Hard Labor Creek State Park
The National Park Service designed the park´s layout. The site had been a vacant, overworked agricultural land at the time the government purchased it for a recreation demonstration project. The plan included the construction of two lakes, camping areas, observation tower, boat house, trails and other minute amenities. A February 1935 nursery plan included the cultivation of over 850,000 trees on site including pines, oaks,s, maples, and sweet gums to reforest the park.
These CCC camps, together with the U.S. Forestry service, are responsible for many of the park´s original structures and landscapes. They built roads, bridges, retaining walls, Camp Rutledge, Lake Rutledge, the superintendent´s home, and several structures located at Camp Daniel Morgan. Much of the work stopped at the start of World War II.
Hard labor Creek Park became a National Park in 1939. It served as a National Park until 1946 when it was turned over to the state of Georgia, which continues to operate and maintain it today.
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Byron Hooks of Lat34North.com.