Big Cottonwood Canyon Sites

Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) Company 3340 worked out of camp F-38 at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County Utah, from the summer of 1935 through 1942.  Camp F-38 was under the direction of the US Forest Service. The hundreds of CCC enrollees assigned to camp F-38 made many improvements to recreational facilities along the Wasatch Front east of Salt Lake City, including work in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Little Cottonwood Canyon and Mill Creek Canyon. They built trails, roads, bridges, campgrounds, shelters, ski facilities, amphitheaters and more, and even carried out a couple rescue operations, as well. A panel near...

A marvelous amphitheater graces the Storm Mountain picnic area.  It was created in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The amphitheater is built from local stone and backs up against a striking stone cliff, part of the dramatic geology of lower Big Cottonwood Canyon. A path and bridge lead to the amphitheater. The site was renovated by the US Forest Service and Chevron Corp workers in the early 1990s and is still actively used. It is marked by a plaque added at that time and an informational sign, which speaks proudly of the CCC "Forest Army" of the New Deal era...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)  built the Storm Mountain Picnic Area in the lower reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, a major recreational area for Salt Lake City.  The CCC young men, supervised by the US Forest Service, laid out picnic sites, built a footbridge over Big Cottonwood Creek and rip-rapped the creek.  They also constructed two stone comfort stations (restrooms), which are no longer in use.   The Storm Mountain picnic area includes a beautiful stone amphitheater. The picnic area is not marked as CCC in origin, but the amphitheater is.  The small dam just above the Storm Mountain picnic area is part...

The Utah Outdoor Association, working with the local Forest Service office in the Wasatch National Forest, created the Community Camp in 1921.  It was built on the site of a former tree nursery put there c. 1900 to reforest Big Cottonwood Canyon, which had been completely denuded of trees in the 19th century to build early Salt Lake City.  In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) added many new facilities to the Community Camp, including more campsites, tent platforms, baseball fields, horseshoe pitches and a volleyball court. A ski jump and toboggan slide were added in 1936-37 at the mouth of Day's Fork,...

Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) company 3340 worked out of camp F-38 at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County UT, from the summer of 1935 through 1942. The hundreds of CCC enrollees assigned to camp F-38 during those years built many trails in lower Big Cottonwood Canyon.  These are the ones locally attributed to the CCC: On the south side moving up the canyon, there are two short and three long trails up the ridge between Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons: Storm Mountain trail (short, unmarked); Lake Blanche trail (formerly Mill B South Fork); Donut Falls/Cardiff Pass/Kessler Peak trails...