They apparently aren't certain about these ruins but I have to say, this fireplace is really fabulous. I read that Dan Gronseth, the manager at South Mountain Park in 2020 has said: “We do not have any definitive answers about it, only theories.”

His theory is that it was originally a mining camp and and after the mine kind of either played out or died down shortly after World War One, it could have picked up for a little bit. But then the depression hit and they just didn't have money to keep it going.
So the camp could have been used as a sleeping quarters where the miners would rest up in the two big rooms until the next day's work. Dan said because of the two world wars and the great depression that it could have been abandoned afterwards.

"It uses slump block, which is a concrete block. It was patented in 1904. So sometime probably well after that, at least at the earliest, maybe 1910. But I don't know when a company started up and actually produced that. I would think more likely roughly around 1920."

There is no evidence of it being related to the CCC program.


They are still researching to see if they can identify the origins of it.