Welcome Volunteers!
Instructions for Registering For Projects
STEP 1: Scroll through our list of projects. Click any of the photos or titles associated with the project to access its page. Read carefully about the dates, location, scope of work, degree of difficulty, vehicle requirements, and camping logistics.
STEP 2: If you are interested in volunteering, click the link that says “CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!” You will be re-directed to the project’s registration form. (If you are re-directed to a HistoriClub Early Access Page, this means the project is locked until the advanced access window for HistoriClub members is complete. If you would like advanced access to projects you can join HistoriClub.)
STEP 3: If you are a new volunteer, please fill out the required information on pages 1 and 2 of the registration form. (This will be standard for every registration form.) Returning volunteers will have the option to update their personal information and project preferences or skip ahead to registering for the project if no changes are desired.
STEP 4: Submit the form and look for a confirmation email of your submission. Next, sit tight! We’ll email you if you are accepted to the project!
HAVING DIFFICULTIES REGISTERING?: Contact us at volunteer@historicorps.org
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
The Blue Bend Pavilion is a CCC era picnicking shelter quietly at home among the canopies of the Monogahela National Forest. Built between 1936-1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed over 20 camping sites complete with tent pads, picnic tables, and parking areas. Included is an elaborate system of retaining walls and stabilized creek banks, two-stoned paved beaches, and a water retention reservoir for recreational swimming. In 2023 HistoriCorps successfully engaged over twenty volunteers with additional help from the Appalachian Conservation Corps to complete over 1,000 hours of work on the structures at the Blue Bend Recreation Area.
Tents, truck-campers, campervans, and small trailers will have access to our campground. RV spaces are not available at this location. Showers will be available and dogs are allowed but must be leashed. and under the owners control at all times.
Located on land historically inhabited by the Kickapoo, Osage, Caddo, O-ga-xpa, and Ohéthi Šakówi Nations, Lake Wedington hosted Civilian Conservation Corps crews that constructed cabins and other recreational buildings for public use. These CCC-built resources are overdue for some HistoriCorps TLC. According to recreation.gov, “Lake Wedington beckons all visitor types, from those who come to relax and fish all day, those who come to speed along on bike paths or cruise on a boat, and those who want to stay in a cabin as a lakeside home away from home offering luxuries including electricity.” HistoriCorps is excited to return to Lake Wedington Recreation Area following last years successful restoration of several of the cabins. This year we’re headed back to complete the job and each volunteer session will only have a handful of spots available, so act fast! We hope you’ll join us as we taper out our 2024 season in the Ozarks and look forward to preserving the Lake Wedington Cabins with you!
Tents, truck-campers, campervans, along with trailers and RVs up to 25 feet will have access to our campground. Please be sure that if you are bringing a trailer, your tow vehicle and trailer equal no more than a combined 25 feet in length. Dogs are welcomed at this project!
Mendocino Woodlands State Park Camp Two Cabins, CA
Mendocino Woodlands Camp Association
October 13-18
(Session 2 will work alongside a YCC crew, have a lower volunteer cap, and no Kitchen Helper assigned)
Built by the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s as a Recreation Demonstration Area, the Mendocino Woodlands State Park was established to introduce the public to the wonders of nature through recreation and conservation. The campgrounds were created to retire submarginal agricultural and other lands, and repurpose them for recreational use. The entire park has continued to serve this original purpose without interruption since opening in 1938. The Mendocino Woodlands State Park is located within the traditional Pomo Indian territory, near the village site of bu’ldam.
Our partners at the Mendocino Woodlands Camp Association have offered us room and board at the illustrious Camp 2 Cabins! We highly encourage you to stay in with us in these accommodations for this project. Showers will be available, but please bring your own bedding! Alternatively, only truck-campers, campervans, and trailers or RVs up to 25ft will have access to our campground. Tent camping and hookups are not available and dogs are not allowed.
Located on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, the cabin at the Grandview Lookout Tower serves as a popular recreational stop for folks embarking on the Arizona Trail (AZT) and is just 4 miles from the breathtaking Grandview Point, a spectacular place to see one the America’s most awe-inspiring natural wonders! Built in 1936, the cabin was constructed as residence for seasonal fire lookouts who manned the adjacent lookout tower. In 1988 the cabin was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places and represents the forest service’s long-standing commitment to fire protection as well as encapsulating Theodore Roosevelt’s New Deal policies that have shaped today’s approach to public lands management through the conservation movement of the mid-twentieth century.
Tents, truck-campers, campervans, trailers and RVs will have access to our campground. There is an unlimited amount of dispersed camping around the compound. Showers will not be available and dogs are allowed but must be leashed.
The beautiful man-made arches of the Golden Gate Bridge form a striking contrast with the soaring rugged peak of Mount Tamalpais, a beloved part of the San Francisco landscape. Mount Tamalpais State Park is home to the historic Steep Ravine Cabins, which provide campers with an unparalleled view of the Marin Coast. The cabins are one of the most popular (and hardest to reserve) camping areas in the California State Parks system; HistoriCorps volunteers will have the very unique opportunity to restore these beloved cabins. The Steep Ravine Cabins were built in 1938 by California congressman William Kent, who also donated the land which is now Muir Woods, as part of a plan to create a railways system through the area
Tents are preferred by our partner and limited space is available for truck-campers and campervans at our campground. There are no showers and dogs aren’t allowed.
In Texas, a thin strip of land shelters a beautiful oasis of dunes, coastal prairies, and diverse tidal mud flats. The Padre Island National Seashore (administered by the National Park Service) is the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world, and shelters the Laguna Madre from the Gulf of Mexico. On this island is the historic Dunn Ranch Novillo Line Camp, one of three cattle ranching line camps on Padre Island. In 1879, cattle rancher Patrick Dunn leased some land on Padre Island for grazing his cattle; by 1926, Dunn owned almost all of the land on the island, and had grazing right for whatever land he didn’t own. That same year, Dunn sold the land, but he and his family retained grazing rights on the island until 1971, when the last cattle were removed. To maintain ranching on the 115-mile-long island, Dunn established four different line camps spaced across his land, aided by as many as 9 windmill system, and several below-ground water tanks. Of these original camps, three survive, with the Novillo Line Camp being the most intact.
Tents, truck-campers, campervans, trailers and RVs will have access to our campground. Showers will not be available and dogs are allowed but must be leashed.
With quaint and unassuming beauty, the Dalton Lake Pavilion rests within the rugged landscape of South Dakota’s Black Hills. The Dalton Lake Campground, a humble but welcoming camping area, was constructed between 1935-1936 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Camp Este in Nemo, SD. In addition to creating recreational campsites in Dalton Lake Campground, the CCC also built several footbridges, the dam and reservoir (i.e. Dalton Lake), and the Dalton Lake Pavilion. There were also a handful of other CCC projects which are no longer extant, including a well and well house, a changing house, and even a three-level ski jump with a nearby warming hut. In its nearly 90-year lifetime, the Dalton Lake Campground has withstood many trials. Most notably, the campground was severely affected by floods in 1972, which largely destroyed the original CCC-era dam.
Tents, truck-campers, campervans, trailers and RVs 25ft and under will have access to our campground. There is an unlimited amount of dispersed camping around the compound. Showers will not be available and dogs are allowed but must be leashed.
