Audrey Caro
“Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” “Tree Troopers,” and “Colossal College of Calluses,” are a few of the nicknames the Civilian Conservation Corps were known by when its members left their mark across the nation.
The CCC was a program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal which put people to work during the Great Depression.
Local community members joined two CCC alumni at the 20th annual public picnic at Longbow Organization Camp on Aug. 30. The camp was built by CCC Company Company 2907, formerly Company 1314, in 1937 and 1938.
Bill Albright, of Lebanon, joined the CCC in 1941 when he was 16 years old.
“I lied about my age,” Albright said. “I wanted to get in.”
Albright worked in Maryland on mosquito abatement and land reclamation.
He and his wife Arlene attend the picnic every year, he said.
The event is part picnic, part history lesson, with Tony Farque, Sweet Home Ranger District archaeologist, leading the way.
Farque, in character as forester Gifford Pinchot, and Steve Coady, as forest ranger Cy Bingham, talked about the formation of the CCC and what life was like for the men who were part of it.
Their work included building thousands of miles of roads and trails, installing telephone lines, building construction and fighting fires.
Among Company 2907’s contributions to the Willamette National Forest, are 35 miles of forest roads and 80 miles of trails, 17 miles of telephone lines, six fire lookouts and eight bridges, according the U.S. Forest Service’s website. Local CCC members constructed two dwellings, an office building and a gas station as well as the House Rock, Fernview and Trout Creek campgrounds.
Farque said the men who joined CCC were each paid $30 a month. Of that, $25 was sent to their families.
Peggy Mathia, of Sweet Home, said her three uncles joined the CCC.
“Very few people had anything,” Mathia said. “They joined CCC and kept the family from starving to death.”
Farque said the men were skinny when they started work, with an average weight of about 140 pounds.
By the time they left, they “weren’t able to fit into their clothes, they were fed so well,” said Coady.
Farque and Coady held up a couple of uniforms, which were indeed for slender men.
Farque also had various items that the men used, including tools, combs and dice and tobacco tins.
Harold Lill, 97, of Albany, regularly attends the annual picnic and enjoys the presentations.
“(They) do a good job on everything,” he said.
Lill joined the CCC in 1937 and stayed until World War II.
He was in Okinawa when the war ended, he said.
After that he did construction and drove trucks.
He retired in 2003, at age 83.
In character, Farque joked that CCC is still recruiting and asked Lill if he was ready to sign up again.
“Might as well. I’ve done everything else,” Lill responded.