The Friends of Letchworth State Park will receive a grant of $28,125.00 to restore and preserve the Big Bend Chimney. This chimney was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933 at Camp #23, the Big Bend Camp. The grant award announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo on December 8 was one of the 110 Regional Economic Development grants awarded to the Finger Lakes Region.
The Big Bend Chimney, which is on the east side of Letchworth Park near the E Cabin Area, is the only standing remnant of the camp that housed 200 CCC participants from 1933 to 1941. These men built the Parade Grounds picnic shelter, stone tables, cabins, roads and more, creating much of today’s Letchworth Park.
This project is another step in the Friends of Letchworth State Park effort to preserve the CCC Legacy in the Park. The Friends restored a CCC-built Adirondack-style lean to that sits on the west side of the Genesee Gorge near the Hogsback in 2016 and a stone chimney at the site of the former CCC Gibsonville Camp in 2017. Restoration of stone picnic tables near the Parade Grounds is now in progress.
The grant award from New York State is a matching grant that requires the Friends of Letchworth State Park to pay an additional $9,375.00 to fully fund the project. The Friends are depending on membership dues, fundraising efforts and community donations to raise the required match. The Big Bend Chimney restoration should be completed prior to the three-day convention of the national CCC Legacy organization to be held at Letchworth in September 2019.