CCC Work Highlighted for Idaho Archaeological Month
By Rose Davis, Northern Region
Each May, the Idaho State Historical Society sponsors Idaho Archaeological and Historic Preservation (IAHP) month to highlight the intriguing stories of Idaho’s history.
This year’s theme of “The New Deal – A Legacy of Public Works in Idaho” is a great fit for the past, present and future of the Forest Service.
In honor of the IAHP month, the Nez Perce National Forest is featuring the history and efforts of some of the 39 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps in northern Idaho.
A display illustrating the ten CCC camps located on the Forest in the 1930’s illustrates the camps, the kind of work performed and the people involved in the implementation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 “New Deal” program. 
The “CCC boys” provided the much needed labor to build ranger stations, lookouts, roads, trails and bridges. The display will be available for viewing during regular office hours from 7:30 to 4:30 pm May 4 – May 15 in the Nez Perce National Forest Supervisor’s Office located in Grangeville Idaho.
One of the most significant work projects the CCC enrollees undertook on the Nez Perce National Forest is the Goddard Bar Ranger Station, later renamed the Fenn Ranger Station. The workers constructing the buildings were stationed at O'Hara Camp, just a short jaunt from Fenn and came to northern Idaho mostly from Illinois, until after the end of fall of 1936 when most came from Arkansas.
Prior to the late-1920s Forest Service facilities were commonly log structures built by rangers on donated time. In the early 1930s every District Ranger in Region One received an “Improvement Handbook” identifying building methods and the materials to use, basically standardizing Forest Service structures.
But once the CCC began building Forest Service facilities, the character of the buildings changed distinctly.
Regional architect William Fox designed the Goddard Bar/Fenn Ranger Station and the CCC built it using materials, stone, and cedar purchased locally.
The Fenn Ranger Station was distinctive and more substantial and extensive than any Ranger Station built in the Northern Region. The exceptional design and construction of Fenn Ranger Station is accentuated by its unique physical setting on a Selway River bar.
The station has changed little since its construction from 1936-1940 -- built by a generation of young American men who served their country in an exceptional way.
Today the station continues as a working Forest Service facility occupied by the Moose Creek Ranger District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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