Red Rocks Park and the camp that housed the men who built its world-famous amphitheater have been awarded national historic landmark status.

Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp sits just south of Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre in Morrison. The camp is comprised of 18 buildings where men came from around the country to live and work as part of the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps program.

“The outstanding architecture and landscape architecture of Red Rocks Park and Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp illustrate the principles and practices of New Deal-era naturalistic park design and master planning in a metropolitan park as well as the use of Civilian Conservation Corps labor to develop such a park,” the National Park Service said in a news release.

The designation is part of a 14-year effort led by the local nonprofit Friends of Red Rock, which compiled research and gathered endorsements from music legends, politicians and historians from around the country as part of the application process. Final approval of the designation is given by the Secretary of the Interior.

National Park Service historian Christy Dickinson worked on the application.

“It represents that Red Rocks isn’t a place that has significance (just) locally or regionally,” she said in February. “It’s reflective of American history, not just Colorado history and not just Denver history.”

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper agreed.

Red Rocks is “renowned as the only naturally occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world, and the diverse landscape attracts thousands of outdoor enthusiasts and even dinosaur fans,” he said in a statement. “The Mount Morrison CCC camp is another historical treasure in the park, and one of the few surviving camps in the nation.”

While Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre sees thousands of visitors annually, the camp is not seen by the public as often.

The site is managed by Denver Mountain Parks, which uses the buildings for its offices and storage. Some of the buildings were refurbished in the 1980s and ’90s by a CCC alumni group, and their museum remains in an old mess hall.

Denver Parks and Recreation still hosts youth corps camp crews there and gives tours by appointment only.

The site is one of four new places in the U.S. to earn the elite historic designation. The other new National Historic Landmarks are First Peoples Buffalo Jump in Cascade County, Mont.; the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Va.; and Lafayette Park in Detroit.

Red Rocks becomes the 25th national historic landmark in Colorado.

Josie Klemaier: 303-954-2465, jklemaier@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JosieKlemaier

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