Stories in Log and Stone: The Legacy of the New Deal in Minnesota State Parks

Minnesota State Parks has collected the stories and photos of the CCC, WPA, and VCC "boys" and published the book, Stories in Log and Stone: The Legacy of the New Deal in Minnesota State Parks. The 125-page book contains more than 170 photos and focuses on the lives of the men who worked in these camps. The book also provides a travel guide for readers to visit the hundreds of structures that remain in 27 Minnesota State Parks, including some of the most impressive buildings, bridges, dams and trails in the state.

From the ashes of the Great Depression, the most popular agencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal arose to give meaningful conservation work to millions of unemployed Americans. In the short span of ten years (1933-1943), these groups planned parks, built roads, fought forest fires, battled erosion, and constructed stone and log buildings that are still in use today.