The Civilian Conversation Corps
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Roadside beautification efforts received a boost with the arrival of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The depression-era program aimed to provide jobs through public works projects. The CCC arrived in 1935, setting up camp near Pacific. Tasks included grading and planting the additional easement along Route 66. The workers also constructed two stone shelters—Jensen Point and the Gardenway Bus Stop.
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Jensen Point was built on a bluff south of Pacific, overlooking the Meramec River. The shelter was named in honor of Lars Peter Jensen for his leadership of the Gardenway efforts. The dedication ceremony on Memorial Day in 1939 was dubbed “Garden Day Along the Garden Way.” It included a “galaxy of beautiful floats” as part of a parade down the Gardenway from the Missouri Botanical Garden.
The Civilian Conservation Corps also constructed the Gardenway Bus Stop in 1939. It was one of several planned bus stop shelters, but the only one ever built. The small stone shelter sat near the shoulder of Route 66/Interstate 44 in Allenton until 2002, when it was moved to Shaw Nature Reserve to make way for highway improvements. Today, visitors to the Nature Reserve will find the bus stop near the trailhead for the Wetland Trail.