CCC Cultural Preserve at Mount Diablo State Park

CCC built stove at Mount Diablo State Park in 1939Mount Diablo State Park has almost 100 stone hearths built during the Great Depression, part of the New Deal to give out-of-work Americans jobs.  The Mount Diablo stoves are classified as cultural artifacts that merit preservation. The Diablo stoves have a large stone frame and a chimney to control the heat from wood fires, and they have a metal griddle and a grill for cooking. The durable stoves are a testimony to the hand craftsmanship of the CCC workers who built them.

Hundreds of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers lived in a camp on Mount Diablo while building park roads, the Summit Museum of Mount Diablo and the historic stoves. The CCC was a New Deal program to put men back to work.  "You can find parks across the country with Diablo stoves," said Craig Mattson, the state park superintendent in the area with Mount Diablo State Park. "Frankly, we can't say why the stoves came to be known for Mount Diablo. However, State Parks is proud of the stoves that carry his park's name.” (quote from Oakland Tribune article by Denis Cuff, 2007)

In 1989 the State Parks and Recreation Commission declared the Diablo stoves and other Civilian Conservation Corps stonework at Mount Diablo a Cultural Preserve, because it represents part of our state’s cultural heritage.

Pictured: Mount Diablo State Park "high chimney cooking hearth," 1939