In partnership with the University of California, Merced, Ranger Doug is funding the restoration of the 1934-36 WPA Sierra Relief Map recently rescued from an NPS storage shed.  This map–one of the largest relief map ever made measures 40′ long and 10′ high and is scaled in true vertical relief (about 7″) and embraces four national parks and 250 miles of the Sierra Mountain Front.  It was built in 12 sections by the Strawberry Canyon CCC camp (SP-10).  If this was a statue–it would be called the Statue of Liberty!  This map, built between 1934 and 1936, was the brain-child of Ansel Hall, Chief Naturalist of Yosemite National Park and was constructed at the Western Museum Laboratories during the post-depression decade of WPA-CCC funded museum projects for our National Parks.  From Yosemite, Ansel Hall was promoted to Chief Naturalist of all National Parks and in 1933 was put in charge of the Western Museum Laboratories–situated first in a Berkeley California repurposed land bank and later in an Emeryville (Oakland) California warehouse.  The map was installed in the center partitioning wall in the Yosemite Museum Geology Room for 35 years before being removed and stored in El Portal, California. The map sections were stored in an open air shed with old vehicles and snow-stakes for 50 years the panels eventually collapsing against each other perforating parts of the terrain.  In 2024, they were removed and transported to a warehouse at Crystal Air Force Base and beginning 2026, will undergo a year-long restoration process prior to their installation in the UC Merced Library.  Watch our NEWS section here for periodic updates.  Visit my blog here to read more.