CCC Shelter -- Fort Davis State Park, Fort Davis TX
N 30° 35.754 W 103° 55.357
13R E 603287 N 3385313
The native stone CCC overlook shelter was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s
Waymark Code: WMTZKB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/28/2017
Views: 3
The CCC shelter is located at the end of Skyline Drive along the modern-era CCC trail at Fort Davis State park. Men of the CCC built this park and its beautiful Indian Lodge in only 2 years.
The CCC shelter was built by the Corps in the 1930s at a rock overlook in a remote corner of the park that had one of the most beautiful vistas in the park. They used it as a clubhouse and meeting place before the park was officially opened. Afterwards, this was a remote shelter (1940s-1990s) that was so under-visited that it was used to hosted radio antennas and other communications infrastructure. Only the hardiest hikers made the trek up to this spot.
The antennas have been removed in the last few years and the shelter has now been re-incorporated into the park along the CCC trail, a rugged backcountry trail that will take hikers over rugged Davis Mountains terrain all the way to the Fort Davis National Historic Site a few miles away, and back to the state park.
See: (
visit link)
""Park Location
Jeff Davis County, 4 miles northwest of Fort Davis, State Highway 17 to State Highway 118 north to Park Road 3
CCC Company
879, 881, 1856
Activity Dates
1933-1935, 1940-1942
CCC Construction
Skyline Drive, Overlook Shelter, two Mess Halls (both adobe; one used by CCC as recreation hall for a short time, currently a residence; the other currently storage), Stone Picnic Tables, Stone Fireplaces, Stone Steps, and Latrine. See also the text for Indian Lodge."
DAVIS MOUNTAINS
An extensive mountain range provides the setting for one of the most majestic of the state parks and one of the earliest CCC projects in Texas. Work at Davis Mountains State Park commenced in June 1933.
The Texas legislature specifically directed the new State Parks Board in 1923 to investigate the Davis Mountains for a major destination park to attract both overland motorists and train travelers from nearby Marfa and Alpine. But the State Parks Board failed to obtain land donations or appropriations. Then in 1927 the legislature instructed the State Highway Department to build the Davis Mountains State Park Highway on donated right of way, now the Davis Mountains Scenic Loop (State Highways 118 and 166). The new byway construction created much-needed jobs for the region and in the 1930s facilitated construction of McDonald Observatory by the University of Texas on Mount Locke. But by 1933 the Great Depression had so devastated the local ranching economy that landowners at last agreed to donate the initial 560 acres for a state park in Keesey Canyon, along the highway toward Mount Locke. The National Park Service then assisted the design and the CCC built inside the park a five-mile scenic road, carved in switchbacks, ascending to the top of the ridge between Hospital and Keesey Canyons. From this ridge, visitors enjoy breathtaking panoramas, including a view of the 19th-century military installation Fort Davis, which lent the adjacent valley town its name, and McDonald Observatory on a mountaintop to the north. Likely designed by William C. Caldwell, the stone overlook shelter at the top resembles the prototype that National Park Service architect Herbert Maier designed in 1924 for Yosemite National Park, right down to the "picture window" framing a fabulous view for mountain trekkers resting inside the shelter."