Civilian Conservation Corps

The Great Depression brought economic turmoil and widespread unemployment throughout the country. In an effort to revive America, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. This action would ultimately have a profound effect on Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

The CCC’s Mission and Economic Impact

Roosevelt’s plan was to recruit thousands of unemployed young men, enroll them in a peacetime army, and send them to do battle against the destruction and erosion of the nation’s natural resources. This young, inexperienced labor force earned $30 a month and met or exceeded all expectations. Of each enrollee’s monthly wage, $25 was provided to the enrollee’s family. The economic boost provided by this money was felt in cities and towns across the nation.

Between 1933 and 1942, three million young men worked on CCC projects throughout the United States. More than 1,000 young men completed projects during this period at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

CCC Camps at the Refuge

With the purchase of the Blitzen Valley portion of the Eastern Oregon Land and Livestock Company holdings, the Refuge became an ideal location for CCC projects. It hosted three CCC camps.

A seasonal camp was built near today’s Refuge headquarters during the spring and summer of 1935. The first permanent camp was established at Buena Vista Station in October 1935. Large camps were located at Refuge headquarters, Buena Vista Station, and Five Mile Lane, north of Frenchglen. A small side camp was also established at Ewing Springs on Malheur National Forest to cut timber for work projects on the Refuge.

The last camp closed in 1942 with the start of World War II. Little evidence remains of the camps because the army dismantled the wood buildings associated with them and moved them to Alaska to serve as barracks during construction of the Alaskan Highway.

Sod House Camp

An excellent description of the construction of the permanent camp at Refuge headquarters appears in the May–June 1936 Camp Sod House Narrative:

“Sod House Camp was established here on May 5, 1936, having been moved from Cottonwood Camp in Idaho.

Approximately 121 boys are in camp for duty. The picture shows the mess hall, most of the boys’ quarters, and officer’s quarters, is shown, with the Blitzen River in the right foreground. Malheur Lake is beyond the trees in the left foreground and next to the low hills in the distance.

The site is the place where one of the earliest buildings stood adjacent to Malheur Lake, a sod house built by two brothers, Chapman, and from this place came to be called Sod House Spring. The site for the headquarters was selected because it is centrally located, geographically, with respect to the lands of the refuge, accessible, both from the lands of the original refuge bordering the lake and the recently added sixty-five thousand acres of the Blitzen Valley which extends thirty-five miles south from the shores of the lake.

The site of the buildings is on the north slope of a low hill giving a fine view of the lake to the north and an abundant supply of water is furnished by Sod House Spring.”