Civilian Conservation Corps in Big Bend National Park

CCC Camp, Photograph, November 26, 1937; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39508 : accessed December 16, 2011), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Marfa Public Library, Marfa, Texas.

 From Big Bend National Park's website, "If you have driven, hiked, or slept in the Chisos Mountains, you have experienced CCC history. In May 1933, Texas Canyons State Park was established; it was later renamed Big Bend State Park. Roads and trails were needed for the new park, and the CCC provided an ideal workforce. A year after the park was established, 200 young men, 80 percent of whom were Hispanic, arrived to work in the Chisos Mountains. The CCC's first job was to set up camp and develop a reliable water supply. The CCC boys faced many challenges, living in tents 85 miles from the nearest town, and facing extreme temperatures and weather. Eventually barracks replaced tents in the area of today’s Basin Campground.

In the early 1930s, the CCC built an all-weather access road into the Chisos Mountains Basin. They surveyed and built the seven-mile road using only picks, shovels, rakes, and a dump truck, which they loaded by hand. They scraped, dug, and blasted 10,000 truck loads of earth and rock and constructed 17 stone culverts, still in use today along the Basin road."


Thanks to our friends at the Portal To Texas History and Marfa Public Library, this image has been saved for all to enjoy!  The Portal also has an entire section for educators on the CCC in their Resources 4 Educators section.  Click here!

To learn more about the CCC in Big Bend National Park, click here.

To see more photographs of the CCC working in Big Bend National Park, on the park's website