Assignmnet #6 The Civilian Conservation Corps Tames the Evil Mountain

During the Great Depression the menacing peaks of Mount Diablo continued to loom over the East Bay. Thousands of migrants came to California having been promised jobs, only to find no employment and their condition worse off than before. Large scale public works programs were being formed under the "New Deal" projects. One of the first main works programs to gain popularity was the Civilian Conservation Corps, or simply abbreviated as the CCC. The CCC was created on March 31, 1933 with the signing of the Emergency Conservation Work Act by President Roosevelt (Engbeck). The CCC put over two million young men to work during it nine year existence. They were put to work by the government to fight forest fires, build fire roads and lookouts, and begin the conservation of America's natural spaces. By 1935 there were 30,000 CCC enrollees, mostly young men from all over the nation who could not find employment, working in California. Of that, about 7,400 enrollees were put to work in California's state and national parks. They built roads and trails though out the parks. They built the first utility systems, campgrounds and restrooms in the parks. The CCC also constructed the visitor centers and facilities needed to open California's state and national parks to the public.

It was in October of 1933 when the first CCC company came to Mount Diablo. I can only imagine what it could have been like for a young man arriving at Monte Diablo for the first time. The area in Clayton was still mostly small farms and only a few homes dotted the area. In October sunsets tend to give the sky to the southeast of Mount Diablo a sinister red color. Large harvest moons are also much more common in the autumn, and seeing a full moon creeping either up or down the peaks of the mountain will send shivers down just about any ones spine. Alone and most likely away from home for the first time the CCC enrollees had every reason to be slightly concerned about building on such a forbidding landmark.

The first CCC company to arrive at Mount Diablo was Company 590. Company 590 was from Kentucky and had received a two week training and conditioning course at the Fort Knox Army base. The Company had spent all summer working at the Calaveras Bit Trees State Park before being transferred to Mount Diablo. Company 590 would only remain to work at Mount Diablo for one year before being transferred to Elk River, Idaho. They would be replaced by two other groups of World War I veterans who were working for the CCC. The CCC completed its work on Mount Diablo in 1942. The Park would continue to expand in the subsequent decades, but it was the CCC who first opened up the Devil Mountain to the public. All of the traisl and roads constructed by the CCC are still in use today, only expanded on and maintained by the parks services.

There is no way of knowing whether or not President Roosevelt, or anyone working for the CCC, could have understood the impacts they made on todays enviromentalism. These were the first steps taken in the preservation of open and natural spaces that have become so important to our local community. The work of the CCC in California's state and national parks gave us a leg up in our modern "green movement" without even knowing it was doing it.

Here CCC workers take a break from constructing the summit trail circa 1935

The CCC began construction on the summit building in 1939. This view is overlooking the southeast toward Brentwood and Tracy.

Assignment #5

For this weeks assignment I wanted to gather some excellent photos of "The Devil Mountain" both from my own personal collection as well as from other sources. The picture above is the western side of the mountain, with Highway 24 in the foreground.

This is an awesome panoramic shot of Mount Diablo from Wikipedia (I know we are to avoid that dreaded website at all costs, but it was the only place I could find this picture. And since I am studying a Satanic mountain, it was temptation that led me to Wiki). The link here provides a much sharper and better picture than the on on the blog. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Diablo_Panoramic_From_Newhall.jpg

This is a photo of the south side of the Summit-Building, which serves as a visitor center, natural history museum, airline beacon, and fire lookout. As one of the tallest land marks in the visible vicinity, at 3,864 feet in elevation, it made a perfect choice as an observation deck. It was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that began construction on the Summit-Building in 1939 and completed it in 1942. I will detail more about the specific CCC company that built the trails and buildings in the park in my next blog.

This is a very rare photograph to capture. This is Mount Diablo when hell freezes over. This is from last December of 2009 when a strong arctic storm from the Gulf of Alaska blew in dumping a few inches of snow throughout the Bay Area. Since Mount Diablo is at a high elevation it received a few feet of snow. Usually each winter brings only a few inches and a dusting of snow to only the peaks of Mount Diablo, such as in this photo:, but never anything as spectacular as the top picture.

These are two photos I took from last December right after the snow fell. I finished my last final for the quarter and rushed up to the Mountain so as not to miss an opportunity such as this. In the photo below you can see exactly where the snow line had melted to.




Below you can see Mount Diablo looming over downtown Walnut Creek in a foreboding manner.









This last picture is an awesome 3-D image of one hiker's trip up the Mountain. You can see the towns of Walnut Creek and Clayton in the foreground at the foot of the mountain. The image also gives incredibly detailed topography of the northwestern face of the mountain, the side I grew up looking at.
Here is the link to see the above 3-D Image from its original homepage. It is much larger than the blog would allow me to put on here http://www.rebeccabond.com/blogpics/2009_01_24/MountDiabloEmilieHike.jpg

Assignment #4 "The Devil Mountain"

This week I am focusing on my favorite park in the local area and probably the most evil and satanic place in Northern California (other than Stockton) - Mount Diablo.

The origin of Mount Diablo's name comes from a poor translation from Spanish to English. Sometime between 1803 and 1806, when Spain still maintained control over Alta California, a small contingent of Spanish soldiers came into the Diablo Valley in search of escaped mission indians. The Spanish soldiers came to a large swampy willow thicket where present day Buchanan Air Field is in Concord. The members of the Chupcan tribe who were living there managed to hide out in the willow thicket safely because the Spanish were unable to enter with out their beloved horses. Spanish military doctrine was very focused on the use of cavalry so they refused to enter and face the Chupcans in hand to hand combat. With the area surrounded by the Spanish soldiers the Chupcans made an escape late at night, safely crossing the Carquinez Straights. The Spanish soldiers, greatly embarrassed by the Chupcan's bold escape, blamed the entire affair on the Devil, which would have been a typical superstition of the Spanish Catholics of this time period. They named this place "Monte del Diablo" which translates to "Thicket of the Devil", in reference to the willow thickets that the indians had hid in. Later on when Anglo settlers began to arrive in California they mistook "monte" as the Spanish word "montana"(mountain) and fixed the name to the most obvious landmark in the area. And thus the sinister mountain received its name, Mount Diablo.

Now that we know why this place is called what it is (which is always important in any history) I want to skip ahead a few hundred years to the formation of Mount Diablo as a state park. According to the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, in 1921 state senator William Sharkey of Martinez sponsored a bill that declared 630 acres at the summit of Mount Diablo as a State Park and game refuge. There was no money attached to the bill and only a small area at the summit of the mountain was protected while the rest of the area was still open to mining and quarry work. Six years later in 1927 Frederick Law Olmsted, a landscape designer who had developed and designed New York City's Central Park, prepared a California Park Survey for the State Park Commission. He recommended that the park be expanded and acquire 5,000 to 6,000 acres to build on the small park located only at the summit. Between 1931 and 1937 more properties were acquired to add onto the state park at the summit and along the North Gate Road.

It was in 1930, when Californians passed a $6 million bond measure, that money was finally set aside for the formation of the state park. On April 26, 1931 the park was officially dedicated and opened to the public (I just missed its 79th birthday). It was during the 1930's that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built most to the roads, trails, buildings, campgrounds, and picnic facilities. I had absolutely no idea that it was the CCC who initially built all of these! But it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. And this sparked a whole new question and trail of thought for me to follow. What role did the CCC play in all of the local parks here and what can I find out to attribute to them? Can I find records of there work on the Mountain or any other park? Who was in charge and who worked building these trails and facilities? Back to the library with more questions.

The park continued to grow over the years, adding more acres here and there. In 1971 the non profit organization Save Mount Diablo was founded. They played a crucial role in the acquisition of all new land added to the park since they 1970's. In 1988 California passed another bond measure which provided the state park on Mount Diablo with $4 million to buy new land. During the 1980's Contra Costa County was in the middle of a population boom and as more residence came in more and more open space decreased. Today the park consists of over 90,000 acres of protected land with over 520 miles of trails.

I need to get in touch with the Save Mount Diablo foundation as well as find out more of how the New Deal affected the formation of Mount Diablo and other parks and open spaces here in the East Bay.

Assignment #3 Secondary Sources

This week my task at hand was to venture back to my favorite place in the entire city of Concord, the public library. I am looking into the history of preserved open spaces in the East Bay and since this is all local history where better to start than our local library? But alas, I encounter my first shortcoming, and I anticipated this one well in advance. The Concord Branch of the Contra Costa County Library system is not exactly on par with the others in the area. In fact it may be one of the poorest kept libraries I have ever come across. But it is the one I grew up with and know best so it is what I turn to first for any sort of research. Do not get me wrong, the place has books and plenty of information, but it is quite apparent that the budget is lacking.

I managed to find just a few good books at the Concord Library after a great deal of time searching. I picked up a few books from the "Images of America" series, one on the town of Clayton, one on the town of Pleasant Hill, and one on the California Delta (even if the last two don't yield much on my topic I still want to read them, as they are the history of the towns and places I grew up in). I also found a great guide on Mount Diablo that contains a rather extensive history of the mountain, its uses in the past, and as a park. In fact having read most of it by now, is proving to be the most compiled history I have found on Mt. Diablo. This book rocks!

The main issue I faced at the Concord Library was that most of the books I found through the computer catalogue's search engine were not at the Concord Branch, they were either at the Clayton Library or the Pleasant Hill Library. So I headed out to Clayton first. Primarily due to the budget cutbacks the Pleasant Hill Library has very limited hours on weekends and is closed on Mondays (the day I primarily reserve for all my research and school work to be done). I will have a chance to get over to the Pleasant Hill Library sometime this week to finish acquiring my secondary sources (I have about a dozen books on reserve for me there so I need to over there quick). The Clayton Library did have a few more books I was looking for. Primarily books on the history of Concord, Clayton, and Contra Costa County. I also found a guide book on all the East Bay trails, which provides me with a list of all the parks and open spaces in the area.

Most of the books I located on California's national and state parks were only at the Pleasant Hill Library, so I have yet to get my paws on those. I have plenty of reading to keep me busy of the next few weeks as I immerse myself in the history and geography of the lands I see and drive through every day. As I finish reading through each book I will go and add it to my ongoing bibliography. Some of the books I did check out don't appear to have too much information about my topic in them, and if they do not provide me with enough then I will just leave them off of the list.

One main tip off I did get from my selection of books was to investigate the Clayton Historical Society and Museum. I figured that at some point I would wind up there for this project and I know one of the future assignments will be to go to a local history museum. But as I flipped through some of the books I picked up I began to notice that nearly all of the photos were from the Clayton Historical Society, in addition to all the good primary sources used in these books. Since I was up in Clayton already I decided to take a trip downtown and find the Museum building. They are facing a budget crises as well and have limited hours only on weekends by appointment only. However I now have all of their contact information. If that place turns out to be the wealth of information it is shaping up to be, then they will never be able to get rid of me once I get my foot in the door.

Once this rain storm blows through and the weather clears up I plan on going out and doing some hiking so I should have some pictures up here soon. Just waiting on mother nature to make up her mind.

Complete Bibliography

Here is the list of websites I began my research with for Assignment #2. I will continue to add more and more to this post as time goes on and I acquire more sources.

Internet Sites:

• http://www.ebparks.org/
• http://www.facebook./EastBayParks
• http://www.nps.gov/index.htm
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/15/MNGA988H5O1.DTL
• http://www.mdia.org/
• http://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/faq.html#n1
• http://www.stateparks.com/ca.html
• http://www.parks.ca.gov/

Here is the list of books I have read through so far. About half listed are from the Clayton Library and the other half I found at the Pleasant Hill Library

• Andrews, Edna May. History of Concord its Progress and Promise. Concord Historical Society. 1986
• Bohakel, Charles A. A Pictorial Guidebook to the Mount Diablo: The "Devil" Mountain of California. 2nd rev ed. Antioch, CA. 1975
• Clayton Historical Society. Images of America: Clayton. Arcadia Publishing. San Francisco CA. 2006.
• Emanuels, George. Ygnacio Valley 1834-1970. Panorama West Books. Fresno, CA. 1985.
• Engbeck, Joseph H. By the People, For the People: The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in California State Parks, 1933-1941. Office of State Publishing, California. Sacramento. 2002.
• The Mount Diablo Interpretive Association. The Mount Diablo Guide. 2nd ed. Berkeley Hills Books. Berkeley, CA. 2002.
• Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. 3rd ed. Vail Ballou Press. Binghamton, N.Y. 1982.
• Pettitt, George A. Clayton: Not Quite Shangri-La The Story of a California Town. The Parthenon Press. Nashville, TN. 1969.
• Salmond, John A. The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942. Duke University Press. Durham, North Carolina. 1967.
• Weintrabu, David. East Bay Trails: Hiking Trails in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. 2nd ed. Wilderness Press. Berkeley, CA. June 2005.

Assignment #2, Internet Research

I have begun my research into the local parks and open spaces located in the East Bay Area, and luckily I have been blessed with living in an area that has so many. But first I must define the three different types of spaces I am researching because each is very similar yet very different.

A National Park is a natural or semi-natural land that has been set aside for human recreation and enjoyment as well as the protection of the environment according to the National Parks Service website. These areas are to remain protected for the sake of the environment and development on the land, either for urban needs or for industrial needs, is restricted. The National Parks Service has loads of websites about themselves and about each of the 392 areas that they oversee and protect. National Parks are considered federal territories and receive their annual budgets from the federal government. The very first National Park, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, was established in 1872 and is considered the world's first National Park. California posses 32 National Parks throughout the state.

Next are State Parks, which are similar to our National Parks but differ in one distinct way. State Parks are NOT run by the federal government but rather are under the control of state and local governments. California State Parks are protected and maintained by the California Department of Parks and Recreation and oversee 278 park areas. I see State Parks as areas that are just as important to protect and preserve but for some reason the federal government does not see it that way as well. Luckily we have the largest state park system and the California Department of Parks and Recreation protects the most diverse natural and cultural holdings of any state. Each state park has its own linked websites and information about each park. As I pry further into the depths of the online world I am coming up short on actual histories for our individual state parks, especially those in my area of the Bay. I am aware, however, that each park usually contains a small museum on the grounds that is maintained by park volunteers. It is begining to look that if I want the history on an individual park I am going to have to go visit it myself, which was half of the reason I picked this topic.

A regional park is an area that is preserved and protected for its natural beauty, historical interest, or its recreational uses. These areas are administered by a regional park board, instead of the National Park Service or other local government agency. Here in the East Bay we have the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) which oversees 65 parks and 1,100 miles of trails. The EBRPD is supported and funded through the Regional Parks Foundation which raises money to keep the parks open and for park improvements.

I have plenty of parks and areas to choose from, so now I must begin narrowing down my research to just the few parks and open spaces I want to find more about. The creation of the National Parks Service in the United States in 1916 is well documented and contains an extensive history. I am going to be putting my findings in the context of the rising sense of a need to protect the beauty of America's natural spaces. I intend on conveying the importance of our National, State, and regional parks and what roles they played in the formation of our Park Services.

Biography

Hello, my name is Kevan Santos. I am a junior at California State University East Bay in Hayward, California and I am a History Major with my area of focus being in U.S. History. The purpose of my blog is to investigate the preservation of open spaces in the East Bay Area and to present the research I find. It was not until only within the past few years that I have discovered the importance of the many parks, preservation, and protected open spaces found in the Bay Area. No where else on earth resembles the beautiful golden hills of California, the vast and bountiful Central Valley, or the impressive Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Bay Area has always been one of the most populated and fastest growing areas in the United States which has led to an immense amount of development for housing, businesses, and other human needs. Yet protected areas remain not only for our enjoyment but also for the good of the environment. I am interested in learning more about our State's national parks and the protected open spaces in the Bay Area. I am especially interested in the parks and open spaces near my home in Concord, California such as Mount Diablo, Lime Ridge, and the Black Diamond Mines. Each of these places has a reason for being where it is and has a history behind it. I can only hope my research leads me to not only answers but more questions in which I can follow.