Published: September 25, 2009 11:20 am      

CCC work still visible

Mission Tejas State Park a product of conservation program

At the height of the Great Depression young men were transforming the nation.

To help put people back to work massive government work projects were undertaken.

American icons like the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority helped bring electricity and stability to much of the south.

One of the relief projects was the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the famous CCC camps.

The work they did today can be seen in 29 state parks operated by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Some of the structures of the Mission Tejas State Park in Weches, located in northeast Houston County, date back to the CCC men. The park itself is a product of the CCC program.

The most recognizable CCC building at the park is the Mission San Francisco de las Tejas replica in the park. The building, built in 1934, according to park interpreter John Tatum, was built on an original purchase of 116 acres of land for the park.

The original Spanish mission, the first in Texas, was founded in 1690, and was a little different structure than a log cabin.

“The original was waddle and dob,” Tatum said, referring to the method of building using vertical posts dobbed with mud to make walls. “But the boys didn’t know that in 1934, so they built it the best they could.”

Using pine trees from the Lufkin and Diboll area, the CCC workers saddle- notched the logs together forming the cabin.

The floor was made out of dressed stone. Tatum said researchers believe the stones used in the floor may actually be the stones from the original mission, as they are rocks found within an area less

than a mile from the replica site which matched the location description given by the mission’s founding priest, Father Damien Massanet.

“The boys (CCC) built a shape of a tree into the floor,” Tatum said. “There is also a cruciform (cross) in the floor if you look closely.”

A rock fireplace was constructed at the back of the building with the mantle being constructed of petrified wood.

“While I have yet to confirm it, I believe the petrified wood to be from the Lovelady area, which is the only area this particular type of petrified wood can be found,” Tatum said of the ancient material.

Currently the mission replica is undergoing some revitalization as rot and insect damage has taken a toll. The original chinking, used between the logs, was made of mud and Spanish moss, allowed moisture to enter some of the logs and some decaying occurred.

A pair of men with the TPWD Infrastructure are working to restore the old building.

Dan Teer, with TPWD, estimated it will take him and another worker a year to complete the work on the old cabin as the two men use a special sealer and wood consolidator to stop the decaying process in the logs.

Still, the building has held up remarkably well, as Tatum said, “Seventy-five years for untreated wood isn’t bad.”

There are other examples of CCC work at the camp. A large dam which created the lake at the park was constructed by hand as workers used shovels to dig and wheelbarrows to haul dirt over a plank bridge that crossed the stream in which they were working.

“It was a conveyor belt of men,” Tatum said of the workforce behind the effort. “It took them nine months to build that dam. At the time it was completed the lake was about 25 feet deep.”

Old trails also speak to their CCC heritage.

“If you are walking a trail and you see a double row of rocks, then you can be sure it’s a CCC trail,” Tatum said.

It was work few would attempt in this day and age for any price, much less for $30 a month, but it was work in a time when any job was scarce.

“It’s a part of our heritage,” Tatum said of the CCC work. “If you can find one of the men who were in the CCC listen to them and write down everything they say, because that is the only way we have of preserving our history.”

TPWD is commemorating the work of the CCC workers with a new Web site, http://texascccparks.org/.

Along with Mission Tejas, other East Texas parks with CCC ties include Tyler State Park, Huntsville State Park, Caddo Lake State Park and Daingerfield State Park, and another nearby park is Fort Parker State Park located between Groesbeck and Mexia.

Visit the TPWD Web site for a complete list of parks.