Texas State Parks and the CCC: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps by Cynthia Brandimarte and Angela Reed (review)

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Cynthia Brandimarte with assistance from Angela Reed has completed an excellent history of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Texas State Parks. Those interested in Texas State Parks and the CCC will want this coffee-table volume, but more importantly it is a logical purchase for all community, regional, and historical libraries in Texas. Published in 2013 in the Texas A&M Travel Guides series, this beautiful and informative book is a valuable resource for all who are curious about CCC legacy in the Texas parks. The book’s modest price of $25 make it an affordable acquisition.

Looking through the book’s historic and contemporary photos will give readers a delightful journey from the past to the present. Texas State Parks and the CCC establishes the context in which the CCC enrollees lived, worked, and constructed park facilities that conformed to a minimalist vision, establishing an architectural integrity for parks in Texas and the nation. Chapter 1 recounts briefly the contributions of park and landscape architects Herbert Maier, Conrad Wirth, Herb Evison and George Nason; consequently, the authors spark an interest in “naturalism” and its manifestation in the integrity and construction of the park facilities. Throughout, the book employs maps, posters, photos of places and events, charts, architectural renditions, cartoons, and people in the parks to illustrate its story.

The second chapter describes the work and daily lives of the 50,000 Texas CCC enrollees, many of whom constructed the Texas State Parks’ most distinctive features (e.g., the road at Palo Duro Canyon, the pool at Balmorhea, the refectory at Bastrop, Indian Lodge at Davis Mountains). Here one would have appreciated a specific reference to the CCC enrollees’ unique compensation package, which paid the men $5 per month and returned $25 monthly to their families to provide them with subsistence funding. The work explains the complex interplay among the State Parks Board and four federal departments: Labor (recruitment), Interior and Agriculture (coordination of work projects), and War (food, barracks, education and leisure). In the last chapters one learns that the CCC contributions stopped abruptly with the coming of World War II and thereafter the new Texas parks struggled through more than twenty years of uncertain funding, inadequate staffing, and general neglect. In the 1960s State Senator Bob Kennard’s cigarette tax of one cent per pack provided relief from the ills that had plagued the parks and provided fiscal stability. That progress was followed by efforts in the 1980s to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of CCC legacy by collecting documents, conducting enrollee interviews and preserving the accomplishments of the CCC.

The epilogue describes the catastrophic Bastrop State Park fire of 2011, when a Labor Day wildfire threatened the unique CCC contributions to one of Texas’ outstanding parks. Descriptions of the fire and pictures of the devastation demonstrate how fragile the CCC legacy has become. This dramatic discussion of the recent past is followed by twenty-nine park profiles that provide the parks...