The young men of Fulton County took advantage of this opportunity, registering at either the Red Cross offices or with the Commissioner of Public Welfare. The cities of Gloversville and Johnstown each had 10 vacancies available — later boosted to 15 — with enlistees serving six months. All men were required to pass a medical inspection before being assigned to a camp.
The first group of six left from Johnstown on May 19, 1933. That September, six young men from Gloversville were stationed in Idaho and “satisfied with the conditions there,” according to a letter from Joseph Marcoux. CCC camps were established all over the country.
The two closest to our area were at Shaker Place in Arietta (the first one in the Adirondacks) and Piseco. Arietta itself is less than three miles from the county line, and the Shaker Place camp 10 miles north from there. Because of the proximity, this CCC camp — Company 219 — interacted frequently with Fulton County and its residents.
A look at the Arietta Civilian Conservation Corps Camp. The Morning Herald announced that businesses were invited to submit bids for meat, eggs and bread for the two camps. Paperwork could be obtained at the post office and submitted to the quartermaster at Fort Jay.
The camps at Arietta and Piseco each needed 5,000 lbs. of bread, supplied in loaves of one pound each, as well as 500 lbs. of bacon, 60 cases of eggs, 300 lbs.
of ham, 400 lbs. of roasting chicken, 300 lbs. of fowl, 100 lbs.
of beef liver, 300 lbs. of pork loin, 200 lbs. of pork shoulder, 100 lbs.
of sausage bologna, 200 lbs. of sausage frankfurts, 150 lbs. pork sausage, and 1,000 lbs.
beef quarters. The Unger Ice Co. at West Caroga Lake was chosen to supply ice for the camps.
Of course, the Glove Cities were awarded contracts for the leather gloves to be used by the CCC: Richard M. Evans and Sons, Inc. received the $54,000 government contract.
In July 1933, eight men from the CCC camp at Shaker Place were loaned to the City of Johnstown, thanks to the efforts of John W. Charlton, the blister rust control agent for Fulton County. The only cost to the city was the transportation down and back; the work consisted of pulling out all the currant and gooseberry bushes, a two-week job.
These bushes carry the rust, which attacks white pine trees. Though the camp was outside of the county’s borders, plenty of Fulton County folks did their best to provide comfort and entertainment to these young men far from home. The Knights of Columbus donated paper and envelopes for letter writing and the Johnstown Rotary fulfilled a request for athletic equipment.
In early August of 1933, the Harold J. Wilmot American Legion Post and its ladies’ auxiliary visited the camp for the day. The ladies came laden with pies, cakes, and ice cream.
There were baseball games and dancing. The “Smudge,” the official publication of CCC Co. 219, dedicated its August issue to the VFW: “To the gentlemen and gracious ladies of the Harold Wilmot Post and auxiliary of Gloversville this edition is gratefully dedicated,” the editor wrote.
“Their visit and the happiness it brought to the Foresters will remain the most pleasant memory of the entire six months at Shaker Place.” The “dancing was done to our own particular brand of moonlight, consisting of truck spotlights trained on the mess hall.” The CCC was also entertained by Mr.
Solloway’s Gloversville Entertainers: “Tiny Betty Ann Solloway, all of six years old, sang and danced her way into the hearts of the boys, and then beautiful June DeGrand stole heart and all away from them in her novel numbers. Miss Virginia Beddingham proved a favorite in her excellent acrobatic specialty, capping it all was the thrilling trick horse riding of the Marshall Riding Academy and daring Fred Marshall and Willard Woodcott at their helm. Music was provided by the Happy Haymakers.
” And, of course, the boys did come into town to see movies at Smalley’s Theater in Johnstown. As the season drew to a close, the Camp Commander Captain WJ Gilbert recommended that the sites at Arietta and Speculator continue to operate through the winter. The workers could commence lumbering operations to thin out the forests and sell the wood to state correctional institutions to make broom handles, while smaller waste materials could be turned into wood alcohol.
The CCC would also be helpful in clearing roads after snowstorms. Ultimately, it was decided that the camps would not remain open during the winter months, “in spite of requests forwarded them by many of the leading organizations in Gloversville and Fulton County,” according to the Morning Herald. Three men standing by a tent at the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Arietta.
The federal government extended the CCC program for another year in 1934, and they broke all tree-planting records that year with 163 million trees planted on national and state forest lands. New York led the pack, with 40 million of those trees planted in the Empire State. This is a feat that would not have been possible without the creation of the CCC.
In 1939, enrollment dropped for the first time in two years, which was attributed to increased industrial employment. However, FDR and his successors did see merit in the CCC; Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to make it a permanent program in 1937. In the 1960s, the Department of Labor explored its revival, and the National Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) was established in 1971 and is still active today.
For more information on Arietta and other Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the Adirondacks, check out Marty Podskoch’s book, “Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: History, Memories, and Legacy of the CCC.” And be sure to join us at the museum on Oct. 2nd at 6 p.
m., where Podskoch will give a presentation on the 115th anniversary of Adirondack fire towers. -.
