Lake Garnett, Camp Anderson, and Civilian Conservation Corps Co. #1715

 Photo of Company 1715, July 9, 1935

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collection (Merritt McDonald donation)

I finally had a chance this week to stop by the Anderson County Historical Society in Garnett to spend some time researching. I was met by longtime ACHS president Dorothy Lickteig who had mentioned in previous correspondence with her that they did have some photos of the CCC camp in their collections. While I spent the afternoon looking through Garnett area photos, pulling photos of the lake and camp, and scanning them, Dorothy graciously copied relevant notes from ACHS history publications highlighting the project from the perspective of the local paper.

The project itself involved the construction of a dam to form Lake Garnett, located on the north side of town. The lake and surrounding park property continues to be a center of recreation for the community today and was recently nominated as an "8 Wonders of Kansas" in the customs category.

PDF of Garnett's "8 Wonders of Kansas" nomination

Besides the lake, the location includes a number of New Deal era resources constructed by WPA and NYA crews in the late 1930s after completion of the lake including a swimming pool, football stadium, shelterhouses, restrooms, and picnic tables, of local stone and concrete creating a great rustic look to the park development.

Company 1715 came to Garnett in November of 1934 from the project near Toronto where work was ongoing to construct what is today called Woodson State Fishing Lake. The Garnett project received the support of former governor and then longtime U.S. Senator Arthur Capper whose hometown was Garnett. The work on dam construction was largely complete in the latter half of 1936 with other work wrapping up in late summer 1937.

 C.C.C. Camp Anderson Under Construction, October 26, 1934

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections

Lake Garnett Construction- Clearing Location.

 Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections (Kenneth Knouse donation)

 Lake Garnett Shortly After Completion (note C.C.C. camp in background)

Source: Anderson County Historical Society collections

Former Birger Sandzen Student Turned Camp Artist- Joseph A. Johnson

 

While researching Company 4718 through the stories in their camp newspaper "The Gully Guardian" a number of engravings by the veteran enrollees were prominent in several issues. Some are not identified to a specific enrollee, but several images are attributed to a Joseph A. Johnson.

"The above linoleum cut by Joseph Johnson, a member of the camp, portrays the barracks skyline at the camp."

A couple of notes in the camp newspapers and a little follow-up research identifies Johnson as a former student of Birger Sandzen at Bethany College between 1924 and 1926.

"Joseph A. Johnson, war veteran enrollee of the Kingman county CCC camp toils on the soil conservation crew during the day, but that does not keep him from bringing his art to his environment. Horses, galloping across the prairie and pausing near the crew for a rest gave him inspiration for the linoleum cut presented herewith.

Johnson, formerly a student at Bethany college at Lindsborg has produced paintings which have won the admiration of students and fellow enrollees. A painting of an Indian girl has been exhibited recently in the window of the Kingman furniture store. An accomplished violinist, Johnson has provided music in local church services."

"Horses, galloping across the prairie and pausing near the crew for a rest gave him inspiration for the linoleum cut presented herewith."

  

Johnson's tenure as "camp artist" was relatively short as his contributions to the camp news come to an end in February 1937 when the editor notes that, "the two sketches drawn for this issue were the efforts of Joseph A. Johnson who has been our camp artist. He has checked out to try his luck in other territory. The Gully Guardian will miss his contributions, but we are sure his artistic ability and good nature will not go unrewarded on the outside."

 

 With that, Joseph A. Johnson fades into CCC history. There is relatively little information on him that I am able to find at this point, and even his time in the CCC may represent something new to anyone who knows of the artist.

The work of Co. 4718 continued in Kingman County until the end of July 1940 when the company moves "out of the dustbowl" and into my backyard to near Osage City in Osage County, Kansas. That's where my research was headed that day when I encountered Mr. Johnson and perhaps we'll visit these later exploits of Co. 4718 sometime down the road...