Located at Fish Lake campground is a CCC structure known as the 'Fish Lake Shelter'. This shelter was constructed by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers in 1936 and although it has undergone some renovation over the years still remains relatively true to its original form and function. The following verbiage is taken from the National Register of Historic Places nomination
form to describe this structure and reads:
The Fish Lake Shelter, built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps on the Ashland Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest, is significant for its association with the CCC activities in recreational development in southern Oregon as part of the federal government's response to national economic plight brought on by the Great Depression. Submitted as part of a multiple property submission, "U.S. forest Service Historic Structures on the Rogue River National Forest, Oregon," the Fish Lake shelter represents its historic context, "CCC/NERA and Recreation Development on the Rogue River National Forest 1933 to 1942." The building meets the registration requirements outlined for rustic recreational shelters in the registration document. Constructed in 1936, it was established during the historic period. The Fish Lake Shelter retains its integrity of setting, design, and materials, and it evokes direct historic associations with its historic context. The building is eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A as an important tangible representative of CCC/NERA recreational development projects in southwestern Oregon. The Fish Lake Shelter is one of five "community kitchen" structures on the Rogue River National Forest. Others are located at McKee Bridge Campground, Wrangle Gap, Union Creek, and Dead Indian Soda Springs.
Additionally eligible to the National Register under Criterion C as an excellent representative of CCC-built rustic recreational structures on the Rogue River National Forest, the Fish Lake Shelter embodies the characteristics of its type through its setting, design, and materials. It exemplifies the rustic style employed by the CCC used for Depression-era Forest Service recreational structures.
History
Jackson County's booming orchard industry during the early years of the twentieth century encourages the development of several large-scale irrigation projects. The Fish Lake Water Company began one important project as early as 1897. The company improved the Fish Lake Road, secured a government concession for a reservoir at Fish Lake and built a cribbed-log dam. In its natural state, the spring-fed lake was a small body of water at the head of North Fork Little Butte Creek (LaLande 1980: 136).
Although many Depression era recreational projects involved New Deal employment programs such as the Emergency relief Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Fish Lake Resort complex was a private operation. Fish Lake, known for fine fishing opportunities, attracted scores of campers to its shores. Between 1928 and 1930, the Fish Lake Road was widened and improved. In the fall of 1929 the Crater National Forest surveyed a resort tract on the northeast end of the lake and the construction of a store/lodge and several rental cabins began in 1930. A retired Crater Lake National Forest supervisor operated the Fish Lake Resort for many years and eventually sold it to other private owners on 1935. During ensuing years a summer home tract, eventually containing over a dozen summer homes, was development along the northeast shore of the lake (LaLande 1980: 146).
The "rustic"-style Fish Lake Shelter, or "community kitchen" was constructed as part of a larger forest Service campground complex by Company 1682 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (headquartered at Camp South Fork, near Butte Falls) in the summer of 1936. Over sixty men worked on the campground development over a four-month period. (Brown 1971, Review of CCC work projects, 1936). The picnic shelter served the increasing number of people who traveled to Fish Lake during the summer months. Just prior to the CCC's beginning work on the Fish Lake Shelter, Rogue River National Forest Supervisor Karl Janouch reported:
Recreational development has received special consideration in the work program to meet the fast growing demands of the public who are turning to the forested areas of of the Pacific Coast for summer outings and vacations. A total of 136 acres of public campgrounds have been cleared and improvements consisting of community shelters, individual camp stoves and tables and sanitation facilities have been installed...(Ashland Daily Tidings, April 16, 1936, 1:1;4:3-4).
The Fish Lake Shelter, built by the CCC as part of the New Deal government programs of the Great Depression, retains its structural integrity. In addition to its direct association with the broad patterns of forest conservation and with CCC recreational development projects on the Rogue River National Forest, the Fish Lake Shelter represents the "rustic"-style recreational architecture utilized by the Forest Service, National Park Service, and others during the historic period.