Background
The CCC, founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, created many jobs for unemployed industrial workers from Altoona, Bellefonte and Tyrone. Black Moshannon State Park is just one of many examples of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps throughout central Pennsylvania.
Beaver Meadow CCC Camp S-71 was built in May 1933 near the abandoned village of Beaver Mills, and was one of the first CCC camps built to expand recreational facilities in Pennsylvania. Over 200 young men moved in and began the work of conserving soil, water and timber in the Black Moshannon area. They cut roads through the growing forest to aid in fighting the many wildfires that sprang up, and planted many acres of red pines as part of the reforestation effort. The CCC also built many of the park facilities still in use today. They built log cabins, picnic pavilions, a food concession stand, and miles of trails. Early on the CCC constructed a dam at Black Moshannon Lake, on the site of the former mill pond dam.
The CCC camp closed in January 1937 and Black Moshannon State Park opened that same year. In the 1950s the CCC-built dam was replaced by the current structure. In 1987, the existing CCC structures in the park were placed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of three separate historic districts. All three districts were built between 1933 and 1937 and are designated as the day use, family cabin and maintenance districts.
Read more about this topic: Black Moshannon State Park Historic Districts
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