To listen to Bill Marcum, the local historian of the Civilian Conservation Corps, is to hear history come alive. He speaks enthusiastically of the CCC, which ran from 1933 until 1941.
“It’s Chow Time” is the theme of a program featuring Marcum, scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Poe Valley State Park. Enjoy a free lunch featuring real menu items from authentic CCC recipes and menu boards. The program is sponsored by the Centre County Historical Society, partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
If you are too young to have heard about the CCC or have forgotten, there are several important facts to understand:
■ President Franklin D. Roosevelt combined an interest in conservation with the need to create jobs for out-of-work Americans in the 1930s and he initiated the CCC.
■ Unemployed single young men were put to work “in the woods” as Roosevelt envisioned.
■ The CCC built roads, bridges and dams, including the one at Poe Valley State Park, and planted thousands of trees. The CCC constructed sturdy, attractive tourist cabins at many state parks that remain intact today.
■ A semi-military system administered the camps. The camps were complete with mess halls and officers’ quarters. The camp commander woke the workers with reveille at 6 a.m. and roll call. There was daily inspection of the barracks by a camp officer, and the bunks, footlockers and clothing gear had to be in precise order.
■ Whistles blew the men to their work site.
■ Retreat was the end-of-the-day line-up and the flag lowering.
■ A foreman was in charge of a 30-man crew.
■ Lunch each day was a baloney sandwich, a peanut butter and jam sandwich and a piece of fruit at the CCC camp in Bloomfield, N.M., according to an account, “Daily Life in a C.C.C. Camp” by Paul Matthews.
■ More than 2.5 million young men were part of the CCC camps.
Marcum said his interest in the CCC grew because his grandfather was a senior foreman at the Poe Valley camp. While growing up, Marcum heard many a story about life in the CCC.
“I have so many documents, facts and figures,” said Marcum. “I can tell you the date and time that the very first water went over the dam at Poe Valley.”
After his grandfather died, Marcum found many documents and photos among his belongings. Marcum has saved them and added to the collection.
For 14 years in the 1980s, alumni from the camps and their guests held reunions, but the events died out after awhile. Then, a few years ago, a group of people from Aaronsburg initiated the reunions again. These get-togethers are different from the earlier gatherings, with tents set up at the original CCC camp site, 2 miles from Poe Valley Park.
Park manager Tracy Zupich will give a welcome at 10:30 a.m. to the attendees on Aug. 14. An introduction of veterans will follow. Property owner Jack Yarnell and Marcum will speak about the CCC Company 1333, Camp S-63.
At 11:35 a.m., Paul Fagely, of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, will share wih attendees a brief history of Camp S-62 Penn Roosevelt.
Lunch will follow, after which more activities, including Marcum’s history of Camp S-63 and a showing of a Camp S-63 motion picture dated July 1936, will be held. Ample time to walk the grounds will be available and, to round out the afternoon, a visit to CCC-constructed Fire Tower Watchers Cabin is scheduled.
Marcum said the reunion will be completely different this time.
“Having people walk the lane that the men walked for chow is one feature,” he said. “Sharing a meal that is a replica of on served in the camp is another.”
Marcum, a construction engineer, is writing a book about some of the camp’s stories.
“The men made $30 a month in the camps, but most of it was sent home by the government,” said Marcum. The men kept $8 of it for candy and other items they could buy at a post exchange, according to an account in the Matthews book.
Another story is that of Martin Filchock, a cartoonist who worked at the camp. He has the distinction of being the oldest person with a continually running cartoon. His death at age 100, in 2012, saw the end of his characters, including the Headless Horseman, C.C. Kid, Obo Ossie and others. For 40 years he drew the “Check and Recheck” puzzle for Highlights For Children magazine.
“We are not living in tough times — not like those folks in the Depression,” said Marcum. “That is why the CCC was attractive to so many young men.
“I hope that many people will want to learn more about this period of history and what went on in Poe Valley.”
To register for the free lunch, email info@centrecountyhistory.org or call (814) 234-4779.
