Cook Forest State Park River Cabin District

Fifteen log family cabins and latrines stand on a hillside above the Clarion River at Cooksburg, Forest County, within Cook Forest State Park. Civilian Conservation Corps Camp SP-2, which operated in the park from October 1933 to September 1935, built the cabins between 1933 and 1935. Most are four-room, gable-roofed log buildings with saddle-notched corners and white cement chinking. Several have inset porches supported by timber poles with ornamental timber railings, and some have large uncut stone chimneys. The buildings are in the rustic style promoted by the National Park Service, designed to blend with the natural setting and built from local materials. They are significant for their link to the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the principal New Deal relief programs, which employed many young men who had been jobless or homeless during the Depression. The cabins also show the cooperation between state and federal government on state-owned land. They have been used for recreation for about fifty years.