The observatory was built by the United States Forest Service and the Works Progress Administration in 1936-37,[3] with some assistance from two Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) side camps.

When the Great Depression left many World War I veterans unemployed, President Roosevelt responded by opening the already created Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to include them.

Ranging in age from thirty-three to fifty-five, the veterans were hailed as "a remarkable group of men, skilled in almost every imaginable trade."

They lived in army tents roughly eleven miles below the mesa rim while clearing the brush for the road.

The toughest part of the Land's Ends Road, from the Wild Road Picnic Area to the rim, was completed over the next two summers by Civil Service machine operators and a few civilian workers hired by the United States Forest Service.