Hidden CCC Gems in Georgia State Parks

Story and Photographs
by Tom Straka

The well-known Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and lesser-known Works Progress Administration (WPA) are two New Deal programs from the 1930s Great Depression era. The programs produced all kinds of structures, infrastructure, conservation works, and even public art. I am drawn to historic and natural history sites and visiting old CCC projects often satisfies both interests simultaneously.

The CCC, working under National Park Service planning and direction, developed many state parks across the nation. These parks were designed in a rustic style similar to the National Parks, often referred to as classic National Park Service parkitecture. These tend to be special parks, which typically feature important natural or cultural history as part of their appeal.

Georgia is a good example of a state with a subset of state parks developed by the CCC. There are ten of them: Hard Labor Creek State Park in Morgan County, A. H. Stephens State Park in Taliaferro County, F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Harris County, Indian Springs State Park in Butts County, Vogel State Park in Union County, Fort Mountain State Park in Murray County, Little Ocmulgee State Park in Wheeler County, Magnolia Springs State Park in Jenkins County, Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Early County, and Cloudland Canyon State Park in Dade County.

Some of the park names on the list of ten CCC parks give away their historical background. F. D. Roosevelt State Park encompasses President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House in Warm Springs. A. H. Stephens State Park includes the former home of Alexander H. Stephens, who served as Vice President of the Confederate States of America, a Georgian governor, and a congressman. Kolomoki Mounds State Park includes one of the largest and earliest Woodland period earthwork mound complexes in the Southeastern United States and the largest in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has published a history of each of its state parks.

Two of the CCC state parks will provide an overview of the type of historical encounter you can expect from these recreational areas. They are about an hour apart and both are right off of Interstate 20. Both have standard cottages, camping facilities, and even equestrian facilities. Since the CCC developed them, small lakes are part of both parks. While both offer standard state park feathers, I will focus my discussion of them on the special CCC aspects which piqued my interest.  

Hard Labor Creek State Park

As you enter Hard Labor Creek State Park, the first things you see are a Trading Post (Visitor Center) and a historical marker. The historical marker details the CCC history of the park, while the Trading Post is a less-obvious CCC feature. The title does call them hidden gems.

The trading post was built by the CCC and later was enlarged and turned into a visitor center and park office. The park is full of CCC structures; many may not be that easy to identify as CCC construction.

The rarest hidden gem is one of the few remnant CCC camps in the United States and the only one in Georgia. The CCC camp is where the CCC laborers lived while working on the park. Most CCC camps were temporary and, when the CCC work was complete, they were usually disassembled and moved elsewhere. While the camp is not a formal part of the park attractions, it is easily accessible. To me, it is the highlight of the park.

The CCC aspect of the park is central enough to the park's history to have its own historical marker.

The Trading Post, also visitor center and park office, is one of the original CCC buildings. It has been enlarged, but still had the CCC "flavor."

One of four buildings in the old CCC camp, this was the office for the National Park service staff that supervised the CCC work.

The Recreation Hall, which was probably the center of activity at the end of a workday.

Some supervision was given by Army staff who had their own office.

The Mess Hall would have been an important building. CCC structures are approaching 100 years of age. There are efforts to maintain what is left of the camp; but not all of the buildings have survived the ravages of time.

A. H. Stephens State Park

You will have no problem knowing you are approaching the state park as you head north from downtown Crawfordville; a shiny while marble monument and statue of Alexander H. Stephens quickly capture the eye.

His fully-furnished white 1875 home, Liberty Hall, sits behind the monument to add visual impact. To the side of the monument, hard to notice unless you walk up to the monument, is a small graveyard which contains the grave of Stephens. To the side of Liberty Hall, also hard to notice, is a Confederate Museum. A lot of super interesting stuff is hidden in plain sight.  

 Monument to Alexander Hamilton Stephens, only vice president of Confederate States of America, 50^th Governor of Georgia, and United States Congressman, both before and after the Civil War.

Grave of Alexander Hamillton Stephens, adjacent to the monument.

The monument, house, and museum are unabashedly Confederate, which creates a great charm. That should not be surprising given the origins of the park. The park started with a 12-acre donation in 1932, which included Liberty Hall, to the State of Georgia by the Stephens Monumental Association to establish a memorial park. About a year later, eight acres were added from a donation by the Daughters of the Confederacy. During the New Deal the federal government purchased and developed the land adjacent to the memorial park to develop the larger state park, with the former memorial park serving as the historical focus of the new park.     

You will probably start with the Confederate Museum (that was original name, technically it is the Alexander Hamilton Stephens Museum), as it is nearer to the parking area. While there are plenty of A. H. Stephens items in the museum, the slant is towards Confederate. The American Battlefield Trust says it "houses one of Georgia's finest collections of Civil War artifacts." It is a small museum, but I will agree it is one of the best Civil War museums I've seen. A real gem. A few of the highlights of the museum are below:

As you'd expect, a monument of A. H. Stephens is one of the first things you see entering the museum.

There are many A. H. Stephens items in the museum, including his wheelchair. 

Earlier I wrote "unabashedly Confederate." The museum shines at that. What I particularly liked was no woke narrative to diminish it.   

There is no shortage of Civil War artifacts.

The museum has variety and not all of it is Civil War. Handcraft handwork is an example of that.  

There is plenty of variety within the Civil War items.

 Not all the displays are in display cases.

Liberty Hall was the home of Alexander H. Stephens and is the centerpiece of the park. Stephens was born about two miles north of Liberty Hall on a farm in 1812 and Liberty Hall was his home from 1834 until his death in 1883.

 He purchased the house in 1845. Stephens had most of the house torn down in 1875, except the rear ell, and rebuilt to its original appearance. Liberty Hall is a two-story white frame structure, and no major alterations have occurred since 1875. The CCC did major reconstruction work on the property when they worked on the park. The house and outbuildings are worthy of a day trip in their own right, but only the first floor of the house will be described to give a flavor to this gem within a gem.

The entrance door opens into a long and wide central hallway which cuts through the main block of the house. There are two rooms on either side of the hallway. The front one on the east was the master bedroom. The room behind it was Stephens' private sitting room. The front chamber on the west was a parlor. Back of it, in the rear northwest corner, is the dining room. The guide for the house tour is a local park ranger who has a "southern way" of telling the story of the house; she tells an exceptionally interesting story with all kinds of details.

Setting the tone nicely, as you enter Liberty Hall, to your right, will be two pictures, one of Robert E. Lee and one of Stonewall Jackson.  

The floor in the main hallway is an interesting painted diamond pattern.

The master bedroom as it was in 1883 upon Stephens' death.

The sitting room.

The dining room. 

The parlor. 

The rooms were absolutely full of interesting period objects, with wonderful stories about them from the guide. Here is mourning hair art.

Numerous outbuildings are behind the house. Those are also furnished.

The State Park has many traditional CCC buildings. But there are some special structures  that are fascinating. One centerpiece of the park is a five-story classically-designed observation and fire tower with white clapboard exterior. This was built by the WPA. Interestingly, there is a 38-foot-high stone castle-like fire tower at Fort Mountain State Park. The CCC and WPA built some engaging structures in the state parks. A usual picnic shelter and nature trail also stood out to me. With Liberty Hall and its outbuildings, the Confederate Museum, and all the natural attractions within the park, it is easy to spend a day at the park just viewing the sites. 

The 60-foot-high observation and fire tower, completed in 1935, included a 3,500-gallon water tank which supplied various park facilities. The water tank was fed from a nearby pump house and spring house. The architectural styles of the tower and other park buildings were probably inspired by the Greek Revival movement popular in the South before the Civil War. The clapboard exterior has a temple inspired tower cap and a pedimented front entrance. The interior has tongue and grove paneled walls, a wooden stairway, and a "warden's room." The steel frame supports and part of the original water tank still remain.

The inside of the tower is a museum with various displays. The water tank is effectively also a display.

At the top of the tower is an alidade or fire finder, used to determine the direction (bearing) to a wildfire location.

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The Pump House is also clapboard and is just a short distance away, along with the Spring House. 

One of several CCC picnic shelters in the park. Notice the stone fire pit included as part of the shelter.

The CCC also built infrastructure like the nature trail and its bridges.

Both parks have lots of the normal features you'd expect at a park. The National Park Service usually included at least one lake within a park by damming a stream. This is Lake Buncombe.

These two state parks are only a few miles off Interstate 20 and definitely worth a visit if you like New Deal history, or just rustic parks. CCC state parks offer great outdoor recreational opportunities with a little history thrown in.  

Author/Photographer. Tom Straka is a professor emeritus of forestry at Clemson University in South Carolina. He has an interest in history, forestry and natural resources, natural history, and the American West.

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