DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker at Bastrop State Park tells it like this, and I'm gonna pass it right along to you. Now, before there was a Bastrop State Park worth driving to, there was a forest in trouble. Decades of lumbering had worked over Bastrop County's Lost Pines somethin' fierce, and by the early 1930s, the land was hurting.
But here's where the story turns — because the country itself was hurting too. March 1933. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress, deep in the work of the New Deal, created the Civilian Conservation Corps — the CCC — to put unemployed workers on public projects. And the Lost Pines?
A prime candidate for reforestation. A logical site for a park. The land and the moment found each other.
That November, two hundred recruits of CCC Company number 1805 arrived in Bastrop. Two hundred men, showing up to build something out of a worn-down forest. They didn't come empty-handed — they had Austin architect Arthur Fehr working with them, and a crew of what the records call local experienced men, the L.E.M.s, who brought the know-how that turns ambition into structure.
What they built, they built in the NPS Rustic style — native materials, shapes that belong to the land rather than fighting it. And the craftsmanship shows. The central refectory stands as the proof.
You look at that building and you understand that these weren't men just filling time. They were working. A year in, November 1934, a second company arrived — number 1811 — to push the reforestation work further and help develop nearby Buescher State Park.
The scope kept growing. Roads. Trails.
Bridges. Small lakes. And in the workshops, men were building native wood furniture — not just for Bastrop, but for other Texas state parks across the state.
By 1939, CCC work at Bastrop came to an end, with the park substantially complete. Two companies, years of labor, a forest given back to itself, and a park that's still standing in the Lost Pines of Bastrop County. Some things get built once and last.
This is one of them.
What the marker says
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U. S. Congress, as part of the New Deal efforts to offer unemployed workers jobs on public projects, created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in March 1933. Due to decades of lumbering activities, Bastrop County's "Lost Pines" forest was a prime candidate for the CCC's reforestation program and a logical site for the establishment of a park. Two hundred recruits of the CCC's Company #1805 arrived in Bastrop in November 1933. With the help of Austin architect Arthur Fehr and a group of "local experienced men" or L. E. M.s, the men worked to create a state recreational park in the forest. Built of native materials in the "NPS Rustic" style promoted by the National Park service, the park structures, particularly the central refectory, reflect the expert craftsmanship of the CCC. A second CCC company, #1811, arrived in November 1934 to assist with reforestation work and development of nearby Buescher State Park. Additional activities included making native wood furniture for this and other Texas state parks, and building roads, trails, bridges, and small lakes. CCC work at Bastrop ended with the park substantially complete in 1939. (1991)