Historic C.C.C. Cabin
CCC workers building a sheep-proof fence around Mauna Kea in 1935.
The Historic Civilian Conservation Corps Cabin you see besides the pine and eucalyptus trees was built in the 1930s as part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” economic relief program. The C.C.C. program in Hawai‘i helped to build new trails and roads and planted hundreds of thousands of trees throughout the state. On Mauna Kea, the cabin you see was part of an infrastructure of 7 cabins connected by horse trails around Mauna Kea to service the construction of a sheep-proof fence. By 1937, over 40,000 sheep were “dispatched” from the mountain. As you continue your hike back to the parking area, look for old māmane posts in the fence to your right: vintages of the C.C.C.’s legacy to protect the high-elevation dry forest.