TEXT BY JULIA ROBINSON AIL TO THE BOY H OF THE S The CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS LEFT an ENDURING LEGACY on the TEXAS LANDSCAPE Stone overlook shelter, Skyline Drive, Davis Mountains State Park 54PHOTOS: texashighways.com © Laurence Parent; | JULY Courtesy 2016 Texas Parks and Wildlife JULY 2016 | texashighways.com 55 1 AIL TO THE BOYS H OF THE 2 3 hen I was a child, Texas’ state parks were beloved vacation {“Fishermen’s barrack,” Lake Brownwood w destinations. I became intimately familiar with the State Park, 1935 ubiquitous brown-and-yellow signs, the stoic stone buildings, 1 “Dam footing,” 4 5 Fort Parker State rustic cabins, and cement picnic tables that dotted the state. Park, c. 1935 They were all similar, yet unique to each site. The large limestone 2 The CCC boys at foundations of Central Texas gave way to adobe flair in the west, Spanish Tyler State Park, mission influence in the south, and piney log cabins in the east. I passed c. 1937 the plaques at the interpretive centers and didn’t give a second thought to 34 “HQ Activities” the grainy black-and-white photos of men in rolled-up shirtsleeves posing 5 Garner State Park site, 1932 on rock piles, or smiling from the roof of a dining hall, hammer in hand. I became interested in these photos again as an adult. As a photojournalist and student of history, I like to comb through old images looking for moments and stories. The men who built the state parks of Texas were part of a program at a watershed in American politics and culture. Progressive politics, early environmentalism, and the biggest financial crisis the world had ever seen opened a window of opportunity for big ideas to take root. 56 texashighways.com | JULY 2016 Courtesy Texas State Archives PHOTOS: Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife JULY 2016 | texashighways.com 57 During the Great Depres- more than 50,000 Texans. dropped and the drought sion, as unemployment rose Dubbed “Roosevelt’s Tree worsened. to a staggering 25 percent Army,” the program gained At the time, Texas had an and a nine-year drought wide bipartisan support, anemic state parks system Comprised of ushered in the Dust Bowl in laid the foundation of our with 14 parks that together World War I veterans, the Midwest and Southern current parks system, and covered just over 800 acres. CCC Company 3822 Just weeks after Roosevelt announced the CCC, Plains, President Frank- provided financial relief to (By comparison, Texas reconstructed the 18th-Century mission proposals flooded into Austin from communities all across lin D. Roosevelt proposed millions of Americans. state parks comprise more structures at Goliad Texas, each offering sites for new parks and asking for the Civilian Conservation At the start of the Great than 600,000 acres today.) State Park and Historic help with erosion, flood control, and farming practices. Corps as a massive plan Depression, Texas seemed The new state parks board Site, including the church, granary, clois- to put millions of young insulated from the wider struggled for land dona- ter, and workshop. men to work in the conser- financial stress of the stock tions and legislative fund- vation of America’s natu- market crash. Oil money ing to develop and main- The corps hand- finished some 30,000 ral resources. From 1933 and a diversified network of tain the parks. Just weeks square feet of stone to to 1942, the Civilian Con- cotton, food crops, and wool after Roosevelt announced build Balmorhea’s pool, servation Corps left an en- kept the economy afloat the CCC, proposals flooded once billed as “The World’s Largest Open during legacy on the Texas until the early 1930s, when into Austin from commu- Air Swimming Pool.” landscape and in the lives of the prices of cotton and oil nities all across Texas, each 58 texashighways.com | JULY 2016 PHOTOS: © Julia Robinson JULY 2016 | texashighways.com 59 Among offering sites for new parks The scenic lookout of Sky- its many and asking for help with line Drive in Davis Moun- construction erosion, flood control, and tains State Park rises from achievements, farming practices. the cliff as a natural exten- the CCC Over the next nine years, sion of local stone. Archi- removed CCC workers created 56 na- tects crafted the refectory 2.5 tons of tional, state, and local parks of Goose Island State Park silt and in Texas, growing the total with a concrete mix of lo- guano from acreage from 800 acres to cally available sand and Longhorn 60,000 acres. Texas Parks oyster shells. The recon- Cavern, and Wildlife still manages struction of 18th-Century mapped the 29 of these state parks today. Spanish Mission Nuestra cave system, All were crafted accord- Señora del Espíritu Santo and installed ing to an architectural es- de Zúñiga in Goliad State two miles thetic influenced by Fred- Park and Historic Site used of electric erick Law Olmsted, the quarried local stone and a lights. designer of New York’s kiln from the original set- Central Park, and the Arts tlement to fire thousands of & Crafts movement that floor tiles. favored traditional crafts- The CCC was tasked manship and simple de- with hiring young, often sign over industrial produc- unemployed or otherwise tion. Architects at the state idle young men. To hire as and national level sought many as possible, the CCC to minimize the silhouettes remained an unskilled of buildings and use na- labor force, utilizing hand tive materials to blend into tools and the strength of the natural surroundings. numbers rather than com- The style came to be known plex machinery. Among as “National Park Service its many construction Rustic.” They built struc- achievements, the CCC tures using pioneer meth- removed 2.5 tons of silt ods of manual labor and and guano from Longhorn rough-hewn materials. The Cavern, mapped the cave resulting buildings, roads, system, and installed two and landscape improve- miles of electric lights. ments have stood the test Company 1856 built the of time. world’s largest spring-fed Visitors to Texas state pool at San Solomon Springs parks will immediately in Balmorhea, creating recognize the rustic style. a travel destination for More on the CCC For further reading on the CCC in Texas, look for Texas State Parks and the CCC: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps, by Cynthia Brand- imarte with Angela Reed (Texas A&M University Press, 2013). The visually rich book covers the corps’ formation and building of the parks, along with stories of the CCC camps and ongoing management of the sites. Another excellent resource is Parks for Texas: Enduring Landscapes of the New Deal, by James Wright Steely (University of Texas Press, 1999), a comprehensive history of the creation of Texas’ state park system. 60 texashighways.com | JULY 2016 PHOTO: © Julia Robinson JULY 2016 | texashighways.com 61 early automobile tourists in The CCC West Texas. conserved the Some CCC workers landscapes of learned refined skills from Texas, but also “Local Experienced Men,” conserved the or LEMs, who supervised human spirit more technical aspects of Texans. of the construction. Electri- cians, engineers, architects, surveyors, plumbers, fore- men, and artisans all con- tributed to the park sites. Specialized units for furni- ture and ironworks cropped up out of dedicated CCC camps in White Rock Lake, Bastrop, and Palo Duro Canyon. Although the CCC’s work in state parks is best known to the public, many of the CCC camps in Texas pro- vided help with soil conser- vation, erosion, and flood control, and worked with 5,000 farmers to update their agricultural practices. Private landowners would pay for materials and the CCC provided the labor. Bill McDonald, who worked at soil conservation camp 3805 in Bartlett, recalled in a 2004 interview for a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department oral history project to commemorate the work of the CCC: “Right off, in very short order, I got my Ph.D.—Post Hole Digger!” CCC workers laid out miles of fencing, terraced farm fields, sodded grass, and built small earthen dams over the eastern and central parts of the state. By the 1930s the tim- ber industry had denuded many of East Texas’ natu- ral pine forests. Retus Wil- liams worked in Company 880 in an area that became A picture window frames panoramic views from the stone overlook Sabine National Forest. shelter at the top of Skyline Drive, Davis Mountains State Park. 62 texashighways.com | JULY 2016 PHOTO: Brandon Jakobeit JULY 2016 | texashighways.com 63 1 23 “We planted pine trees by relief—more than 80 per- or dependents each month. 13The CCC’s sand- the thousands,” he said in a cent— even after the relief In this way, the CCC helped stone structures at Palmetto State Park 2003 interview with Texas requirement for enrollment redistribute roughly $2 bil- blend with the lush Parks and Wildlife. “We did was lifted in 1937. lion in wages nationwide. landscape. that for a long, long time.” Men ages 18 to 25 (later Roosevelt forbade dis- 2 The log replica All told, the CCC planted expanded to 17 to 28) en- crimination based on of Mission San 3 million trees on private rolled in the program for religious or racial grounds, Francisco de los and public lands in East six-month stints and up to but in practice many of Tejas, Mission Tejas State Park. Texas and developed four two years of work. The av- the local agencies in charge national forests with a total erage CCC enrollee had an of enlisting men in the pro- { Blanco State Park’s of more than 600,000 acres.