By LENORE RUTHERFORD
The Union Democrat
All but a very few people who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps are now dead.
Even the name of the government-funded jobs program is sliding into obscurity as time passes.
Yet, the CCC's impact on Tuolumne and Calaveras counties is indelible. From Columbia Airport and the Big Trees campground, to many improvements in Yosemite National Park, the CCC was as instrumental as the California Gold Rush in shaping the local landscape.
This year, the corps marks 75 years since its creation. On March 31, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Civilian Conservation Corps into being.
It took young men and boys from cities where the unemployment rate was 50 percent and placed them in camps working on projects to restore the country's natural resources.
The CCC hired some 3 million unemployed men ages 17 to 28. They planted 3 billion trees, carved out 97,000 miles of road and drained 84 million acres of farmland before World War II ended the nation's job shortage.
They were paid $30 a month, with $25 of it sent home to help their families struggling through the Great Depression.
"The Civilian Conservation Corps' achievements are vast," said David Muraki, director of the California Conservation Corps, which was patterned after the national CCC. "With camps in every one of the 48 states, the CCC built most of the state parks across the nation, including more than 20 in California. If you've heated a pot of coffee at your campsite, it was likely on one of the thousands of stone stoves the CCC built."
One of the first CCC camps in the United States was built at Buck Meadows, east of Groveland. It was occupied May 20, 1933, by a 200-man company from the San Francisco Bay Area. Among projects of the camp were a firefighting building, a truck trail, bridge building, boundary surveys and range management.
Tuolumne County had five main camps and dozens of small satellite camps where CCC boys completed everything from building trails, bridges and buildings to establishing an airport.
Many married local girls and remained in the county. Others returned to the foothills to retire after successful careers elsewhere.
Much of the CCC's history is scattered among the few still-surviving members.
One of the most thorough histories of Mother Lode CCC camps was compiled in the early 1990s by Sonora's George Thayer, now 90, who collected oral accounts from the camps' alumni.
He quoted such people as Cliff Hickey, then 81, of Ranchos Poquitos, who said the CCC was the greatest thing that every happened to him.
Tuolumne County's five permanent camps were at Yankee Hill, Italian Bar, Tuolumne, Apple Colony and Jupiter, Thayer said.
Yankee Hill was occupied from June 3, 1933, until the CCC camps were deactivated in 1942.
It's first Company of CCC members consisted of 184 teenagers from Nebraska plus 22 "specialized experienced woodsmen," later called LEMs (local experienced men), who served as foremen and project superintendents, Thayer said.
He wrote about several people he interviewed, most of whom became active members of the community.
Manny Marshall, for instance, was an LEM from Nebraska. He remained and later became known for his railroading expertise.
Glen Rouse of Columbia was a section leader who helped build the Columbia Airport. He remained, married a local girl and worked for PG&E until retirement.
Six other CCC companies occupied Yankee Hill over the years. They worked on road and trail construction, lookout towers and ranger station buildings. Other projects included telephone line construction.
Several well-known local personalities started their careers in the CCC.
John Wise of Tuolumne learned telephone line construction in the CCC. He later owned the Tuolumne Telephone Company, helped open a bank in Tuolumne County, was a member of the Columbia College Hall of Fame and was known for contributing to many causes, including Sierra Repertory Theatre.
Fred Hooker of Phoenix Lake Estates spent considerable time building fire lookout towers for the CCC, Thayer said. Fifty years later, he helped dismantle one of the last remaining towers and move it to the Calaveras Fairgrounds, where it is on display.
Roy Raney, a member of the Italian Bar camp, enjoyed the area so much that he settled in Columbia and married Mary "Bubbles" Ghiorso, a Columbia native. At one time, they owned and operated the Columbia Grocery Store.
Tuolumne had a camp in the old West Side Lumber Company building, and John Marion served there. He signed up in Pennsylvania when he was 16 years old to help support five younger brothers and a sister, his mother and an unemployed father.
Marion became an apprentice cook and developed this skill in civilian life.
He formed a country-western band and played for many dances in Tuolumne. He later joined the National Guard and guarded dams in Tuolumne County against sabotage at the start of World War II.
A local farm girl, Wilma Tease, fell for his uniform and music. They were married and owned several successful local restaurants before retiring to Mill Villa Estates in Jamestown.
Dr. George Richardson started a 46-year medical practice in Tuolumne County as the medical officer for the Tuolumne CCC camp.
Frank Loggins was stationed at a spike camp in Avery. The Avery camp did much of the work to make a dance floor out of the giant sequoia stump at Calaveras Big Trees State Park and built at least one building there, Thayer said.
What was accomplished in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties was mirrored throughout the United States.
The CCC's effect on the country was enormous.
Franklin Roosevelt envisioned a program that would save the country's work force from the devastating effects of The Great Depression. The CCC did that. Young men and boys were taken out of poverty. They were given food, shelter, education, job skills, health care and — perhaps most important — they were spurred into maturity and taught a strong work ethic.
As a bonus, Thayer said, the country received what is arguably the greatest conservation effort the world has ever known.
Contact Lenore Rutherford at lrutherford@uniondemocrat.com or 588-4529.
