Chapter Six:
Colonel John White and Preservation in Sequoia National Park (1931-1947)
(continued)
The CCC: Almost Too Much of a Good Thing
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Long before that final battle, White faced a
potentially grave challenge to his principles and to his control of park
development. in the early years of his superintendency, he had
complained endlessly about the dismal lack of funds and manpower
available to accomplish the park's many necessary improvements. Later,
although he continued to press for more money and employees, his tone
and subject had shifted to controlling development in the park.
Ironically, beginning in 1933, White's earliest priorities were
satisfied to such a remarkable extent that his later preservation ones
could have been seriously jeopardized. The crash of the stock market in
1929 and resulting Depression had created a desperate situation for the
American economy and people. A full one-quarter of the work force was
idle while another 30 percent struggled to eke out a living with
part-time jobs. Through the remainder of the Republican term in the
White House, the nation wallowed in misery and unemployment. However,
with his sweeping victory and that of his Democratic party, Franklin
Roosevelt ramrodded a massive collection of federal aid and social
programs through Congress, changing forever American society and
government. One of the bills in this spate of legislation created the
Emergency Conservation Work program, popularly called and later
officially renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC would employ
young men in quasi-military camps to carry out primarily manual labor
projects on federal lands, including national parks. Suddenly, as
Colonel White wrestled with controlling the concessioner, limiting and
redirecting development, and allocating meager funds toward maintenance
and protection, several thousand men per year and the money to pay and
support them arrived in the parks. Over the next nine years the CCC
would accomplish more labor-intensive and landscaping work than the
military and Park Service administrations had in the previous
forty-three years. Colonel White's intimidating task became moderation
of this unwieldy development machine to preserve the park from
construction on a scale and at a pace completely out of proportion and
out of Park Service control. [2] Fortunately,
the Colonel's power and skill prevented excesses and turned the CCC into
the most valuable development tool in the park's history.
The CCC operation was an ambitious project, the like
of which has never been matched in U.S. history. During its years of
operation, 1933 to 1941, more than two million young men performed work
in nearly 900 camps located in ninety-four national parks and monuments
and 881 state, county, and municipal areas. Starting from scratch with
no model or experience to draw upon, its directors and personnel forged
a program still ranked among the most successful in federal government
history. Some credit for the success in the national parks went to CCC
director Robert Fechner, to the coordinator of the CCC program in
national parks and future Park Service director Conrad Wirth, and to
Roosevelt himself. More of the reason for success lay in the
organization and allocation of responsibility. Administration of the
camps themselves and the day-to-day activities of the men fell to the
army, as befitted the military form and approach to camp operation and
projects. Selection and supervision of projects, hiring of specialists,
allocation of crews to specific duties, and compilation of progress
reports were carried out by park superintendents. Finally, the
Washington office of the Park Service approved projects and exercised
quality control through a system of regional directors and skilled
specialists who became the framework for later reorganization of the
Park Service into regions and specialized branches. [3]
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At times there was friction between the camp
commanders and park superintendents, largely owing to the attempts of
one to interfere with the duties of the other. Sequoia had up to five
camps operating at a time, and each army officer in charge naturally
tended to extend his authority to the projects of his men. On the other
side, Colonel White sought ways to further dominate the day-to-day camp
operation as well as the choice of projects upon which the enrollees
worked. In his reports on CCC progress, as well as his annual
superintendent's reports and general correspondence, White complained
about being deprived of direct control over the thousands of young men
living and working in his park. He thought that the only way to assure
that park values were preserved from youthful exuberance and ill-placed
recreation desires was for the superintendent to control those
activities. White found particularly obnoxious some of the movies shown
at CCC camps as well as the boxing matches and vaudeville shows. He
agitated for greater emphasis on educational, "park appropriate"
activities. Still, as an old military man, White accepted and understood
the way camps were run, and he limited most of his protestations to what
he deemed offensive activities. [4]
Over the years eleven different CCC camps operated in
Sequoia National Park, while Grant Grove and later Kings Canyon were
sites of three others. In most years five base camps were occupied at
once, their crews alternating between high-altitude summer work and
foothills winter work. Among the most important summer camps were
Potwisha, at the present-day campground; Atwell Mill along the Mineral
King Road; Marble Fork on the Crystal Cave Road; Yucca Creek on the
North Fork of the Kaweah; and Buckeye, near Ash Mountain. Each of these
camps as well as other less popular sites became temporary homes for up
to 200 men. A standard camp consisted of a rough U-shaped formation of
wooden buildings including barracks, a mess hall, a recreation hall,
officers' quarters, a lavatory and bathhouse, an educational building,
and various storage, maintenance, and special function structures such
as a dispensary, blacksmith's shop, generator house, and pump house. [5]
The men themselves were generally eighteen to
twenty-five years of age, in good health, unemployed, unmarried and
United States citizens. They were paid thirty dollars a month of which
half went directly to dependents and another seven dollars into a
savings account to be turned over to the enrollee upon his discharge.
Six months was the normal enrollment period and at the end of each
period, capable enrollees were encouraged to reenlist. The men wore
military-style uniforms, attended a "boot camp" of sorts for two weeks
prior to assignment, and were expected to finish their volunteer
assignments. Desertion remained a small but nagging problem throughout
the CCC program. In addition to their meager salaries, the enrollees
received full room and board as well as access to education and
recreation. It was an attractive option both for young out-of-work men
and their desperate and hungry families.
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The opening of Civilian Conservation
Corps Camp One at Potwisha in May 1933 marked the beginning of a rapid
era of facility development. (National Park Service photo)
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The work conducted by the CCC men in the national
parks primarily consisted of road construction, trail maintenance,
construction and razing of buildings and campsites, fire fighting,
insect and fungus control, replanting and landscaping. Those so trained
conducted specialized activities such as surveying, resource planning,
and even participation in natural history programs for visitors. Each
day began at 6:00 A.M. with reveille followed by calisthenics,
breakfast, and a general policing of the camp. Work began at 8:00 A.M.
and generally concluded between 4:00 and 5:00 P.M. with a one-hour
lunch. The maximum work week was forty hours. On evenings and weekends
enrollees engaged in sports or games with equipment procured by local
park officials. It was a well-ordered life disrupted only by inclement
weather or forest fire. [6]
The experiences of two CCC men at Sequoia National
Park exemplify the work done in the park under that program. A West
Virginia native, Filmore Criss, joined the CCC at age sixteen and, after
working near Phoenix, Arizona for a short time, came with his company to
Ash Mountain in 1936 to work on the Mineral King Road. Later he and some
of his coworkers were assigned to clear part of the High Sierra Trail
which had been damaged by severe storms the previous winter. During
their time in the high country, the men stayed near Bearpaw Meadow in a
temporary camp of four-man tents dating from the Spanish-American War.
Despite substandard accommodations, Criss much preferred trail work to
the hot and dusty labor on the Mineral King Road. He participated in
several fire-fighting assignments some of which were as far away as the
Coast Range. [7]
In contrast to the typical duties of Filmore Criss,
Roy DeVoe of Welden, California enjoyed several unusual and more
intellectually demanding tasks. Transferred from Lassen National Park
early in the CCC days, DeVoe was one of only a few young men with any
surveying experience. Although his expertise was limited, he secured a
position as surveyor for CCC projects in Sequoia and studied nights to
keep up with his job. Among his accomplishments were surveying a road to
Muir Grove and the layout of Dorst Campground. When not surveying, DeVoe
participated in several other noteworthy jobs. When a sequoia fell
across the Moro Rock Road, it was he and his crew who suggested cutting
a tunnel in the huge log. With torches and adzes they chopped out
Colonel Tunnel Log much as Indians had made their log canoes. Colonel
White was pleased with their suggestion and encouraged them to think
about other such improvements. DeVoe also assisted with filming a movie
at Beetle Rock. Living at Lodgepole or Wolverton during most of his
assignment, DeVoe guided visitors on Sundays, chiefly at Moro Rock. He
even claimed to have discovered an unclassified and unnamed fly at Red
Fir which a University of California biologist purchased from him. For
Roy DeVoe the CCC was an opportunity to participate in many activities
that would have been denied him as an unemployed and undereducated youth
in the Depression. [8]
The results of the CCC work in Sequoia National Park
form a legacy that still shines today. From 1933 to 1941 the Park
Service added ninety buildings and renovated another sixteen with CCC
labor. At the same time, enrollees razed dozens of old and dilapidated
structures. In those nine years park road mileage doubled from 75 to 138
miles. No new major trails were added, but the CCC assumed annual
maintenance of the 625 miles of backcountry paths and oiled several
miles within Giant Forest. Enrollees installed 2.7 miles of underground
electric cable, built more than fifty comfort stations, designed 200 new
campsites and helped install new water systems, five sewage plants and
several electric generators. Under the direction of Colonel White's
landscape architects, CCC men put in several miles of fence, four dozen
benches and eight corrals. They graded and landscaped 243 acres in
visitor areas and cleared and cleaned hundreds more acres; they planted
50,000 shrubs and trees and 41 acres of lawn, supplied all the firewood
for the park, and constructed countless retaining walls, stone-lined
gutters, and parapets along the roads. In addition to these tangible
results of their labor, CCC workers fought dozens of fires; cleared tons
of brush in presuppression programs; collected refuse from trails,
campgrounds, and roadsides; and acted as surveyors, guides, and safety
officers. [9]
One final project of note that CCC men completed was
construction of visitor infrastructure at Crystal Cave. The cave was
first discovered in 1918 by A.C. Medley and C.M. Webster, two NPS
employees who happened upon it while they were fishing. Initial
exploration showed that the new cave's beauty far surpassed that of two
other oft-visited caverns in the park, Clough and Paradise caves. In
addition, the two well-known caves had been severely damaged by vandals
and trophy seekers. With this destruction in mind and with no funds for
proper development, the Park Service decided to close Crystal Cave. More
than twenty years passed before the Park Service devoted money and men
to Crystal Cave. Finally during the seasons of 1939 through 1941, CCC
men paved more than one thousand feet of the cave, installed electric
lights and built a road connection to Generals Highway, a parking lot,
and a steep trail to the cave entrance. Within weeks of its opening in
1940, the cave became one of the most popular visitor attractions in the
park. [10]
Through the first six years of this era of
construction and development, Colonel White maintained iron control of
the progress and projects in his park. Picking and choosing tasks,
coordinating plans, and allocating work crews, White continued his rule
of Sequoia's development and prevented the abuse that too much labor and
too much money threatened to bring. By late 1938 FDR and his Washington
administration had scaled back the CCC, and soon Sequoia and other parks
found the work force inadequate to meet their demands, inflated by six
years of rich supply. When Colonel White accepted, without much
enthusiasm, the first of two and one-half years of jobs away from his
beloved park, much of the danger of exorbitant and irresponsible
construction had passed. His successor, Eivind Scoyen, continued White's
use of the CCC for conservation projects and careful, limited
development. Thus, when the Colonel returned to oversee the last
half-year of CCC activity, the program had tremendously improved visitor
access and helped maintain his increasingly staunch policy of resource
preservation. In the history of Sequoia National Park, the CCC ranks as
one of the most important factors in promotion of Park Service goals and
values. Carefully controlled and operating within the rigid
philosophical confines of Colonel White's preservation-oriented
policies, the CCC gave a huge boost to infrastructural improvement while
avoiding the pitfalls of sudden, uncontrolled development. Visitors
today who file through Crystal Cave, lean on the parapet at Amphitheater
Point, camp at Lodgepole Campground, drive through Tunnel Log, run their
hands along the Moro Rock handrail, hike the trails and drive the roads
of Sequoia, and enjoy a thousand other little benefits can thank the
young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps for their labor.
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