gc
14 September 2003, 09:56 PM
Honoring the men who shaped White Rock
For $30 a month, group helped forge a Dallas landmark 7 decades ago
02:44 PM CDT on Saturday, September 13, 2003
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/091403dnmetcompany2896.c57.html
Its legacy lingers around White Rock Lake, in solid buildings and whimsical ironwork, in groves of pecan trees and along trails paved with native rock crushed by hand.
The Civilian Conservation Corps shaped this place seven decades ago, but like the CCC, the contributions are mostly forgotten.
"We owe the CCC a huge debt of gratitude for the work they did here," said Steve Butler, whose Web site on the history and wonders of White Rock Lake includes a salute to the Civilian Conservation Corps.
"A lot of people mistakenly thought the Works Project Administration was responsible for all the stuff out at the lake, but the CCC was responsible for the lion's share," Mr. Butler said.
"They were even heavily involved in the first dredging of the lake, so I guess we owe them for that, too, that the lake still exists."
The CCC's work so impressed Mr. Butler that he had planned to go to a group called For the Love of the Lake and suggest that it raise a commemorative statue to the CCC. But someone beat him to it, he said.
That was Kathy Mays Smith, whose father led a CCC company in West Virginia during the Great Depression, chronicled in her book Gold Medal CCC Company 1538: A Documentary.
Today she's researching the world of Dallas' own CCC Company 2896, based at White Rock Lake from 1935 to 1942.
Much of that crew's work has disappeared over the years, and other examples have suffered from neglect, Mr. Butler said. But the CCC essentially created the parklands around White Rock Lake as they exist today.
Not bad for a group of guys, mostly from Dallas, Collin and Denton counties, who couldn't find steady work anywhere else.
"I'd been working for 18 cents an hour, and that wasn't going very far," said O'Neal Springer, then of Fort Worth and now 82 and living outside Decatur.
"There wasn't much available then, and I didn't have any experience for a job that would pay anything, so I joined the CCC."
His efforts, and those of millions more CCC workers, have received little recognition in recent years. But led by the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni, that's beginning to change.
Tribute to workers
The national association created a commemorative statue featuring a sturdy CCC worker, bare-chested, with a floppy hat, work pants and boots, his ax at his side.
Twenty of the statues – which cost roughly $25,000 – have been installed around the country, many at parks built by CCC crews. For the Love of the Lake hopes the statue at White Rock Lake will be No. 21.
Each statue – 6 feet tall and cast in bronze – stands on a stone base with a brass plaque detailing the corps' contributions. But at White Rock Lake, it would be hard to mention everything.
"Their camp was set up on July 10, 1935, and it closed on Jan. 15, 1942. To be in one place that long was very unusual," Ms. Smith said.
During its years in Dallas, the CCC transformed the hill rising at the lake's northern end, then known as Doran's Point, now Flag Pole Hill. Crews leveled the top of the hill and built a broad flagstone overlook with the flagpole.
Below, near Northwest Highway, the team built a complex of six limestone buildings, still in use as the East Region headquarters of the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.
The crew built a stone-and-timber concession stand at Sunset Bay and an adjacent caretaker's cottage, along with a T-shaped fishing pier. Near the mouth of Dixon Branch, they built a stone latrine with elaborate iron decorations, dug a spring-fed lily pond and spanned it with a stone footbridge.
The group transplanted more than 1,500 trees, some from as far as the Trinity River bottoms, and planted 75 acres of pecan seedlings at what is now Norbuck Park.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC during a flurry of legislation at the lowest point of the Depression. With unemployment hovering at 25 percent, and even worse for younger workers, the president saw the CCC as a way to put young men to work rebuilding the nation.
Poor recruits
Like almost all of the CCC recruits, Mr. Springer came from a poor family, originally farmers in Mississippi who lost their land. They settled in Fort Worth when Mr. Springer was 8 or 9, but the hard times stayed with them.
"When Dad lost the farm, there wasn't a whole lot of money," Mr. Springer said. "There was never a whole lot of money."
Not that he'd get rich with the CCC, which paid $30 a month – $5 for the worker and $25 sent home to his family. But along with the job, it provided a place to live and three meals a day, meals Mr. Springer still savors.
"I really enjoyed that food," he said. "To me, it was excellent."
In return, he spent eight hours a day crushing the local white rock into paving gravel with an eight-pound sledgehammer.
"I wasn't real big, like some of the guys are now. I was approaching about 120 pounds, so that eight-pound sledge, it got real heavy in a hurry," he said. "By the end of the day, we were ready for a break."
Mr. Springer spent a year in the CCC, the length of a basic enlistment. And when World War II started, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, crossed the Atlantic Ocean six times on convoy duty and learned about electronics. That stood him well after the war when he went to work for General Dynamics.
But he's never forgotten his CCC days.
"I think it was a good thing," he said, "and I'm all for rejuvenating those camps. A lot of good came out of that program, and I think it would do a lot of good for young men today."
Nationwide impact
In all, the CCC's accomplishments make it one of the most effective public-works programs in U.S. history.
From its creation in March 1933 to its dissolution nine years later, the 4,500 companies of the Civilian Conservation Corps worked in every state of the union and in most American territories. When the Japanese invaded Midway Island, a CCC company was working there.
Ms. Smith ticked off just a few statistical highlights:
The CCC built or improved 800 national and state parks.
It arrested soil erosion across 20 million acres during the Dust Bowl days.
It built 46,854 bridges, dug 5,000 fish hatcheries, laid 5,000 miles of water lines and planted more than 3 million trees.
In all, more than 3 million men served at the CCC's 4,500 camps.
All that happened years ago, of course, ancient history to many today. And relatively few of those 3 million men are still alive.
But people like Ms. Smith and Mr. Butler say the corps' contributions are so great that examples must be retained and maintained, to honor the past.
"People here are very proud of White Rock Lake," Ms. Smith said. "But these men should be remembered, too.
"They deserve it."
E-mail myoung@dallasnews.com
For $30 a month, group helped forge a Dallas landmark 7 decades ago
02:44 PM CDT on Saturday, September 13, 2003
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/091403dnmetcompany2896.c57.html
Its legacy lingers around White Rock Lake, in solid buildings and whimsical ironwork, in groves of pecan trees and along trails paved with native rock crushed by hand.
The Civilian Conservation Corps shaped this place seven decades ago, but like the CCC, the contributions are mostly forgotten.
"We owe the CCC a huge debt of gratitude for the work they did here," said Steve Butler, whose Web site on the history and wonders of White Rock Lake includes a salute to the Civilian Conservation Corps.
"A lot of people mistakenly thought the Works Project Administration was responsible for all the stuff out at the lake, but the CCC was responsible for the lion's share," Mr. Butler said.
"They were even heavily involved in the first dredging of the lake, so I guess we owe them for that, too, that the lake still exists."
The CCC's work so impressed Mr. Butler that he had planned to go to a group called For the Love of the Lake and suggest that it raise a commemorative statue to the CCC. But someone beat him to it, he said.
That was Kathy Mays Smith, whose father led a CCC company in West Virginia during the Great Depression, chronicled in her book Gold Medal CCC Company 1538: A Documentary.
Today she's researching the world of Dallas' own CCC Company 2896, based at White Rock Lake from 1935 to 1942.
Much of that crew's work has disappeared over the years, and other examples have suffered from neglect, Mr. Butler said. But the CCC essentially created the parklands around White Rock Lake as they exist today.
Not bad for a group of guys, mostly from Dallas, Collin and Denton counties, who couldn't find steady work anywhere else.
"I'd been working for 18 cents an hour, and that wasn't going very far," said O'Neal Springer, then of Fort Worth and now 82 and living outside Decatur.
"There wasn't much available then, and I didn't have any experience for a job that would pay anything, so I joined the CCC."
His efforts, and those of millions more CCC workers, have received little recognition in recent years. But led by the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni, that's beginning to change.
Tribute to workers
The national association created a commemorative statue featuring a sturdy CCC worker, bare-chested, with a floppy hat, work pants and boots, his ax at his side.
Twenty of the statues – which cost roughly $25,000 – have been installed around the country, many at parks built by CCC crews. For the Love of the Lake hopes the statue at White Rock Lake will be No. 21.
Each statue – 6 feet tall and cast in bronze – stands on a stone base with a brass plaque detailing the corps' contributions. But at White Rock Lake, it would be hard to mention everything.
"Their camp was set up on July 10, 1935, and it closed on Jan. 15, 1942. To be in one place that long was very unusual," Ms. Smith said.
During its years in Dallas, the CCC transformed the hill rising at the lake's northern end, then known as Doran's Point, now Flag Pole Hill. Crews leveled the top of the hill and built a broad flagstone overlook with the flagpole.
Below, near Northwest Highway, the team built a complex of six limestone buildings, still in use as the East Region headquarters of the Dallas Park and Recreation Department.
The crew built a stone-and-timber concession stand at Sunset Bay and an adjacent caretaker's cottage, along with a T-shaped fishing pier. Near the mouth of Dixon Branch, they built a stone latrine with elaborate iron decorations, dug a spring-fed lily pond and spanned it with a stone footbridge.
The group transplanted more than 1,500 trees, some from as far as the Trinity River bottoms, and planted 75 acres of pecan seedlings at what is now Norbuck Park.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC during a flurry of legislation at the lowest point of the Depression. With unemployment hovering at 25 percent, and even worse for younger workers, the president saw the CCC as a way to put young men to work rebuilding the nation.
Poor recruits
Like almost all of the CCC recruits, Mr. Springer came from a poor family, originally farmers in Mississippi who lost their land. They settled in Fort Worth when Mr. Springer was 8 or 9, but the hard times stayed with them.
"When Dad lost the farm, there wasn't a whole lot of money," Mr. Springer said. "There was never a whole lot of money."
Not that he'd get rich with the CCC, which paid $30 a month – $5 for the worker and $25 sent home to his family. But along with the job, it provided a place to live and three meals a day, meals Mr. Springer still savors.
"I really enjoyed that food," he said. "To me, it was excellent."
In return, he spent eight hours a day crushing the local white rock into paving gravel with an eight-pound sledgehammer.
"I wasn't real big, like some of the guys are now. I was approaching about 120 pounds, so that eight-pound sledge, it got real heavy in a hurry," he said. "By the end of the day, we were ready for a break."
Mr. Springer spent a year in the CCC, the length of a basic enlistment. And when World War II started, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, crossed the Atlantic Ocean six times on convoy duty and learned about electronics. That stood him well after the war when he went to work for General Dynamics.
But he's never forgotten his CCC days.
"I think it was a good thing," he said, "and I'm all for rejuvenating those camps. A lot of good came out of that program, and I think it would do a lot of good for young men today."
Nationwide impact
In all, the CCC's accomplishments make it one of the most effective public-works programs in U.S. history.
From its creation in March 1933 to its dissolution nine years later, the 4,500 companies of the Civilian Conservation Corps worked in every state of the union and in most American territories. When the Japanese invaded Midway Island, a CCC company was working there.
Ms. Smith ticked off just a few statistical highlights:
The CCC built or improved 800 national and state parks.
It arrested soil erosion across 20 million acres during the Dust Bowl days.
It built 46,854 bridges, dug 5,000 fish hatcheries, laid 5,000 miles of water lines and planted more than 3 million trees.
In all, more than 3 million men served at the CCC's 4,500 camps.
All that happened years ago, of course, ancient history to many today. And relatively few of those 3 million men are still alive.
But people like Ms. Smith and Mr. Butler say the corps' contributions are so great that examples must be retained and maintained, to honor the past.
"People here are very proud of White Rock Lake," Ms. Smith said. "But these men should be remembered, too.
"They deserve it."
E-mail myoung@dallasnews.com