Civilian Conservation Corps and Forestry in Texas

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place, right here in Angelina County. Now settle in, because this is a story about men, trees, and the kind of work that holds a land together long after the workers are gone. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with the land itself, and the people who decided it was worth saving.

Back in the 1920s, the Texas Forest Service had already begun working to preserve Texas forests. That was the seed of something. Then came the Great Depression, and with it, the Emergency Conservation Work Act of 1933.

Out of that act came the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC. Now those three letters meant a lot of things to a lot of people in hard times. But out here in east Texas, what they meant, practically speaking, was boots on the ground and hands that knew how to work.

CCC enrollees strung telephone lines through timber country, built bridges and culverts, threw up fire lookout towers so a man with sharp eyes could spot trouble before it spread, and cut fire roads through country that had never seen a graded path. They improved timber stands. They surveyed and mapped east Texas forests, putting names and lines to country that had only been known by feel before.

And they ran a reforestation campaign, an extensive one, putting trees back into ground that needed them. The work the CCC did contributed greatly to forest conservation in Texas. That's not editorializing, that's what the record says.

And right here, on this very spot, sat the CCC Lufkin district heavy equipment maintenance facility, the place where all the machines that made that work possible were kept running. The facility is gone now, but the forests it helped save are still standing. Some stories end with a monument.

This one ends with trees.

What the marker says

Continuing efforts started in the 1920s by the Texas Forest Service (TFS), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established through the Emergency Conservation Work Act (1933) during the Great Depression, aided in efforts to preserve Texas forests. CCC enrollees offered fire protection by stringing telephone lines, constructing bridges, culverts, fire lookout towers and fire roads, performing timber stand improvements, and surveying and mapping east Texas forests. The CCC also conducted an extensive reforestation campaign. The work done by the CCC contributed greatly to forest conservation in Texas. This is the site of the former CCC Lufkin district heavy equipment maintenance facility.