podunklander, re:
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I kept thinking Estes sounded familiar to me - I've seen many photos of it from the 30's ...there was (a) CCC camp there.
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Yes - the Civilian Conservation Corps (the CCC for the benefit of anyone else)
did a lot of work in Rocky Mountain National Park. If memory serves me correctly, the work force was a saving grace for the depression-weary and broke Nation. FDR concieved of the program as a part of his "square deal", with one tenet of the CCC being, roughly: "For every man a job, a chicken in every pot" I believe was the admirable saw. I've read that some of the finest carving in stone by Scotish and other immigrant masons, and woodwork by early joiners from many countries comprised a diverse workforce of skilled craftsmen and labourers.
In Estes, they built gov't housing still intact on the old-town 1st - 6th steets, where "cracker-box" houses painted colorfully to break-up the monotony were provided to the workers, since then they went to Forest Service Workers for awhile; then the Korean War aftermath changed them to private sector houses sold initially at auction.
Up in the National Park, there work was both dangerous and ingenuous. They built the indigenous-rock stone road-side delimters up on Trail Ridge Road, the nations highest , continuous, paved Interstate highway, going from 8000 ft. Estes Park and on down to Lyons and the plains, up and over aproximately 75 miles from Estes to Grand Lake, in its
Grandest in the grand post-WWII years. It crosses the Continental divide in the process at over 12,200 ft, and then from Grand Lake at aproximately 9000 ft., a popular summer resort no longer in its heyday, through Grandby (Estes High School Football nemesis) on to rejoin I70, Colorado major E-W Interstate.
In the winter, Trail Ridge of course closes down, and shuts Estes Park off to getting out of town to the west, and adds 250 miles to a day trip over to Lake Dillon, Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, etc. for skiing in winter, mtn biking et al in summer. The CCC also built most of the National Park infrastructure, housing, headqaurters, campgrounds, etc. They also carved out Trail Ridge Road itself, starting from the rough track made by the former Ute Indian Nation's Ute Trail over the divide, and in fact the trail went all the way down from Estes to Lyons, and out "the Ute Highway" now hwy66, straight out to the East and what now is Platteville, and its infamous Fort St. Vrain Nuclear reactor, named after French Trappeur named Ceran St. Vrain, after whom numerous geographic features are named in the area and the Indian Peaks Wilderness, where I have spent most of my life Backpacking and snowcaveing.
The Reactor, Fort St. Vrain, you may have read about; it is the only experimental graphite-carbon core nuclear reactor vessel in the country, and was shut down inthe 80's as I recall because of inexplicable minute core-temperature fluxuations thought to be from a crack in the core, but otherwise operated perfectly. Its dismantling and reclamation (we call the Bureau of Reclamation "The Nation's Reservoir, Damn, and hydro-electric power Service" around here known as "The Wreck" .
Around the Country, primarily on Public Lands and National Parks, etc., the CCC did some of the finest craftmanship on staggering scale beautiful works such as The Grand Yellowstone Lodge at Old Faithful, The huge namesake' lodge similarly at Yosemite, Teton's Jenney Lake Lodge & area, etc etc, all over. Notable to me are the skilled carvers of stone and wood, that did such painstakngly beautiful work in near-permanent epitaphs to the countries heritage. Even in NY city, amd I believe several monuments there and gov't buildings, and the kind of masonry and wood carving one could only dream of on Public works dollars in todays economy.
In fact, locally, Jefferson County (Colorado's largest and richest per capita) built in the 1980's an immense Masonry County Seat Building done in Jeffersonian Style, with a Monticello-style huge central round atrium; perhaps 200 feet across, and 100 feet high inside, with roundtable-style halls offto various wings of the all-curves building. Its basement, panelled in rich walnut veneers even housed 5 restaurants at the times I had business there ! In a county courthouse ! It was built so beautifully, that in todays economy, 3 out of 5 commissioners were de-throned in a voter-demonstration of required frugality in tax-based public structures for government workers. Having sat in many meetings and seminars over the years there, I was always struck by the anachronistic style that harkened to such beautiful works as done by the CCC then. Never again, now, with todays voters' tax-burdened public dollars. THAT was the message sent loud and clear through the state and region for the best way to lose an election , or your seat at the moment, and be thrown-out the door by the seat of your pants as an elected official.
Thanks, Podunklander, the CCC made a lot of fond memories with family possible for me in the National Park.