Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Griffin

Shackelford County deeded the site to the state in 1935, and on January 1, 2008, it passed from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission. The 506-acre park holds the ruins of several fort buildings, the restored post bakery and replicas of enlisted men's huts on the bluff above the old townsite, which lies outside the park. The Handbook of Texas calls it the original home of the official state longhorn herd. Visitors can picnic, camp and fish from the banks of the Clear Fork of the Brazos.

What the plaque says

THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC) OPERATED NATIONWIDE BETWEEN 1933 AND 1942 TO CONSERVE NATURAL RESOURCES AND TO PROVIDE WORK FOR YOUNG MEN DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. THE FEDERAL PROGRAM PROVIDED EMPLOYMENT FOR 2.5 MILLION YOUNG MEN WORKING OUT OF 3,000 CAMPS. ROUGHLY 50,000 TEXANS WERE ENROLLED IN THE CCC AND MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE'S PARK SYSTEM. THE COLORFUL FRONTIER HISTORY OF FORT GRIFFIN AND THE NEED FOR ITS PRESERVATION PROMPTED CITIZENS OF SHACKELFORD COUNTY TO DONATE THE HISTORIC SITE TO THE STATE. THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE APPROVED A NEW CCC CAMP AT FORT GRIFFIN STATE PARK IN 1939. CREWS FROM EXISTING CAMPS IN CLEBURNE AND LOCKHART ARRIVED IN 1939 AND 1940. IN THE SPRING OF 1940, AS ORIGINAL COMPANY MEMBERS WERE DISCHARGED, LOCAL AREA MEN SIGNED UP AND WERE ASSIGNED TO FORT GRIFFIN. MANY OF THESE MEN ENROLLED IN CLASSES AT THE CAMP AND LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL, AND PARTICIPATED IN LOCAL SPORTS AND ACTIVITIES. AROUND 200 MEN COMPLETED A STONE PAVILION, PARK ROADS, 24 TABLE AND BENCH COMBINATIONS, 14 CAMP FIRE PLACES, TWO LATRINES, SURVEYS OF THE PARK, A WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND ENTRANCE GATE, AND PLANTED TREES AND SHRUBS ON HUNDREDS OF ACRES. ALTHOUGH SOME LOCAL GROUPS HOPED THAT THE FOCUS WOULD BE ON THE RESTORATION OF HISTORICAL FEATURES, MOST OF THE WORK COMPLETED AT THE TIME WAS ON RECREATIONAL AMENITIES. THE ROCK GATE, ROADS, FORT RUINS AND PAVILION REMAIN AT THE SITE. THE CAMP WAS ABANDONED ON DEC. 1, 1941. MANY OF THE YOUNG MEN WENT STRAIGHT INTO MILITARY SERVICE AND WWII. IN THE 1940s, MANY BUILDINGS USED BY THE CCC WERE MOVED TO MILITARY CAMPS OR SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT TEXAS. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Griffin State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  The ruins of an 1867 cavalry post on a plateau above the Clear Fork of the Brazos, judged unfit for habitation and used nine more years, now home to the official state longhorn herd.
• Old Jail Art Center — 14 mi
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 32 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.

More markers nearby

• Frontier Town of Fort Griffin — 0.7 mi
• Bush Knob Massacre — 13 mi
• Lt. Col. William E. Dyess — 13 mi
• Fort Griffin Fandangle — 14 mi