CCC Company 749 Powder Magazine

The CCC Company 749 Powder Magazine is located north of Forest Service Road 4128 and south of Briggsville in Yell County. Company 749 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the structure around 1933 to store explosives (powder or blasting caps) for its work in the rugged forests of the area.

The CCC Company 749 Powder Magazine is a small stone and concrete structure originally constructed for use by the Civilian Conservation Corps working in the Ouachita National Forest. The square building measures six feet on each side. It is five feet high with a four-inch-thick concrete top and a concrete floor. The cut-stone and concrete walls vary from six to eleven inches in thickness.

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 749 of the Arkansas CCC district, which was stationed in the vicinity of Aly (Yell County) and Story (Montgomery County) beginning in June 1933, constructed the powder magazine around 1933. It was used to store either powder or blasting caps for use on construction or conservation projects within the Ouachita National Forest. Company 749 was dissolved in 1937, and sixty-five of its members were then consolidated with CCC Company 768 at Camp Buck Knob near Oden (Montgomery County).

Though it is of simple, functional design, the Civilian Conservation Corps Company 749 Powder Magazine remains a symbol of the contributions to American social history made by the CCC and is noteworthy for its associations with the emphasis on conservation that was the original mandate of the CCC. It also is significant for its connections to CCC Company 749, one of the pioneering Civilian Conservation Corps camps in Arkansas.

The CCC Company 749 Powder Magazine was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2007.

For additional information:
Arkansas CCC District, Seventh Corps Area. “Official Annual Arkansas District Civilian Conservation Corps, Seventh Corps Area.” Little Rock: District Headquarters, 1937.

“CCC Company 749 Powder Magazine.” National Register of Historic Places nomination form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/National-Register-Listings/PDF/YE0114.nr.pdf (accessed October 12, 2021).

Mark K. Christ
Arkansas Historic Preservation Program