For most Cortez residents, the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps are too far away to remember. A small number of seniors in the area just might be around to recall those Great Depression-era days, however. Some families originally settled in the region decades ago after being employed by the corps digging hiking trails and planting trees.
From 1939 to 1941, such a CCC camp was next to what is now the Carpenter and Geer Natural Area. Today, the recreational space on the northern side of town is a popular destination for hikers, mountain bikers and dog walkers.
Over three quarters of a century ago, it was traversed by workers wielding pick axes.
On Tuesday evening, Cortez came closer to embedding this part of the region’s past into the city’s collective memory. During a regular City Council meeting, Mayor Rachel Medina signed off on a grant of about $22,000 that was awarded from History Colorado, the state’s central historical authority. That money will be used to help Cortez dig deeper into the past and educate the public on the CCC camp.
“There’s at least some speculation at this point that there might be residents of Cortez who were alive at that time or maybe even worked there,” Scott Baker, the city’s grant administrator, said of the CCC camp.
The CCC was a federal program active during the Great Depression, sometimes nicknamed “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” with the goal of ramping up natural resource projects around the nation. National parks like Mesa Verde wouldn’t be where they are today without the muscle and sweat of CCC workers.
There’s still a lot more to learn about Cortez’s camp, Baker said, calling it “a very obscure historical point.”
First, the city intends to trace archival material, like photographs and historical records. Other research could come through interviews from living descendants of the camp’s inhabitants, Baker said.
From there, the city is planning on using their History Colorado grant to create accessible educational material which would enable the everyday reader to peer back in time, he added.
Some local families who trace their lineage far back partially owe that legacy to the CCC, said Helen West, who serves as both an administrative assistant to the Cortez Historic Preservation Board and the city’s economic development specialist.
“There are several families that settled here because the husband came on a CCC assignment and met a woman,” said West.
West said that the latest grant from History Colorado was the biggest splash of money that Cortez has ever received from that agency.
The city learned more about the CCC camp after an archaeological study was completed in April of this year, funded by a previous History Colorado grant and led by Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants.
However, as part of the conclusions drawn from that study, Cortez has elected to limit how many specific details of the site it shares with the public, like precise whereabouts of remains from the camp, although the report notes “a high quantity of artifacts.”
This is so there’s no unwanted attention brought to the artifacts from CCC camp, such as graffiti on the site or theft of artifacts, said West.
Artifacts from the camp mainly amount to concrete debris, said Linda Towle, vice-chair of the Cortez Historic Preservation.
Where the camp once stood are now houses, she said
Towle said that family members who descend from the camp’s CCC workers should contact the Montezuma Heritage Museum.
Soon enough, the CCC camp will be a known part of Cortez lore.
The Montezuma Heritage Museum hosted a presentation on the camp this past May for the city’s 15th Annual Historic Preservation Days event, for instance.
“The histories that have been written about Cortez, they never mention the camp,” she said.
