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

“The nearly fifty thousand people who worked in the ccc in Texas . . . provided the state with millions of dollars’ worth of labor,”(29) writes Cynthia Brandimarte, and the legacy of their labors remains an integral part of the Texas State Park system as this visually stunning book documents. Tracing the arc of the Civilian Conservation Corps’ influence in the state from its inception in 1933 to the present day with an excellent epilogue concerning the 2011 fire that ravaged Bastrop State Park and the heroic efforts by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to save ccc-built structures, Texas State Parks and the ccc details in prose and color photographs the positive impact of this federal initiative on the Lone Star State.

The prose is tight and readable, making it perfect for both the academic and the casual reader. Brandimarte first outlines the creation of the ccc and how many local communities vied for camps to be located near their towns, recognizing the positive economic impact such a camp would have. She then turns to the work within the parks themselves, outlining the significant features of each and how the young men worked to make the parks unique and reflective of the local communities. The author does a good job of pointing out the segregation that occurred during the construction of the parks as well as afterward, when many of the state parks refused entrance to African Americans. One heartbreaking photo shows a ccc unit where nine African American enrollees are set off several feet away from the 150 or so white ccc members, visually reminding the reader of the formal and informal ways in which segregation operated.

After the ccc disbanded in 1942, the Texas Parks system worked hard to maintain and grow the parks with limited financial resources. The funding situation changed somewhat in the 1960s as new taxes allowed the parks to continue to serve not only their local populations but also travelers from throughout the country.

Texas State Parks and the ccc is an excellent survey of that Depression-era agency’s positive effect on Texas’s history, both in the 1930s and today. Aside from the numerous photographs, the “Park Profiles” section of the book is perhaps the most attractive to readers, as it provides an overview of the state parks today, their location, and some of the attractions that visitors will find there.