CCC memories still plentiful

It's 10 a.m., and the mockingbirds are still jabbering about the storm here last night. It does nothing to help workers picking up debris around this state conservation office.

Inside, Al Vaughn cautiously shifts his weight onto a swivel chair behind a desk. A truck accident, a replacement knee and 81 years of living will do that to a person. Setting his cane against a file cabinet, the visitor flashes his trademark smile. That expression will regularly break the surface of the story he's about to tell.

"I joined right after my father had died," Al starts. "Mother had five children. There was no work. I couldn't find a job."

Joining a cause

What Al joined was the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The year was 1940. Unbeknownst to Al and 3 million enrollees, one of America's greatest social and conservation enterprises had but two more years of life.

"The group I ran around with is all dead and gone now," Al said, pulling out black and white photos from an envelope. One picture shows two 18-year-old boys. They're shirtless, wearing World War I Army surplus trousers and sitting on top of a wooden sign that reads Meramec State Forest CCC Camp 2728.

The picture was snapped just down the road at what is now the Meramec Conservation Area near Sullivan. Like many former CCC sites, grown-over concrete foundations and scattered pieces of rusted metal are all that remain. What happened here could soon be forgotten.

"It was a wonderful thing," Al recalls in a soft voice. "I was very happy down there."

Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the CCC proposed to kill two birds with one stone. Those twin targets were unemployment and the sad state of the nation's public lands. The idea was simple but big: Move millions of men into the woods and have them fix the place. In Missouri, more than 100,000 mostly skinny 18- to 25-year-olds lived in 41 camps between 1933 and 1942.

Known as the "CC boys," these pilot conservationists planted trees, fought forest fires, built lookout towers, constructed erosion control check dams and helped dig and install Missouri's first three fish hatcheries. Some of their finest work -- stone dining lodges, cabins and picnic shelters -- can still be viewed at several of Missouri's state parks.

For this they earned $30 a month, $25 of which was sent home to their families.

Still a leader

It's been four months since Al stuck his face into my old office. I transferred to Cape since then. He's been a man on a mission.

Al's tracked down and contacted six other men who were also at Camp 2728. He's meeting with some of them regularly. He's worked with conservation staff and now has a permit to put up a commemorative sign at the Meramec Conservation Area. Up next is a parking lot and trail to the old site. Al's visited the National CCC museum at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. He found out there are CC boys around the country still going strong.

If you were in the CCC and would like to share your story, contact me at 290-5730. You can also borrow a video, "CCC Camps in Missouri." The National Civilian Conservation Corps museum is in Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. Their number is (314) 487-8666.

If you'd like to join Al's local CCC chapter, give him a call at 860-2936.

Phil Helfrich is an area agent with the Missouri Department of Conservation.