Ratcliff CCC Camp
Houston County, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
J.H. Ratcliff's 1880s sawmill and village here gave way to major timber industry operations that by the early 1930s had decimated Houston County's densest virgin forest. As part of federal efforts to restore the nation's natural resources, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp F-4-T was built at this site in 1933-34, and the Davy Crockett National Forest was established in this area in 1935. CCC workers constructed fire towers, built roads, developed an old sawmill pond into a public lake with recreational facilities, and planted about 3,000,000 trees. Ratcliff CCC Camp closed in 1941.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By the early 1930s decades of timber cutting — begun with J. H. Ratcliff's 1880s sawmill — had stripped Houston County's densest virgin forest. In 1933–34 the federal government built Civilian Conservation Corps Camp F-4-T on this site, and its workers set about repairing the damage: raising fire towers, cutting roads, turning an old mill pond into a public lake, and planting some three million trees. The Davy Crockett National Forest followed in 1935, and the camp closed in 1941.
Why it matters
It's a ground-level record of the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps, which put Depression-era Americans to work healing the nation's exhausted forests.
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Related people
- · J. H. Ratcliff
Related events
- · Civilian Conservation Corps
- · New Deal
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ratcliff
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Around 1875 a thirty-two-wagon train of Georgia settlers reached this spot in the East Texas pineywoods, where Jess H. Ratcliff's sawmill drew still more families and a town took shape with stores, doctors, and a post office. Sold to lumber companies at the turn of the century, the mill grew into a vast operation that ran until 1917. When it closed, many residents drifted away, though the community hung on by turning to logging and other work.
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