the new camp's location at the foot of the...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Boyington served a company of CCC enrollees within the first year of the New Deal. Construction began on the camp outside of Astoria, near the unincorporated town of Olney, in October 1933. The company of 200 "tree troopers" arrived within months of the historic Tillamook Burn that occurred in the summer of 1933. The CCC enrollees provided management and firefighting services on private forest land in the northern Oregon Coast Range. The 1937 report of the Vancouver Barracks CCC District noted that the Company was identified as "a peak camp" by 1935 when its Company number changed from...

The Brice Creek Civilian Conservation (CCC) Camp was established north of Layng Creek in the Umpqua National Forest in the spring of 1933. Company #731, the first company to occupy the camp comprised of enrollees from Kansas. Later CCC workers came from Illinois and Oregon to provide support primarily to the lumber industry. As noted on the commemorative plaque located at the nearby Rujada Forest Camp: "The CCC enrollees of Camp Brice Creek planted trees and maintained roads, trails, telephone lines and buildings. They fought forest fires and built fire lookouts - Fairview Peak, Holland Point, and the still-standing, Musick Guard Station,...

In October 1937, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1231 arrived in Grant County, Oregon to assume responsibility for work in the Malheur National Forest. The camp was located sixteen miles south of John Day on Canyon Creek, immediately adjacent to Highway 395. By the conclusion of their work at the beginning of World War II, the CCC workers had built fences, lookout towers, cattle guards, corrals, two new campgrounds (Idlewild and Wickiup) and maintained fourteen other Forest Service camps as well as improved forest stands. The one-hundred-and-fifty CCC workers built their camp, which consisted of educational and supply buildings, barracks, a...

On April 5th, 1933, the day that the executive order forming the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was signed, officials of the U.S. Forest Service announced that they would select land near Cape Perpetua for one of the largest of the CCC camps in the Siuslaw National Forest. The site selected was approximately two miles south of Yachats just east of US Highway 101 on the banks of Cape Creek. Construction of the camp began in June 1933 with a crew of twenty-five local CCC recruits. With its completion, the number of CCC workers residing at Cape Creek Camp grew to...

Camp Cascadia, in the Willamette National Forest (WNF), housed members of Civilian Conservation Corps Co. #2907 from June 20, 1934 until their move to Detroit, Oregon in June 1938. Camp Cascadia was one of four major CCC camps located in the WNF, housing approximately 200 enrollees. The camp was located at the confluence of Canyon Creek and the South Santiam River. As summarized on a plaque at Longbow Organization Camp that honors the enrollees' service: (Members of #2907) ". . . built 35 miles of forest road, 8 bridges, 80 miles of trails and 17 miles of telephone line. Buildings erected by Co....

In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed Camp Emigrant Springs for their use while improving the State Park at that location. Approximately twenty-five miles southeast of Pendleton near the summit of the Blue Mountains, the park marked a historical stop on the Oregon Trail when it became part of the state's park system in the mid-1920s. CCC enrollees, however, were significant in development of the park for day-use. As noted in an Oregon State Parks report, these improvements included: "constructing camp buildings, clearing away unnecessary brush, constructing park roads, trails, and car parking areas, drilling a 6-inch well 370 feet...

Organized in 1933 and operating through at least 1937, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Fall Creek Camp was the home to Company #965, accommodating approximately 200 enrollees. The site of the camp was covered by a reservoir in 1964-1966. The nearby Clark Creek Organization Camp, ten miles to the east on Fall Creek, is one of the largest projects completed by workers from Fall Creek Camp. A plaque at Clark Creek Organization Camp honors the work of the Fall Creek Camp CCC enrollees, saying: "While on the Willamette National Forest, (they) built the Fall Creek Road and bridges, the Fall Creek trail,...

CCC Camp Four Mile, also known as the CCC Bandon Side Camp, served as a base for Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers from its founding in spring 1937 through 1941. Today the site is occupied by a Coos Forest Protective Association (CFPA) patrol district, and a CCC building houses the administration office for the CFPA's Four Mile Guard Station. Thus, it continues its association with firefighting and fire prevention services for the area south of Bandon, Oregon. CCC Camp Four Mile offers one example of many "side camps" that provided firefighting services in the Coos Forest Protection Association District. During the...

CCC Camp Frederick Butte (DG 68) was one of seven Civilian Conservation Corps camps established in Oregon to work with the US Grazing Service in the implementation of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. The Taylor Act created grazing districts as a means to regulate use of public lands by Western ranchers with the goal of improving livestock management and the management of watersheds. CCC enrollees arrived at Frederick Butte in Deschutes County in 1937. As with other DG - or Public Domain Grazing - designated camps, the CCC men planted grasses, eliminated pests believed detrimental to the rangeland, managed the...

From 1934 to 1942, CCC Camp Gap Ranch operated in Harney County under the direction of the US Grazing Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Enrollees at this 200-person Civilian Conservation Corps provided labor on projects designed to manage range land. As noted in a BLM brochure, this included building range improvements such as fences and reservoirs, drilling wells, building roads, and cutting large quantities of juniper posts for fencing projects. CCC Camp Gap Ranch (DG-5) was one of seven Civilian Conservation Corps camps established in Oregon to work with the US Grazing Service in the implementation...

“A former CCC camp is located at the base of Hart Mountain. From this camp, Company 3442 carried out various projects, including fence construction and the installation of telephone lines. The remaining building was the camp infirmary. The CCC campsite will be developed as a campground in the future. Refuge personnel supervised the building of the existing refuge headquarters buildings and residences, which feature CCC-era stonework.” –“CCC Landmarks: Remembering the Past”

In 1935, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers completed Camp Heppner on a site just east of the Morrow County Fairgrounds’ race course and north of the Heppner Highway. From its founding to closure in November 1941, several CCC companies resided there while assisting local ranchers by implementing soil conservation demonstration projects.  No evidence of the camp remains. The Heppner Gazette-Times, the town’s weekly newspaper, reported in early July 1935 that local carpenters and “28 CCC helpers” were running ahead of schedule in completion of the camp. The report also stated that the work had entirely eliminated unemployment in the town given the...

Located on the western edge of the Ochocho National Forest, approximately twenty miles from Prineville, Oregon, Camp Mill Creek served as a major Civilian Conservation Corps worksite from 1933 to 1942. The entrance to the camp's location is marked in honor of the hundreds of young men who worked on projects in this national forest. As described on the roadside plaque: "The young men of Camp Mill Creek did reforestation work, fought forest fires and constructed and maintained roads, trails, telephone lines and campgrounds." CCC workers, under the supervision of the US Forest Service, are credited with constructing several buildings located...

Located nine miles northeast of Wheeler in Tillamook County, Camp Nehalem was the home to Company #2908 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from 1935 to approximately 1941. Company #2908 was known as the "Oregon Company," being made up entirely of Oregon enrollees. Its project designation, P-221, indicates that the company worked primarily on private forest land. When the company was formed in 1933, CCC Camp Boyington near Astoria housed the 200 enrollees of Company #2908. From 1933 - 1936, severe forest fires plagued the area and many of the CCC companies provided forest fighting services. The company was moved from its...

Members of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) #1258 arrived at CCC Camp Saddle Mountain near Seaside and Cannon Beach OR in the summer of 1935. The majority of the Company's enrollees were from New York. Although the CCC workers occupied tents upon their arrival, they began construction of bunkhouses, recreational halls, officers' quarters and other camp buildings. With the camp's completion, the encampment grew to its full strength of 200 men. Located near what was then the Nehalem Highway (now US Hwy 26), the camp's site was rented by the state to the federal government. Improvement of that land for Oregon State Park...

Silver Falls State Park's current North Falls day-use and group camp contains the site that once served the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Silver Creek Falls. CCC enrollees occupied this site from 1935 through 1940, working to improve the state park established in 1933. The first company of CCC enrollees to arrive included 215 young men, mostly from Illinois. The Oregonian reported that their quarters were completed at a cost of $10,000. Later enrollees arrived from Tennessee. As acknowledged on the plaque marking the site: " The young men of Camp Silver Creek Falls constructed trails, roads, bridges, buildings and planted thousands of trees....

Soon after the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in March 1933, CCC Camp Skinner Butte was established in Eugene, Oregon to serve as the headquarters of CCC camps in what was then the Eugene District. Within a year, regional administrators reconfigured the districts and closed Camp Skinner Butte. During its year of operation, Camp Skinner (as it was dubbed) served as the headquarters for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA) as well. The Camp occupied the former car camping and picnic area in Eugene's Skinner Butte Park. Although the City of Eugene established a...

In the  winter of 1935, members of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) #1629 began construction of camp administrative and barracks buildings near Squaw Butte to facilitate CCC work related to the 16,000 acre Squaw Butte Federal Experimental Range Station. Today some of those building survive to support work at the North Great Basin Experimental Range Station and continued research on the ecology and  management of rangelands. CCC Company #2504 arrived in October 1936 to further the work associated with the Squaw Butte Experiment Station and its efforts to improve grazing conditions in this very dry, sagebrush area of Harney County, Oregon. The...

From 1935 through May 1941, the area now occupied by the Trask River County Campground served as the site of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Trask. The enrollees stationed at the camp worked primarily on truck trail construction and other activities related to "fire hazard reduction" on private forest land. As described in the Vancouver Barracks report (1937): "Camp Trask is built in a grove of fir and spruce trees on the bank of the river and affords a very attractive site. The buildings are arranged into a square, with parade grounds and flagpole in the center. Electric lights are provided...

Built in the summer of 1935 and operated through October 1940, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Vale served as the base for CCC enrollees working on the Vale Project's irrigation system. The Bureau of Reclamation's Vale Project involved construction of the Agency Valley Dam, located along the Malheur River and Willow Creek in east-central Oregon. At the dam's completion, the work of the enrollees at Camp BR-45/Camp Vale began. They finished the necessary means of furnishing irrigation water to area ranchers by building the lateral irrigation system to farm tracts in the area. These "soil soldiers," as the Bureau of Reclamation...

CCC Camp Warrenton housed companies of Civilian Conservation Company (CCC) enrollees with a special mission. Although called upon occasionally to fight fires, their primary charge was stabilizing beaches along Clatsop County's coastline. As reported by the Daily Astorian, the Columbia River south jetty had "played havoc on the beaches as far south as Gearhart" since its completion in 1913. Planting Holland Dune Grass along with wooden fences was, at the time, an experiment to halt beach erosion. One report suggests the commitment to this soil conservation project began with the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. By June 1936,...

Located approximately five to seven miles east of Cascade Locks, CCC Camp Wyeth/Cascade Locks (Camp F-7) was one of the longest operating Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the Columbia River Gorge. The US Forest Service's Wyeth Campground currently operates on the site of the former CCC facility. In the summers of 1933 and 1934, tents provided shelter for 200 enrollees put to work on road, trail and campground construction projects. In the summer of 1935, a more permanent commitment to the camp was made when construction of CCC Camp Cascade Locks began on the site located south of Wyeth Road and...

Camp Zigzag, near Zigzag OR in Clackamas County, was the chief Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the Mount Hood National Forest, operating from 1933 to 1942 when the CCC was terminated.  Several of the CCC buildings are still in place and in use at the site, which is now one of four US Forest Service district Ranger Stations in the Mt. Hood NF. Some of the buildings at Camp Zigzag predate the CCC, but most were built by CCC workers and are still standing and in use: the Ranger's Office, Carpenter Shop, Bunkhouse Residence, Ranger's Residence, Gas House, Fire Warehouse,...

This smaller, concrete CCC project from 1940 is located at the west side of the junction of Lincoln Street and N 11th Street in Klamath Falls, OR. This smaller, CCC-built project is located along what's known as the 'A-Canal', one of many 'lettered' irrigation canals that make up the Klamath Water Project. The A-Canal serpentines its way through Klamath Falls and is THE first of the lettered canals to divert water from Lower Klamath Lake to other lettered canals throughout the Basin. The CCC camp responsible for creating this concrete retaining wall in 1940 was either Camp 19 (Project BR-41 / Co....

Currently the administrative center for the Oregon Department of Forestry, this site was first developed in 1936 as the maintenance camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which coordinated its activities with the State Forester's Office. From the first Civilian Conservation Corps camps in 1933 to their closure at the beginning of World War II, Oregon was second only to California in the number of camps west of the Mississippi.  Various state agencies supervised CCC work based on camp location and work program. The State Forester held jurisdiction over camps located in state forests or on private land. The state agency’s newsletter...

In 1936, young people employed by the National Youth Administration provided the labor for construction of an amphitheater on the Reed College campus in southeast Portland. The private college supplied the materials and land with the understanding that the theater would be used by civic organizations as well as for college functions. Created in 1935, the National Youth Administration (NYA) provided part-time employment for young people (16-25) who either needed financial assistance in order to stay in school or were out-of-school, unemployed and in need. During its first four years, the NYA was managed as a program within the Works Progress...

Among the challenges in constructing the final link in Oregon's Highway 101, the state's bridge engineer responded by designing Chasm Bridge on Neahkahnie Mountain. Using Bureau of Public Roads funds and design advice from the National Parks Service, workers completed the bridge in 1937. An information plague located at a viewpoint on Neahkahnie Mountain describes the project, writing: "Built on the sheer face of Neahkahnie Mountain, this 59-foot reinforced concrete deck girder is a major engineering feat! Designed by Glenn S. Paxton, the bridge features stone masonry on its face and railings, which extend nearly uninterrupted around the mountain." Chasm Bridge is also...

As indicated by the Newberg Area Historical Society marker on site, a $15,000 Public Works Administration (PWA) grant allowed the Newberg School District to secure a $35,000 bond to build this brick building, occupied currently by the Chehalem Cultural Center. The New Deal era Central School (1935) replaced a wooden school building at the same location that dated from 1889. As early as 1933, the structure was declared a fire hazard. Newberg voters approved raising funds for the new school in 1934 with the necessary bond secured by the PWA grant. H. J. Settergren, a Portland area contractor, built the new Central...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the fire lookout tower on Cinnamon Butte in 1934.   Cinnamon Butte lies 5 miles north of Diamond Lake, east of highway 138, and west of the Mt Theilsen Wilderness Area. The lookout tower is 35 feet high with a 14x14 foot observation cabin, all built entirely of wood. This was a standard form and size of lookout tower.  It still stands. The CCC built several fire lookouts for the US Forest Service in Umpqua National Forest, dozens around Oregon and hundreds across the country.    

"The city hall at Canby is a good example of a municipal building designed to accommodate most of the departments of a small community. The structure provides quarters for the council chamber, light and water departments, police and fire departments, and adequate storage space. The construction consists of concrete foundation walls, brick exterior walls above grade, and frame floors, partitions, and roof. All trim is wood. The building was completed in March 1937 at a construction cost of $10,850 and a project cost of $11,642."

Tillamook City Hall was originally constructed as Tillamook's post office. The building was completed in 1942 and houses a New Deal mural inside. The site for the new federal post office, located across from the Tillamook County Courthouse, was acquired in 1940. As such, it contributed to a civic center within the community. The State Historic Preservation Office's evaluation of the building and its significance describes it in the following way: "It represents the federal presence in the community and was the community's first federally constructed post office. The building is of standardized design, typical of the era. The design exhibits the...

Titled "Captain Gray Entering Tillamook Bay," this mural depicts Captain Gray, who is best known for discovery of the Columbia River in the year 1792. Four years prior to that, however, he became the first white man, on record, to set foot on Oregon’s shore. On the same voyage, he was the first to carry the American flag around the world. Residents of Tillamook County find special interest in the log of his visit. The log tells of the four days spent in what is now Tillamook Bay. He believed he had discovered the “Great River of the West,” something...

"Civic Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in Eugene, Oregon, owned by the Eugene School District. Civic Stadium, the vacant stadium located near East 20th Avenue and Willamette Street, adjacent to South Eugene High School, has a seating capacity of 6,800. The stadium was built in 1938 through a public-private partnership between the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, Eugene School District 4J and the federal Works Progress Administration; it has been owned by the Eugene School District since its construction."   (wikipedia)

Members of the Clackamas County Planning Board announced during the summer of 1935 that the fifty-one-year old Courthouse represented a fire hazard as well as no longer being adequate for the county's business. Citing the possibility of obtaining PWA funds for the construction of a new courthouse, they encouraged architects to submit plans for the proposed structure. By the fall, the Planning Board had selected the drawings of Francis Marion Stokes, a well-known Portland architect, requested an outright grant of $90,000 from the Public Works Administration, and proposed a means of raising the county's fifty-five percent contribution to the project....

The Clark Creek Organization Camp is a group campground constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps with the US Forest Service in the late 1930s. As noted on the onsite commemorative plaque: "Clark Creek Organization Camp was built by Company 965 of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 and 1937. Company 965 was organized in 1933 and located about ten miles west on Fall Creek. One of only four organizaiton camps in the Pacific Northwest, Clark Creek was designed by William Parke, Forest Service Recreation planner, in the "Rustic Design" them of CCC era architecture." The National Association of CCC Alumni, Chapter...

Vehicle access within the Willamette National Forest (WNF) was quite limited in 1933. Consequently, developing truck trails or access roads was a high priority for the US Forest Service for fire management. When Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees arrived in the summer of 1933, they were immediately put to work developing a truck trail from Belknap Springs on the McKenzie Highway north to Clear Lake, and ultimately connecting to US Hwy 20 and the Santiam Highway.  Portions of those road improvements are currently maintained as forest service roads while the remainder has been improved as State Highway 126, known at the...

During the summer and fall of 1937, Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from CCC camps Belknap and Cascadia/Marys Creek developed recreational facilities at Clear Lake. Improvements at the time provided opportunities for camping, picnicking and hiking. Today, the site operates as a day use area only with trails and picnic sites available for use. The CCC laid out campsites with attached picnic facilities above the Clear Lake/Belknap Springs road that are still visible but camping is no longer permitted there. Significant CCC constructed structures that do remain in the Day Use Area include the Clear Lake Picnic shelter and Information Booth. Both...