A dining-recreation pavilion built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression stood at this site. A CCC camp in the Davis Bayou area provided jobs and training for about 200 Mississippians and other southerners from 1938 to 1941. Its crews planted trees in eroded areas and built roads, picnic grounds, cabins, piers, and other structures. These facilities became the nucleus of Magnolia State Park, which was incorporated into the national seashore when it was established in 1971.