DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Palo Duro Canyon has to say — and friend, this one's worth slowing down for. Now, the 1930s were hard times across this whole country. The Great Depression had put people out of work by the millions, and President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's administration came up with something called the New Deal to try to push back against all that darkness. One piece of that New Deal was the Civilian Conservation Corps — the CCC. Started out aimed at young men who needed work.
Grew to include veterans of World War I. And when the State of Texas had recently acquired fifteen thousand acres out in the Panhandle for what would become Palo Duro Canyon State Park, well — the CCC was, as that marker puts it, just what was needed. Now picture this.
July 11th and 12th of 1933. Three companies of CCC enrollees — World War I veterans, every one of them — roll into Amarillo by train. Men who'd already seen hard things.
Men who knew how to dig in and get after it. They set up camp, and then they faced their first real task: build a road from the rim of that canyon all the way down to its floor. You've seen those canyon walls.
That is not a gentle errand. A fourth veterans company arrived that December of 1933. And here's something the marker doesn't let pass quietly — those early veterans groups at the canyon were initially integrated.
But in 1934, the African American troops were reassigned to Sweetwater, Texas. The marker states that plainly, and it deserves to be said plainly. Then, in August of 1935, two companies of segregated African American enrollees arrived from East Texas to labor in that canyon.
The final group to work Palo Duro was made up of youth members — juveniles, in the language of the time. And when that last group left the park in December of 1937, Palo Duro Canyon held a distinction that very few CCC projects anywhere could claim: it had seen workers from all three of the program's special groups. Veterans.
African Americans. Juveniles. All of them, at one point or another, shaping this place.
What did they build from 1933 until 1937? Public buildings — including El Coronado Lodge — and cabins cut from native sandstone pulled right out of the canyon itself. Roads.
Bridges. Culverts. Hiking trails and bridle trails threading through that deep red rock.
Many of those roads, those bridges, those trails — they're still in use today. The canyon looks the way it looks, in no small part, because of men who arrived on a train in Amarillo one July and went to work.
What the marker says
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal program developed under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The program was initially designed to employ young men and later grew to include World War I veterans. The CCC was just what was needed to improve the 15,000 acres that had been recently acquired by the State of Texas for the establishment of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The first three companies of CCC enrollees, made up of World War I veterans, arrived in Amarillo via train on July 11 and 12, 1933. After setting up their camp, the first task for the early workers was the construction of the road from the rim of the canyon to its floor. The fourth veterans company arrived in December of 1933. The early veterans groups at the canyon were initially integrated, but the African American troops were reassigned to Sweetwater, Texas in 1934. Two companies of segregated African American enrollees arrived from East Texas in August 1935. The final group of workers to labor in the canyon was comprised of youth members, and when the group left the park in December 1937, the project at Palo Duro Canyon was one of the few to include workers from each of the three special groups -- veterans, African Americans and juveniles. The projects completed by the CCC from 1933 until 1937 include public buildings (such as El Coronado Lodge) and cabins constructed of native sandstone, roads, bridges, culverts and hiking and bridle trails, many of which are still in use today. (2009)