Library program: CCC experiences at state forests

CORNWALL - Seventy years ago, Walter Sekula was a 17-year-old with a dream of visiting Alaska. The United States was deep in an economic depression. The Jewett City, Conn., native headed west but his journey ended in Colorado, where he spent two years building fences to separate the cattle and sheep as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

"There was a bunch of us who joined the corps trying to get to Alaska," Sekula recalled, following a talk and slideshow by author and historian Marty Podskoch about the group at the Cornwall Library Feb. 16. "But Alaska was still a possession at that time, not a state. There were no roads and the only camps were along the coast. I don't think they ever got around to doing much up there."

As part of his New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress in March 1933 created the Emergency Conservation Work Act, from which came the Civilian Conservation Corps (usually shortened to CCC). The agency created jobs for young men and income for their families back home. Men were deployed in all 48 states to become the first organized conservationists, living in simple clusters of buildings and tents that resembled army camps. The army, in fact, had jurisdiction over the camps, while state conservation agencies directed the actual work in the woods.

CCC men forged trails, built fire towers, dug water holes, developed fisheries, resurrected the charcoal industry, fought gypsy moth infestation, thinned forests and planted countless trees.

They did a lot. But they didn't all make it to the farthest reaches of North America.

"It's 2008, and I'm still waiting to go to Alaska," Sekula said . He came to the Saturday presentation by his friend Podskoch, who is writing a book about the corps.

One of Podskoch's goals in speaking to large groups about the CCC is to find veterans of the corps, and their families who will share memories and memorabilia.

He wasn't disappointed on Saturday. More than 30 people attended, and some had tales to tell and memories to share.

Podskoch learned about the corps while writing books about the CCC-built fire towers near his upstate New York home.

The retired reading teacher (who now lives in Colchester) travels the state, dispensing what he knows while gathering more information, photos and stories from former CCC members and their descendants.

The presentation at the Cornwall library brought former corpsmen as well as hikers and outdoors explorers who have come across brick chimneys, small stone bridges over streams, fire pits and other mysterious remains along state forest trails. On Mohawk Mountain, hikers reported, Toomey Road is the place to go to find CCC remnants, including numerous fire ponds.

The prominent chimneys on Route 7 just north of Kent Falls are believed to be part of the camps. For many years a roadside stand operated there, clouding the history. It is unclear if the stand incorporated an existing chimney, or of the owners built their own.

The camps were often named for the nearest post office, so the "West Cornwall Camp" was actually in Sharon. (But that's a situation folks around here are still familiar with). It was sited near where the campgrounds are now.

Pretty much anywhere there is a state forest now, a CCC camp existed. In Peoples State Forest in Barkhamsted, the Stone Museum built by the Corps remains. It was moved there from its original location.

Podskoch rattled off a long list of CCC accomplishments. The corps built 123 bridges in Connecticut. Their forestry work preserved vast areas and created enduring recreational resources. They rebuilt a Torrington dam and harvested so much lumber that the state was able to return some of its subsidies from the federal government.

Sekula is active in developing and improving a Connecticut CCC Museum in Stafford Springs.

"Two old CCC barracks were put together in a T-shape for the building," he said. "The state [Department of Environmental Protection] has a district office in one part of the building. We're hoping to eventually get the whole thing."

The Northeast States Civilian Conservation Corps Museum is at the former headquarters of Camp Connor, which once boasted more than a dozen buildings. It has become a collection point for thousands of photographs, as well as tools, equipment and documents from the CCC era. It is staffed by CCC alumni, volunteers and staff from the Shenipsit State Forest. For hours and more information go to cccmuseum.org.

Sekula has another goal: Honoring the hardworking men of the CCC with life-sized bronze statues. He hopes eventually to see at least one in each state.