The Civilian Conservation Corps In Arizona'S Rim Country: Working In The Woods

Chapter 4 Time Away from the Job

73 Time Away from the Job The CCC camps were more than work centers. They were little towns that the young men thought of as home. In most cases a social community would begin to develop shortly after they arrived at a new camp. After working side by side in the forest, it was natural for the boys to form friendships that carried over to their free time. Some of the young men organized themselves for off-duty entertainment. They participated in athletic contests like boxing, running, and team sports. Some men used their off-hours to go hiking or fishing in nearby streams. Others enjoyed photography as a hobby, giving us unique pictures of camp life and work. In some cases, enrollee snapshots are the only photographic evidence of what the camps looked like. Trips away from camp were a treat for young men looking for new adventures beyond their work. Once or twice a year the White Mountain camps would put together sightseeing motor tours to the Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon, and other typical tourist destinations of northern Arizona. Led by their education adviser, the boys of Company 807 left their summer camp near Payson and went up to the Zane Grey cabin on Tonto Creek. From their winter camp near Roosevelt Lake, the same company received guided tours of the ancient Indian ruins of Tonto National Monument. Charlie Pflugh recalled such trips as his best memories of CCC life away from his Chevalon Canyon camp: One aspect of my CCC life with f-78-a was the generosity of my foreman, Francis Bealey. Normally boys would sign up for six months at a time, and those who signed up for another six months were invited by Francis to take a trip to the Grand CanChapter 4 74 j the ccc in arizona’s rim country yon, Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and Petrified Forest. Francis drove his car and we came up with some money to help out. We also paid fifty cents for four nights lodging. If the room had two beds, then it was almost totally free. Food was cheap, but even so, Francis came up with a few extra dollars. It was the most awesome trip of my life. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the beauty of Arizona on just a few dollars. It was a priceless experience . (Pflugh letter, 4 November 1999) Marshall Wood, who served at Los Burros in the White Mountains, remembered the special plans the boys made on paydays: On those days, I remember the Mess Sergeant always coming around trying to organize a poker game. There wasn’t much else to do for fun. Pinetop didn’t have much to offer, so some of the guys got rides to McNary. Once, some of us went down to the Indian Fair on the Apache reservation and got our pictures taken with the natives. (Wood letter, undated) The highlight of Bill Dean’s recreation experiences in the CCC had a Hollywood connection. In the 1920s, popular author Zane Grey used the central mountains of Arizona as a backdrop for several of his bestselling western novels. Later, he insisted that the movie versions of his books be filmed on location in the Rim Country. Although Grey became disillusioned with the studios in the late 1920s and left Arizona for good in 1929, Hollywood continued to use the Rim Country for location shooting. The most convenient route for production crews and movie stars was to board the train in southern California and get off in Flagstaff , Arizona. Fine hotels, good food, and a direct rail connection made Flagstaff the film headquarters for shooting Arizona westerns during the Depression years. Bill Dean’s CCC camp was less than four miles from Flagstaff, and he remembered some exciting times there: Back in those days many Hollywood “B” movies of the cowboy genre were filmed nearby and our cowboy heroes of the day were sometimes accessible for autographs. What a thrill! Actors that most people never heard of now were there—Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Buck Jones, etc. I was in dreamland. (Dean letter, 20 April 2001) Sunday church services were a part of CCC camp life too. Clergy from nearby communities were contracted to go to many of the camps, time away from the job j 75 and even to side camps, on a set schedule of weekend visits. Attendance...