Photo: Found on Pinterest
Cibola National Forest Sandía Crest CCC Trailhead:
Kiwanis Cabin, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), about 1300
meters down from the trailhead.
"In the span of eight years, from 1933 to 1941, 54,585 Civilian Conservation
Corps enrollees in New Mexico built hundreds of roads and rails, 795
bridges, 472 lookout towers large dams and reservoirs, installed millions of
rods of fences and planted millions of trees for reforestation and to
prevent gully erosion. When these New Mexico men joined the corps, along with
3.5 million other Americans, the country was in desperate straits. Close to
25 percent of the population was unemployed. Hunger and despair had become a
way of life. A group of local corps alumni want to see a memorial CCC museum
of national stature built on the site where CCC Camp 814 F-8-N Sandia Park
once stood on a piece of land just off NM 536, the Sandia Crest Road. They
want people to know what they accomplished in youthful days during the Great
Depression. And they want today's youth to know that youth are a major asset
to this country, just as the CCC men were when they were boys. The CCC was
the greatest-ever conservation effort in American history."[1]
References
- Kiwanis
Cabin - Sandia Crest New Mexico, U.S. Forest Service website,
accessed 29 November 2018: "The cabin of local limestone was
built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) around 1930. The cabin was
planned by a local Kiwanis group." Note: "1930" is a typo; the CCC did not
exist until 1933.
- Welcome
to the Sandía Crest, U.S. Forest Service: "Suggested hikes from Sandía
Crest: Kiwanis Cabin via Trail #130 & #94—0.8 mile."
- Civilian
Conservation Corps, Living New Deal website, accessed 29 November 2018.