Mendocino Woodlands CCC Features

Mendocino Woodlands Main Lodge Campground OneMendocino Woodlands State Park is a 720 acre, year-round retreat, seven miles east of the city of Mendocino, California.  The park has three camp areas that accommodates groups of all sizes.  Each of the camp areas is equipped with rustic, well-appointed dining and recreation halls, two and four bed cabins and communal restrooms with hot showers and electricity. Its rustic wood-and-stone camp buildings are located in a second-growth redwood forest. Mendocino Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark.

The Woodlands is one of the best remaining examples of recreational demonstration area (RDA) planning and design in the country. The RDAs were a new kind of state park planned by the National Park Service during the New Deal. Mendocino Woodlands was one of forty-six RDA campgrounds in the nation (including Camp David, Maryland) built in the 1930s by Civilian Conservation Corps members and workers from the WPA (Works Projects Administration).

Like the other RDA campgrounds, Mendocino Woodlands was originally planned as a site for youth summer camps in which the participants would be introduced to the wonders of nature. However, Mendocino Woodlands is the only one of the campgrounds that has been continuously used for public camping, since its development.

Main Lodge of Campground One at Mendocino Woodlands State Park circa 1937Cabin constructed by the CCC in 1937

Park Information:

Mendocino Woodlands State Park
39350 Little Lake Road
Mendocino, CA  95460
701-964-7944<br />Visit Website: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=443

Pictured: Top Main Lodge of Campground One at Mendocino Woodands, photo by Marc Holmes. Bottom Main Lodge in 1937 and a Woodlands rustic park cabin in 1937.