Fultondale Eagle Scout candidate rebuilds Depression-era stairway at DeSoto State Park

Published 2:35 pm Friday, April 17, 2015

A Fultondale teen completed a project earlier this month that contributed to his rank of Eagle Scout, and will help hikers for many years to come.

Troy Ingram, 16, headed up an effort to build a set of stone steps on a trail near Indian Falls at DeSoto State Park.

“It was all washed out from years of erosion,” Ingram said. “With so many people walking down the trail, somebody could have gotten hurt.”

Ingram wanted to not only repair the dangerous spot; he wanted to do so in keeping with stonework done at the park by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) prior to World War II.

The CCC was a federal government program that provided work to thousands of young men in the 1930s and early 1940s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Ingram said CCC Company 472 built stone fire towers, cabins, the park headquarters building and the original lodge at the state park.

“I wanted to build the stairs the way the CCC did, in their style,” Ingram said.

After six months of planning, Ingram supervised a team of 30 volunteers on April 4 who hauled cut stone by hand from a quarry at the state park. The stone had been pre-cut by CCC workers and left at the quarry when the federal program ended in 1942.

Ingram and his volunteers moved the stones — some of which were up to 8 feet long — in the same method used 75 years ago. They used a wagon, come-along winch, straps and lots of muscle and sweat to move the stones from the quarry to their destination on the trail.

They even built a small rock wall along the edge of the steps to help control erosion.

Ingram used the same dry stone masonry technique used by the CCC on other projects at the state park, meaning the stones were stacked using little or no cement.

“The CCC’s structures have lasted over 70 years, so I hope these stairs last that long if not longer,” said Ingram.

DeSoto State Park Superintendent Ken Thomas could not be more thrilled with the project.

“I’m afraid I hurt his feelings when I went to see how the project was coming along,” said Thomas. “I took a look and said, ‘This isn’t what I was expecting.’”

It was, in fact, much better than he envisioned.

“I was expecting something great, but what they did exceeded my expectations,” Thomas said. “They did such a fantastic job. It’s incredible. The whole idea was that he would run the project, that he would direct it. And he did everything. I can’t wait to see that Eagle Scout medal pinned to his chest. He definitely earned it.”

Ingram is a home-school student in Fultondale. His parents are Darryl and Tina Ingram and his brother and sister are Jacob and Ashley Ingram.