Civilian Conservation Corps and the Cottonwood Road
Dolores Ranger District, San Juan National Forest
All photos courtesy of the USDA Forest Service.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Montezuma National Forest (now Dolores Ranger District, San Juan National Forest)
Introduction
Did you know that many roads on the Dolores Ranger District of the San Juan National Forest were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps? The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried young men. The CCC was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that supplied manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. Not only was the CCC designed to supply jobs for young men, it also was designed to provide relief for families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression.
The CCC camps were managed by the U.S. Department of War, now known as the Department of Defense. After World War I, the Department of War divided the United States into nine military corps to help with the logistics and management of the military complex. Because the War Department oversaw the everyday management of the CCC camp structure, the CCC infrastructure fell under these same military corps. The CCC was divided into districts and the eighth district included Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Wyoming, excluding Yellowstone National Park (Ref.3).
Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC worked in the Montezuma National Forest, which was later subsumed into San Juan National Forest and Uncompahgre National Forest in 1947 (Ref.1, 7), building roads, bridges, and buildings (Ref.1, 7). One of the first CCC Companies, a further division of the districts, in the Forest consisted of CCC Company 827. In early June of 1933, CCC Company 827 began constructing Camp F-28-C, a CCC tent camp at Beaver Creek, located approximately 10 miles north of the town of Dolores1. Camp numbers with the prefix “F” designated U.S. Forest Service camps while the last letter indicated the state where the camp was located. Company 827 was comprised of men from the local area and Fort Logan near Denver. Company 827 worked out of Camp F-28-C throughout the summer of 1934, when they were transferred to Texas and replaced by Company 898.
Company 898 was organized at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in May 1933. After an orientation period, the company was transferred to Arizona and began working for the U.S. Forest Service thinning forest vegetation and constructing recreation facilities (Ref.5:128). By the spring of 1935, Company 898 was transferred from Globe, Arizona, to Camp F-28-C5 becoming responsible for many of the CCC conservation projects in the Forest. Camp life at Camp F-28-C could be difficult. Water was scarce requiring many men to bath in the nearby reservoirs (Ref.5:129). Not all was bad, however. CCC enrollees had many recreational opportunities to enjoy after work. While there, the Company baseball team won the Grand Junction District Championship (Ref.5).
Camp F-28-C: Glade Ranger Station and Glade Fly Camps
By the end of 1935, companies stationed at Camp F-28-C had felled more than 5,000 insect infested trees, built 25 reservoirs, improved and/or maintained more than 80 springs, built 30 miles of truck trail, and responded to 29 forest fires (Ref.1). A CCC fly camp, or temporary advanced camp, of 25 men was also maintained at the Glade Ranger Station (also known as Glade Guard Station) located about 11 miles from the main camp. The side camp crew constructed fire breaks, range improvements and foot trails. In 1935 and 1936, they are believed to have constructed a garage, wood shed, and outhouse at the Glade Ranger Station, which is listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties and eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Figures 1-6
Company 898 and Camp F-53-C (Lone Dome Camp)
After arriving at Camp F-28-C, Company 898 promptly began construction on another camp, Lone Dome Camp F-53-C, located about six miles west of the town of Dolores (Ref.5:129). Company 898 moved there on November 22, 1935, and stayed until the camp closed on July 3, 1941 (Ref.5:129). After they transferred to Lone Dome Camp F-53-C, Company 898 continued its work at Camp F-28-C.
In 1936, one of their major projects included the construction of 21 miles of road, making all grades less than six percent, and the building of six sandstone bridges described as “beautiful structures as well as serviceable” (Ref. 5:130). This work included the construction of Cottonwood Road, also known as National Forest System Road (NFSR) 532, and other roads. Roads were constructed for Forest Service Administration purposes, fire protection, and the public. The roads provided the necessary infrastructure to manage vast, remote areas of the Forest and to open once difficult to access areas for the public’s enjoyment.
Over the next six years, CCC enrollees worked from Camp F-53-C and others, fighting fires, building bridges, conducting insect pest control work, building fire lookouts, erosion control, poisonous weed eradication, maintaining the various Ranger Stations, and building an additional 40.7 miles of “first-class truck trails built to the highest standards” (Ref.5:130). These routes or roads included McPhee, West Dolores, Lone Dome, West Mancos, Dolores Canyon, Glade, and Glade Extension truck trails.
Figure 7: Lone Dome Camp F-53-C, McPhee (Dolores), CO – April 24, 1939. On July 3, 1941, Camp F-53-C closed and the men were discharged from the CCC or sent to other stations. In September of 1942, the Camp F-53-C was turned over to the War Department(1).
CCC Road (Truck Trail) Construction Methods
CCC road construction included using teams of horses pulling plows and grading equipment. Enrollees were also trained to use heavy equipment such as caterpillars and graders and in other construction methods such as masonry. The masonry remains a distinctive component of the design and engineering of these historic CCC roads. The CCC era construction frequently demonstrates skilled work that remains aesthetically pleasing and has outlasted many other road features constructed in this part of the country. As noted below, explosives were also required to create the low gradients in the rugged landscape. Figures 8-10 show CCC laborers constructing portions of the Glade Truck Trail between 1933 and 1934 before construction on the Cottonwood section of the Glade Truck Trail construction began in 1935.
Figures 8-10
Cottonwood Road (NFSR 532) Construction History
As discussed earlier, one of these early, CCC era roads consisted of Cottonwood Road (NFSR 532, see Map 1), determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its association with the CCC efforts to improve infrastructure in the area and for its representation of the distinctive construction methods and characteristics of CCC construction. In 2024, the USDA Forest Service planned to conduct work that would adversely affect this historic property. To resolve these effects, the USDA Forest Service, in consultation with other consulting parties, developed this website as well as detailed documentation of the road to preserve and share information on the road for the benefit of the public.
Map 1: Cottonwood Road (NFSR 532) Location
Cottonwood Road (NFSR 532) was built by the CCC Company 898 under the direction of Project Superintendent Russell K. Smith from the summer of 1935 to 1936 (Ref. 2,4, 5). This road, also referred to as the Cottonwood section of the Glade Truck Trail, created a shortcut between the West Dolores and Norwood roads1. Bill Bowden, an assistant leader on the Roster of Company 898, Camp F-58-C (Ref.5:131), remembers being a member of Camp F-28-C and worked on the Cottonwood Road project (Ref. 2:54). Bowden states that "The enrollees were trained to run the heavy equipment-caterpillars and graders. They were assisted by a 'powder man' by the name of Cliff Harter and a jackhammer crew. Buck Schrader was probably the foreman of this project” (Ref. 2:54). In the summer of 1936, Clifford Harter was listed on the Roster of Company 898, Camp F-58-C as a technical foreman, who trained licensed blasters (Ref.5:130). Charles Wilderson and J.E. Bradford were listed as the technical foremen in charge of heavy machinery, training enrollees in mechanical work on tractors and graders as well as training skilled operators to drive the heavy equipment (Ref.5:130).
Cottonwood Road contains 55 historic culverts constructed of sandstone tabular masonry from local sources. Each culvert includes a corrugated metal pipe under the roadway and likely had masonry at the inlet and outlet when originally constructed. The majority have been in use since the road was originally constructed in 1935 and 1936. In general, there are two styles of culvert based on the inlet construction, stacked rock and masonry catch basin. The stacked rock catch basin or “stonewall” culverts consist of a sandstone masonry wall around a corrugated metal pipe. The masonry catch-basin treatment or “stone box” culverts are sandstone masonry squares or rectangles with an opening to allow water to flow in and through the corrugated metal pipe. These were usually constructed in road shoulders. The outlet typically contained a masonry wall around the culvert.
Mavreeso Creek Bridge was the last portion of the road completed in early December 19361 (see Figure 11). Over the next three years, CCC crews maintained the road. In 1937, 14 CCC enrollees maintained the road with heavy equipment, cattle guard construction continued into 1938, and general road maintenance in 1939 (Ref.1). The road first appears on a Montezuma National Forest map created in April 19386 and appears in all subsequent maps. The road has been in continuous use and maintained by the U.S. Forest Service since its construction.
Today, Cottonwood Road (NFSR 532) is approximately 7.57 miles long and has a 12- to 16-foot-wide, graveled, crowned-and-ditched roadbed. The historic roadbed is entirely subsumed by the modern road, which follows the historic road’s original alignment. The remaining historic culverts vary in condition from well preserved to deteriorated. Sixteen of them are in good or excellent condition and contribute to the National Register of Historic Places eligibility of the entire Cottonwood Road. Cottonwood Road is open to all motor vehicles and used frequently by the public.
Mavreeso Creek Bridge Construction History
Mavreeso Creek Bridge is a one lane, two-way traffic bridge that was built in the summer of 1936 by CCC Company 898, working out of a subsidiary encampment of Lone Dome Camp F-53-C. In 1960, the original bridge deck and wood railings (Figure 11) were replaced with a single span, 10-inch-thick, reinforced, concrete slab deck and galvanized metal “W” beam rails (Figures 12-15).
The original CCC-era masonry rock wing walls and abutments were retained during the 1960s deck replacement. The original bridge wingwalls and abutments are similarly constructed in that all are composed of shaped, local Dakota Formation sandstone blocks of varying lengths. The blocks are wet laid in Portland cement mortar and regularly coursed. The walls are generally two blocks wide with stones laid to interlock both faces. The number of courses per wall or abutment varies.
The bridge’s original wing wall and abutment masonry is typical of the style, methods, and materials used in other CCC construction in the area. The masonry can best be described as a derivation of the Craftsman style common to CCC work. The elements are substantial without being squat, walls are vertically laid, and the capstones do not overhang the lower courses.
Figures 11-14
The Forest Service plans to replace the single lane Mavreeso Creek Bridge with a two-lane bridge to meet the current needs of the public. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the USDA Forest Service, San Juan National Forest and the Colorado State Historic Preservation Officer was executed pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 800.6 that described mitigation of adverse effects to Cottonwood Road and Mavreeso Creek Bridge from the Cottonwood Road Improvement Project. This website, in part, seeks to resolve these adverse effects by providing information on local CCC efforts, including the construction of Cottonwood Road, for the benefit of the public. These roads demonstrate a significant effort by the CCC to provide access to previously remote areas within the San Juan National Forest creating economic and recreational benefits for the area. The durability and craftsmanship with which the CCC constructed these roads is evident in the rock walls and culverts that continue to sit in the landscape over 80 years later. Next time you drive within the San Juan National Forest, think about the road you are travelling and the surrounding landscape. What happened along these roads and how have they shaped past and present use of the Forest?
Posted September 3, 2024
References
- Audretsch, Robert W. (2017) The Civilian Conservation Corps in Colorado, 1933-1942: Volume 1 U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs Camps. Dog Ear Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana.
- Carney, Elizabeth (1992) The Civilian Conservation Corps on the San Juan National Forest, Durango, Colorado. Report on file at the San Juan Supervisor’s Office, Durango.
- Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy (2023) CCC Camp List, Identification of the Nine Military CCC Corps Areas used during the administration of the CCC. Civlian Conservation Corps Legacy https://ccclegacy.org/ccc-camp-lists/, accessed May 1, 2024.
- Fechner, Robert (prepared by) (1938) History of the Civilian Conservation Corps: Colorado- Wyoming District, Pueblo, Colorado: O’Brien Printing Company.
- Gleyre, L.A., and C. N. Alleger (compilers) (1936) History of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Colorado, Summer 1936. Littleton District - Grand Junction District, That the Work of Young America May Be Recorded, compiled by L.A. Gleyre and C.N. Alleger, Denver, Colo. Supervised by the Commanding Officer of the Littleton District.
- U.S. Forest Service (USFS) (1938) Montezuma National Forest Map. Map on file at the Dolores Ranger District, San Juan National Forest, Dolores. Also https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61555/61555-h/61555-h.htm.
- U.S. Forest Service (USFS) (1971) Forest History, Volume 1, 1905-1971, San Juan and Montezuma National Forests- Combined and Revised History (from the 1932 edition) of the San Juan NF and the Montezuma NF (1923 edition) through 1971, San Juan NF. Title Page identifies this as the 1952 Milton Scott edition. (Transcription completed from original scan by Elizabeth Reid, 2012).