Prince William Forest: The CCC's New Deal Woods

Prince William Forest Park was born out of the Great Depression. In nineteen thirty-six the federal government designated this land a Recreational Demonstration Area and put Civilian Conservation Corps crews to work building it from the ground up. They constructed the cabins, roads, and trails you can still walk today, finishing in nineteen forty-two.

The park holds a distinction that tends to surprise visitors: it reportedly included camps specifically set aside for African Americans, a small but deliberate equity measure during a rigidly segregated era. Today it is the largest example of Eastern Piedmont forest in the entire National Park System, protecting a swath of second-growth woodland that was once worn out by farming.