CCC projects covered Graham County

Some of the picnic tables on Mt. Graham and the road leading to them, Swift Trail, were built in the 1930s by CCC workers. So were the fire lookout towers on Heliograph, Webb and West Peaks and the Columbine Work Station — all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fifteen CCC camps were set up in Graham County. One of Arizona’s first two companies, Company 805, was established in Safford on May 23, 1933 (the other, Company 806, was in Globe). Company 805 was based at Camp F-14/Treasure Park, high up on Mt. Graham.

Treasure Park was named for the gold and silver a band of outlaws supposedly buried there in the 1850s, marking the spot with a triangle of colored rocks. The loot, if it existed, has never been found.

Farther down the mountain at Noon Creek stood Camp F-41-A. Men from that camp built the Noon Creek picnic area and the old Wet Canyon bridge. The picnic area is still there. The bridge was torn down in 2017 after flooding caused debris to block the new bridge’s culvert (the new bridge was built in 2009).

The men of Camp F-41-A also strung phone lines, fought forest fires, put up fences and built check dams to control erosion.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of CCC dams and other erosion control structures are still standing — in the San Simon Valley, around Freeman Flat southwest of Safford, near Eden, along the Black Hills Back Country Byway and State Route 266.

“Wherever you go, you’ll see where they built a multitude of rock dams to slow the water and fight soil erosion,” said Brent Quinn, of the Graham County Historical Society. “They’re everywhere in Graham County.”

One of the most prominent is the concrete Goat Well drop structure, built in 1940 to stop erosion up Slick Rock Wash, a tributary of the San Simon River. It was built by CCC members working for the Soil Conservation Service — likely by men from Camp SCS-25/Solomonville, one of the only camps still occupied in 1940.

Near Fort Thomas, CCC members worked on range management and erosion control. They put up fences, built stock tanks for cattle, erected dams of concrete and native rock in the desert and built roads north of the Gila River.

CCC members came here from other states besides Arizona, and some returned after the work was done. “Some of the men who came here from places like Texas and Oklahoma fell in love with the Gila Valley and came back later to live out their lives,” said Quinn.

Projects at Camp F-15/Tripp Canyon, southwest of Pima, included road building, firefighting and forest improvement. Company 1830V, made up of World War I veterans, was based there from 1933 to 1934. Camp F-15 was later used as a side camp.

Not much is left of the camp, just a cement foundation.

In a nearby meadow stands the grave of a man who worked at Camp F-15, Fred Merrick.

Merrick died at age 72 in 1936. It’s unclear if he formally enrolled with the agency, which usually took men ages 17-28.

In fact, there’s little to nothing left of most Graham County CCC camps.

An exception is Camp SCS-11, established in 1935 near Sanchez. There, Company 2867 worked on the Gila Watershed Project to fight erosion. “It was a big encampment, one of the biggest in the valley. Close to 300 men worked there,” said Quinn.

Several of the camp buildings are still standing, along with rock-lined pathways.

The site, managed by the BLM, is about four miles down a dirt road.

To get there, a high-clearance vehicle is recommended.