Duck Creek Visitor Center

The Duck Creek Visitor Center (elev. 8600 ft.)  is nestled in a beautiful grove of Spruce and Aspen trees. The visitor center is staffed by friendly volunteers eager to share their years of local experience.  Information is available on hiking, biking, fishing, camping, off highway vehicles, and many other area attractions. Many interpertive items are available such as maps, post cards, nature books, clothing and Smoky Bear memorabilia.

The Duck Creek Visitor Center has an excellent staff to help find information for those who are visiting on the Dixie National Forest or nearby National Parks and Monuments.

The Work Center consisted of two residences, one office building, one Barn, a Gas house, and a warehouse.  In 1933 the National Forest now know as the Dixie applied for a battalion of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to begin construction of buildings and structures on the Cedar City Ranger District in the then Sevier National Forest.  The proposal was to construct a work center and campground at Duck Creek. The work center would serve as housing for the Ranger and summer employees.  An office was built at the location so that the Ranger could run the District from within the Forest during the summer.

 Local workers were hired to lead the battalion of CCC boys most of whom were from back east. The camp known as F-16 spent the summer months building the work center and the Duck Creek Campground to the north.  Other work projects included range work, porcupine eradication, building the dike across Navajo Lake and road construction.

The Duck Creek Visitor’s Center occupies the Office building completed in 1933. It was constructed as a Plan 51 Office/storeroom.  The station was considered central to important recreational areas such as Navajo Lake, Cedar Breaks, Duck Creek, Aspen Mirror Lake, Mammoth Creek and Strawberry Point.

In 1994 it was decided by the Cedar City District to turn this Office into a Visitors Center. The wall separating the two office spaces was removed to create a much larger room for interpretative displays. The interior of the building was covered in very dark wood paneling which was removed and the walls were returned to the lath and plaster walls of the 1930’s. During the winter of 1996 it was decided to remove the rug from the building and redo some of the woodwork within the building.  As there was no heat in the building the three person team that scraped the rug, and under laying vinyl flooring off the tongue and groove fir flooring had very cool and frozen fingers.  The floor features were rearranged to be able to meet needs of and visit with the variety of visitors that come in the summer and fall months.

At a Glance