Cascade River Overlook

Cascade River Overlook. . , Listen! Can you hear echoes from the 1930s, when 200 men of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) used picks and shovels to construct the Cascade River Overlook?, The Overlook, where you stand today, is part of the 118-acre Cascade River Wayside listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was a project born of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, built between 1934 and 1935 by the Spruce Creek Camp of the CCC. The Overlook is an important example of partnership between the Minnesota Highway Department (now Minnesota Department of Transportation) and the National Park Service. Behind you is Highway 61 (North Shore Scenic Drive), which is a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road., The wall was designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings. Native gabbro stone and the natural outcroppings helped create this scenic overlook in the National Park Service Rustic Style. In the decades since its creation, the Overlook has enhanced public access to natural areas, provided outstanding views and created a place of rest for weary travelers. Every year, in all seasons, thousands of visitors continue to stop, rest and...listen., Photo: Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society, "Reports reaching us indicate that the project is meeting with general approval, not only with local residents along the North Shore Highway, but from tourists and other visitors as well. The officials of the State Highway Department...have on several occasions expressed themselves as being well pleased with the quality of the work as well as with the progress we are making." , L. W. Donnelly, Camp Superintendent , Spruce Creek Camp, September 1934, photos: , CCC camp boys at work, The design for the Cascade River Overlook was a collaboration of Arthur R. Nichols, Consulting Landscape Architect for the MHD (shown above), and the National Park Service., An early rendering of the Cascade River Overlook arrowhead sign located behind you.