Giant City State Park

Okay, you got me...not Kansas, but it does have a personal connection so bear with me.

I just finished a new (2010) book by Kay Rippelmeyer entitled Giant City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps: A History in Words and Pictures. I had been eagerly anticipating the release since happening upon it on Amazon a few months ago with a "preorder" option. While I am interested in almost any of the recent publications detailing the work of the CCC around the country, this one holds my interest even more since I lived just a few minutes from Giant City State Park while working in Southern Illinois in the mid-1990s. The park is a great slice of the Southern Illinois landscape and that in itself makes it worth a stop for those who might be making a trip through that part of the world- the fact that it was developed by the CCC is a bonus. A visit to Giant City Lodge is a must if you make the stop at the park.

Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources- Giant City State Park

Giant City Lodge

The park was home to two camps, one positioned in each of two counties (Jackson and Union), in part to ease tension in local politics where different political parties were in control in each county. Work included constructing infrastructure to make the park more accessible and user-friendly as well as conservation work of the park's natural and cultural environs.

The background focusing on this particular park development, the history of the work at the park, and the numerous illustrations of the work through period photographs and other documents (186 illustrations total) is what I enjoyed the most. I can hardly wait to go back and visit again now that I'm armed with this guide to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Giant City State Park. If you're interested in the work of the CCC in park development at the state level, this is an excellent and focused history of such work in Illinois. I look forward to Rippelmeyer's future publication on the Shawnee National Forest and the CCC for much the same reason. Check it out if you get the chance...

"The Future of the CCC"

From the The Adjutant, the CCC newspaper coming out of the Headquarters Company at Fort Leavenworth, comes this editorial concerning one man's thoughts on the future of the CCC. Published January 18, 1936, in the midst of discussion about making the Civilian Conservation Corps a permanent entity, the editorial offers thoughts on the meaningful conservation accomplishments of the organization in under 3 years time. His concluding comments concerning the future remembrance of the CCC were of particular interest to me as I research the work of the CCC in Kansas. While there are in fact statues and monuments erected to the "C.C.C. lad", some in memorial to the fallen, others to commemorate their accomplishments, there are many more public works projects that continue to see use today that stand as silent testimony to their achievements. Indeed, all these years later, "the work accomplished speaks for itself".

THE FUTURE OF THE CCC

There is hardly a day that passes in which one does not hear the question "I wonder what is going to happen to the CCC in the years to come." It is the editor's opinion that the C.C.C. will be a permanent organization. It is possible that details pertaining to administration will change, but the aim to conserve natural and human resources will remain its primary objective.

An organization less than three years old, the C.C.C. has accomplished great things. A nation has had brought home to it in a vivid way the need for recreating our heritage of invaluable resources, particularly in regard to forest, field and stream.

Thousands of acres of denuded and scarred hillsides have been planted to trees where nothing but barren rock would be present in a few short years. A before and after photograph in the January issue of American Forests shows better than words can tell what magic can be wrought by building check dams, and planting young locust trees on a ravished hillside in the Tennessee Valley. In order to save the washing of the mountainsides in the Coastal Range of Southern California, mustard seed has been planted to perform wonders in preventing soil erosion.

Innumerable state parks have been made places of pleasure and healthful recreation for the large urban and rural populations. Dividends will be paid in health and mind, body and soul of those who visit these delightful refuges from a rushing world.

In a few short years the necessity for the prevention of soil erosion has been demonstrated to a large number of the rural population, thus forestalling the event of more sub-marginal land, lower farm incomes, and higher food prices. With the continuance of such notable work, the people of the great Mississippi Valley need not envision for the next century the horrible scene of a desert-like place as pictured in an article by a member of the new deal. He contemplated abandoned cities, a landscape void of vegetation and life, dry rivers and deserted cities.

Nimrods of the future will thank their lucky stars that the C.C.C. carried out grand schemes for conserving their favorite game, and anglers will not have "fisherman's luck" when they cast their lines into a shady pool.

Children of future generations will be grateful for the historic sites which have been restored by the activity of the C.C.C.

Statues of the soldier, the pioneer, the explorer, the ruler and others have been erected. Boys, it would not surprise me that as old men you will visit the public squares and there find a statue erected to the C.C.C. lad. You can swell with pride, perhaps brush away a tear in memory of "old times" and stand with head bared and say in your heart, "I am glad that I was on the Boys."

The C.C.C. has grown in favor with the general population; relations which at one time strained have been healed in large measure. Hundreds of thousands of boys have been saved from the demoralization of idleness. The work accomplished speaks for itself.

(emphasis mine) 

...a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.

 By July 1, over 250,000 young men were enrolled in 1,463 camps. Enrolled war veterans, Native Americans, and local experienced men (LEM) added to this total. The rapid enrollment and expansion of camps tested the capabilities of all agencies and leadership involved.

In Kansas, six camps/companies were established on five projects by July 1 with two additional camps and projects added in mid-July, and two more late in the year in October and November. These were the only camps established in Kansas during 1933.

Company	Project #	Project Type	Nearest Town	Date Established
Co. 735	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 736	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 1709	S-201	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1711	S-202	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1715	S-204	Lake Construction	Toronto	6/23/1933
Co. 767-C	SE-206	Lake Construction	Reading	6/26/1933
Co. 1778-V	SP-1	Park Development	Hays	7/22/1933
Co. 1779-V	PE-206	Soil Conservation	Esbon	7/23/1933
Co. 731	SE-210	Lake Construction	Scott City	10/15/1933
Co. 755	N/A	Soil Conservation	Lebanon	11/10/1933

Roosevelt addressed this newly formed conservation army on July 8, 1933 by way of the organization's newspaper. In it we see the hopes of the president for this new enterprise.


I welcome the opportunity to extend, through the medium of the columns of Happy Days, a greeting to the men who constitute the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Congratulations are due those responsible for the successful accomplishment of the gigantic task of creating the camps, arranging for the enlistments and launching the greatest peacetime movement this country has ever seen.

It is my belief that what is being accomplished will conserve our natural resources, create future national wealth and prove of moral and spiritual value not only to those of you who are taking part, but to the rest of the country as well.

You young men who are enrolled in this work are to be congratulated as well. It is my honest conviction that what you are doing in the way of constructive service will bring to you, personally and individually, returns the value of which it is difficult to estimate. Physically fit, as demonstrated by the examinations you took before entering the camps, the clean life and hard work in which you are engaged cannot fail to help your physical condition and you should emerge from this experience strong and rugged and ready for a reentrance into the ranks of industry, better equipped than before. Opportunities for employment in work; for which individually you are best suited are increasing daily and you should emerge from this experience splendidly equipped for the competitive fields of endeavor which always marl; the industrial life of America.

I want to congratulate you on the opportunity you have and to express to you my appreciation for the hearty cooperation which you have given this movement which is so vital a step in the Nation's fight against the depression and to wish you all a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.
Source: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933e.htm

"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps..."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, letter to Congress, March 21, 1933

Three Essentials for Unemployment Relief

To the Congress:
It is essential to our recovery program that measures immediately be enacted aimed at unemployment relief. A direct attack in this problem suggests three types of legislation.

The first is the enrollment of workers now by the Federal Government for such public employment as can be quickly started and will not interfere with the demand for or the proper standards of normal employment.

The second is grants to States for relief work.

The third extends to a broad public works labor-creating program.

With reference to the latter I am now studying the many projects suggested and the financial questions involved. I shall make recommendations to the Congress presently.

In regard to grants to States for relief work I advise you that the remainder of the appropriation of last year will last until May. Therefore, and because a continuance of Federal aid is still a definite necessity for many States, a further appropriation must be made before the end of this special session.
I find a clear need for some simple Federal machinery to coordinate and check these grants of aid. I am, therefore, asking that you establish the office of Federal Relief Administrator, whose duty it will be to scan requests for grants and to check the efficiency and wisdom of their use.

The first of these measures which I have enumerated, however, can and should be immediately enacted. I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite. practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth. This is brought home by the news we are receiving today of vast damage caused by floods on the Ohio and other rivers.

Control and direction of such work can be carried on by existing machinery of the departments of Labor, Agriculture, War and Interior.

I estimate that 250,000 men can be given temporary employment by early summer if you give me authority to proceed within the next two weeks.

I ask no new funds at this time. The use of unobligated funds, now appropriated for public works, will be sufficient for several months.

This enterprise is an established part of our national policy. It will conserve our precious natural resources. It will pay dividends to the present and future generations. It will make improvements in national and state domains which have been largely forgotten in the past few years of industrial development.

More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets and receiving private or public relief, would infinitely prefer to work. We can take a vast army of these unemployed out into healthful surroundings. We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability. It is not a panacea for all the unemployment but it is an essential step in this emergency. I ask its adoption. (emphasis mine)

Source: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933c.htm

Senate Bill S. 598, the Robinson-Wagner bill, was introduced on March 27. It passed both houses of Congress and was on the President’s desk to be signed on March 31, 1933. Roosevelt issued Executive Order #6101 on April 5, establishing the organization and appointing Robert Fechner as its director. The first enrollees were ushered into the new organization two days later on April 7, only 34 days after Roosevelt's inauguration on March 4. 

What followed were a little more than nine years that changed the lives of over 3 million men in an organization that was arguably the most successful and popular of the Roosevelt's New Deal era "alphabet soup" organizations.

"Old Sod House Comes Back for C.C.C. Boys"

More accurately described as adobe structures, a number of early C.C.C. camps in western Kansas were comprised in part of adobe buildings as a unique and short lived variation to what became the standard frame structures. The following article is from the Scott City, Kansas News Chronicle, Thursday, December 14, 1933 and provides some insight into the construction process.

Old Sod House Comes Back for C.C.C. Boys

Kinney Dam Builders Will Live In Rude Quarters

Dodge City- A throwback to the days of the pioneer, sod houses are being built again on the Kansas plains.

Ten such crude homes are nearing completion between Dodge City and Garden City, calling up memories of those years when ox-drawn prairie schooners bore settlers to the prairie country.

"Soddies" is the plainsman's term for the houses which are to shelter Civilian Conservation Corps men this winter while they work on Kinney dam to form a 780 acre lake.

When it was decided for economy's sake to build soddies, advertisements had to be placed in county newspapers to locate persons who knew the art of their construction. Sixty men responded from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska.

Sod Was Too Dry

Even the old-timers were stumped at first when it was found that the summer's drought had made the sod too dry and brittle to hang together. Charles Woodrum of Garden City, in charge of the soddy crew, conceived a plan upon noting that an old windmill near at hand still was in working condition.

Tubs were used in devising a homemade mixing machine. Water and chopped prairie grass were added to brittle earth. Then 40,000 "sods", grass-bound chunks of earth measuring 10 to 15 inches wide and two feet or more in length, were cut.

The procedure from that point in the words of an authority, W. M. De Voe of Dodge City is:

Need Eye, Spade, Arms

"The only other things a man needs are good eyes, and a sharp spade- yes, and I guess you might say a couple of strong arms. A double row of sods are first laid lengthwise all around. Then crosswise, then lengthwise, and so on until you have 'er as high as you want 'er."

The return of the sod house adds a whimsical twist to the prediction of an anonymous news dispatch from Salina in 1920:

"This is the year of the passing of the sod house in western Kansas," it read. "Except those kept as souvenirs of the early days and through sentiment, there will be scarcely any of them left after this fall. In the years of figuring and worrying to make both ends meet the farmer of western Kansas was content to live in a soddy. But now prosperity is here and the sod house has passed with the poverty of former years."

Photo of CCC Camp, Atwood, KS (Co. 731) ca. 1934.
Note stack of adobe blocks in foreground.

Source: Howell- C.C.C. Boys Remember, p. 46 (Nick Haller Collection).

Lone Star Lake- "dream of Douglas County sportsmen and citizens"

 1937 Aerial showing Lone Star Lake construction

Work on a 1,400 foot long, 45 foot high earthen core dam that would eventually create a nearly 200 acre lake began in August 1934. No less than four CCC companies were stationed here over a period of more than 5 years including Co. #2734 in August 1934, Co. #1764 in October 1934, Co. #767 in November 1935, and Co. #1728 in October 1936, although not all companies were assigned to the project at one time. Co. 767 and 1728 were comprised of African-Americans, two of only five such companies involved with projects in Kansas. A Lawrence Journal World account dated July 27, 1940 read "Fishermen stormed Lone Star Lake this morning at the official opening of the new Douglas county resort".

Lone Star Lake was originally the conception of a private group who sold cabin lots to fund purchase of the necessary property. The property, minus the cabin lots, was turned over to Douglas County when additional acreage became necessary for the impoundment and the county issued bonds to cover the purchase. A visit today will bring you to a quiet lake nestled in a wooded valley just a few miles southwest of Lawrence. The property is maintained by Douglas County Public Works; fishing by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

KDWP- Lone Star Lake

The original CCC camp area occupied an upland edge overlooking the valley where the lake was constructed. Today this area is part of the lake campground.

Oblique angle aerial photo (view NW) showing Lone Star Lake

construction. Note CCC camp in foreground.

Where I Met The CCC

 

In July 2008 I was introduced to the Civilian Conservation Corps during a visit to Scott State Park north of Scott City, KS. The lake itself was a project initiated by the State of Kansas as an enhancement to a new state park. The lake was opened to the public in June 1930 to much fanfare and the park was a source of pride locally and a popular attraction in the region.

In early August 1933 torrential rainfall in the Ladder Creek basin overwhelmed the impoundment and the west end of the dam failed when the spillway was undercut by floodwaters. The popularity of the young lake and state park created a groundswell to repair the dam that rose to the highest levels of state government. Governor Alf Landon quickly recommended that the project be included among others being proposed elsewhere in the state and by the end of August the Scott County News Chronicle led with a the headline "C.C.C. Workers To Be Here Soon". Company 731 arrived during the third week of October, establishing Camp McGinnis on the west side of the lake, a short distance southwest of the spillway.

The photo above is a picture I took from the caprock overlooking this camp location. Concrete footings/slabs, landscape modifications, and a well are visible at the location today and the camp was recorded as an archaeological site (14SC326) as a result of my visit. According to newspaper accounts, many of the camp buildings were adobe. Grass and soil were excavated locally, combined with a suitable amount of water and the mixture pressed into blocks. A number of western Kansas camps are noted to have used this technique for building camp structures and other buildings.

Interestingly, this camp and project are not among those listed for Kansas, probably in part due to the short notice leading up to establishment of the camp. A report in the Colby Free Press Tribune dated 10/11/33 notes that a number of camps would established in the region between October 1st through the 15th including one at Atwood, KS. Company 731 eventually made it to Atwood in May 1934 after completing the repairs on the dam at Scott County State Park. I believe the company was diverted from its intended original destination and was reassigned to Scott County to answer the public demand for a quick, cost effective solution to a devastating situation.

It was while trying to find corroborating evidence of local reports about a CCC camp at the park that I became interested in the work done elsewhere in the state and realized that there had been relatively little done to tell the story of the contributions the CCC made throughout the state. In this case the efforts of the CCC saved a regional attraction of significant historical interest that has since continued to be a jewel in the state park system. The CCC is one significant chapter in the history of Scott County and Scott State Park.

Scott State Park

Kansas Preservation: Archeology Training Program Revisits Its Roots 

CCC camp "Big News" to Community

I spent a little time at the Jefferson County Historical Society in Oskaloosa, KS on Saturday looking for details concerning the establishment of a camp in that county. An announcement in one of the local papers expresses a common sentiment to the pending establishment of a CCC camp nearby.

From the Oskaloosa Independent, April 25, 1935:

"Announcement from Washington that Jefferson County is on the list for a CCC soil erosion camp is one of the biggest pieces of news for the farmers of this county since the beginning of the New Deal."

Eventually this camp housed Co. 1763 of junior enrollees who worked on various soil conservation projects in the area. Interestingly, the location of this camp was on the Curry farm north of Oskaloosa, the boyhood home of famed regionalist artist John Steuart Curry. The home has since been moved to the grounds of the Jefferson County Historical Society in Oskaloosa where it houses a collection of Curry memorabilia.

Introduction and A Little Background

Well, this, or something like it, is probably long overdue. The work of the CCC in Kansas has not been a topic of lengthy publication although with a little digging you can find some info here and there on the web and in published journals that discuss the topic. Visits to individual historical societies, libraries, and archives in communities and at the state have often yielded limited information to a then casual researcher and have served increasingly as incentive to document as much as possible about the camps scattered around the state. On occasion, local interest has produced excellent results in the preservation of information about individual projects including public outreach and education about the work of the CCC at specific locations.

Overall though the history of the work in Kansas remains relatively unknown but it's clear that information about the work and the young men that were involved is out there. It lies in records in the National Archives, scattered in articles remaining to be rediscovered in county and camp newspapers, in local historical societies and other organizations that may have documents about local projects in their collections, and finally, in the hands of private individuals who either participated themselves or whose family member(s) were part of the CCC. Sometimes these family connections are still local to Kansas, although nearly as often the former enrollee or their descendants lived elsewhere long after the CCC ended.

Hopefully, through this blog I can begin to focus my own efforts and share a little about what I'm finding along the way. I hope what’s done here in some small way honors the memory of the men that made the Civilian Conservation Corps an enduring success both in the lives it helped and the public works it produced. It's probably no coincidence that most CCC enrollees were part of "The Greatest Generation".