July 3, 2014 Part Two The CCC and Guernsey State Park

After leaving the Oregon Trail Ruts SHS, we headed to Guernsey State Park. 

As you know I enjoy finding the statues of the CCC worker as we travel through the country.  I found out that there was a statue here as well as a museum so, of course, we had to go.

Our first stop once we entered the park was to see “The Castle”.  So up we went to the top of the hill”:

Yes, this is a picnic shelter that sits on the edge of a hill.  The inside:

We had lunch here:

And, oh my, the views:

We spent some time here just enjoying the breeze, the views, and our lunch.

One more building there:

And the inside was pretty elaborate for an outhouse:

From there we headed to the museum with even more great views along the way:

Past the Cutoff:

Over the dam:

That was really releasing lots of water:

Up another hill to the museum:

And we found him – Statue Number 53:

The front of the museum – built by the CCC boys – what workmanship:

And the inside – WOW!

Here is an interesting tidbit:

There is so much to see and do in the park and we will be back.  (This was another place that we tried to stay but they were booked too.)

We took the long way out of the park along the reservoir:

And made our way to Hartville, Wyoming – the oldest incorporated town in Wyoming.

Hartville was one of the really “Wild West” towns in its heyday and also has the oldest bar in Wyoming (closed until 5 PM today – Bummer.)  We also tried the visitor center – closed !

The Hartville and Sunset area became the first open pit mine in the world. It was called the Chicago Mine, or the Glory Hole. The Chicago Mine was 650 feet deep and is still one of the largest open pit mines in history.

So we just drove through this now sleepy little town and went to neighboring Sunrise to maybe see the mine and town which is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Can you believe – CLOSED?  Actually there was a gate across the access to the town – not exactly sure why.

So we left, headed back, stopped at the hardware store, the Moose Lodge and then home.

It was another wonderful touristy day!

As we celebrate the fourth of July, let us not forget what we are celebrating – our independence and freedom.

 

 

 

August 31, 2011 – CCC Building

We spent this morning and early afternoon doing things around the motorhome.  I cleaned, vacuumed, then did laundry.  The laundry facilities here are great – clean and cheap (Lynne, another great laundry place – :-))).  Andy emptied our gray tank and refilled our water tank – we want to be ready for the weekend and not have to move.

This afternoon, we went on a ranger led hike to one of the CCC outbuildings. We met at upper Hawksbill Trailhead and our ranger, Jennifer, took us across the road and on the horse trail towards Big Meadows:

 

Along the way, she explained many things about the CCC and the history of Shenandoah National Park.  Apparently after the projects were completed, all the CCC houses and buildings were torn down – they were not meant to be permanent.  So we have lost much of the cultural history.

But a couple of years ago, the park service did find one building that was not destroyed.  Can you guess what its use was?  Hint: it was located half-way between the Skyland Camp and the Big Meadows Camp.

Our group trying to guess:

The building:

It was used to store dynamite – how about that.   It was 6.5 miles away from either camp. 

So how come it was not found earlier?  It is well off the paths and trails and very hard to see from those trails.   Right now there is no direct path to the building – we had to dodge trees and branches and the ranger took us out a different way as to not make a path.  Very interesting.

The date at the doorstep – it is either 1934 or 1936 – hard to tell.

 

On our way back, we found this colorful mushroom – nature’s colors – WOW!  (It is a little blurry because of the low light conditions – sorry.)

Another wonderful campfire night.