Nostalgia & History > Railroad Civilian Conservation Corps

In the Friday, December 5, 2008, Grand Junction Free Press online, http://www.gjfreepress.com , was an article, “Grand Junction man recalls experience with Civilian Conservation Corps.”

“One of its programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which paid thousands of unemployed men to plant trees and work on other conservation projects.

Leroy Lewis of Grand Junction was one of those young men who needed a job in 1933. In June of that year he became part of a CCC crew chosen to construct a road that would give public access to Colorado National Monument.

Lewis will be 97 on Dec. 15, though he could pass as 77. He grew up near Hotchkiss, where his family raised sheep on 120 acres. His parents lost a majority of their land during the Depression.”

You can read the entire article by clicking on the newspaper website address and then on the Home page of the newspaper search the archives for Civilian Conservation Corps.

The above and the following are excerpts from the article.

“The CCC crew of about nine men traveled by National Park Service truck up a narrow, sharply turning Serpents Trail road to a construction camp near Coke Ovens — a rock formation east of the present-day visitor’s center.

The road to camp, which differs from today’s Serpent’s Trail, had ‘40 turns that were more than 90-degree turns,’ Lewis said.

‘We’d have people from Washington - they’d be scared of the road,’ Lewis said. He remembered one official insisting on being back home before dark. ‘But it was the show place. You could see the whole work project.”

“In December, men with jackhammers and air compressors were drilling to undercut a cliff to create an open-face tunnel. The camp doctor insisted on pulling the CCC men from the site because they didn’t have proper protection from all the dust created from the drilling. The superintendent wanted them to keep working there, but the doctor had the final say, Lewis said.

‘It was mean dust. If it got in your lungs it wouldn’t take too long before it got you,’ Lewis said.

The crew moved to another area to work while they waited for the masks.

Three days later, the cliff broke loose and killed 13 men from the Work Projects Administration, a group brought in to replace the CCC men. The WPA men were crushed or knocked off a 400-foot cliff.

What became known as Rim Rock Drive took about 10 years to complete, Lewis said. Three separate camps were set up on the Monument where the different crews lived while they built the road. Other groups of people contributed to the construction of Rim Rock Drive, but the ‘main pioneer work was done by the CCC,’ Lewis said.”

The web site, http://www.coloradonma.org/roadbuilders.htm , has a Timeline, a map and photos. On the Home page of the web site click on Road Builders Photo Gallery. Mr. Lewis, as a young man, is in at least two of the pictures.

The web site, http://www.stevegarufi.com/coloradonationalmonument.htm , has some nice pictures of the Colorado National Monument.

I did a Keyword search on the Denver Public Library digital photo website, http://history.denverlibrary.org , for Railroad Civilian Conservation Corps and got 34 photos. Below are 9 photos from this Keyword search.

Picture 1 below, is DPL photo OP-10757. “Title: D&RGW train, engine number 3615, engine type 2-8-8-2 and engine number 1526, engine type 4-8-2. Summary: Train First #2, Civilian Conservation Corps special; 15 cars, 30 MPH. Photographed: East of Minturn, Colo., March 24, 1940. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 2 below, is DPL photo OP-8045. “Title: D&RGW train (Narrow Gauge), engine number 461, engine type 2-8-2. Summary: Civilian Conservation Corps special; 12 cars. Photographed: north of Ridgway, Colo., June 30, 1940. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 3 below, is DPL photo MCC-3215. “Title: Near Ridgway Colo. Summary: Denver & Rio Grande Western Locomotive 453, leased to Rio Grande Southern (Baldwin type 2-8-2; with twelve cars; Civilian Conservation Corps excursion); northbound down Dallas Divide towards Ridgway, Ouray County, Colorado; engineer and passengers lean out windows; two men sit on top of a freight car; snowy ridges of Mount Sneffles in background. Date: (1940). Creator: Louis Charles McClure 1867-1957.”

Picture 4 below, is DPL photo OP-17891. “Title: UP train, engine number 2495, engine type 2-8-2. Summary: Civilian Conservation Corps special train; 15 cars, 25 MPH. Photographed: leaving La Salle, Colo., March 28, 1936. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 5 below, is DPL photo OP-16009. “Title: SP train, engine number 4363, engine type 4-8-2. Summary: Second #87, Civilian Conservation Corps Special; 6 cars, 35 MPH. Photographed: near Elko, Nev., July 18, 1938. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 6 below, is DPL photo OP-14709. “Title: RGS train, engine number 22, engine type 4-6-0 and RG engine number 453, engine type 2-8-2. Summary: Northbound Civilian Conservation Corps Special; engines smoking, 12 cars. Photographed: near Brown, Colo., June 30, 1940. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 7 below, is DPL photo OP-14704. “Title: RGS train, engine number 22, engine type 4-6-0 and engine number 41, engine type 2-8-0. Summary: Northbound Civilian Conservation Corps Special; rear view, 8 cars. Photographed: near Gallagher, Colo., June 30, 1940. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 8 below, is DPL photo OP-14706. “Title: RGS train, engine number 22, engine type 4-6-0 and RG engine number 453, engine type 2-8-2. Summary: Northbound Civilian Conservation Corps Special; 12 cars. Photographed: just above Placerville, Colo., June 30, 1940. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

Picture 9 below, is DPL photo OP-10801. “Title: D&RGW train, engine number 3703, engine type 4-6-6-4. Summary: Westward Civilian Conservation Corps special; 15 cars, 20 MPH. Photographed: near Keeldar, Colo., April 17, 1938. Creator: Otto C. Perry.”

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Pictures 4, 5, and 6.

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Pictures 7, 8, and 9.

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A friend of mine that is 93 now and a retired railroader was in the Three C's during the Depression. He is from northwest Ohio but was sent to Nevada? I believe. He said they sent a lot of eastern boys out West and the western boys East.

He recounts one incident where three guys wondered from camp in their truck and got into a snowstorm. Two froze to death and one survived by climbing inside a hay bale during the storm but had to have some digits on his hands and feet amputated account of frost bite.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/08 07:23 by wabash2800.

God bless ol' Otto, the master! And the places he got to never fail to amaze me, in a time long before interstates or even paved road in many locations. Interesting to see a UP light Mikado before being "UP-ized" around the tender, cab, stack, etc. Thanks for sharing these classics. Kurt.

And wasn't Otto just a postal worker?

1372 Wrote:
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> God bless ol' Otto, the master! And the places he
> got to never fail to amaze me, in a time long
> before interstates or even paved road in many
> locations. Interesting to see a UP light Mikado
> before being "UP-ized" around the tender, cab,
> stack, etc. Thanks for sharing these classics.
> Kurt.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And wasn't Otto just a postal worker?
>
Just a postal worker? At one time just a postal worker was an honored and valued profession. When Otto took these pictures being a postal worker was a high status, and most importantly in the 30's well paying job.
Sorry to sound cranky....

I wasn't putting down being a postal work just marveled that he would have the time and resources to travel and take all those photos even as a postal worker.


bisbeekid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And wasn't Otto just a postal worker?
> >
> Just a postal worker? At one time just a postal
> worker was an honored and valued profession. When
> Otto took these pictures being a postal worker was
> a high status, and most importantly in the 30's
> well paying job.
> Sorry to sound cranky....

bisbeekid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And wasn't Otto just a postal worker?
> >
> Just a postal worker? At one time just a postal
> worker was an honored and valued profession. When
> Otto took these pictures being a postal worker was
> a high status, and most importantly in the 30's
> well paying job.
> Sorry to sound cranky....

My grandfather was a postal worker, in the days before email and junk mail, the post office was the main form of communication, and yes an honored profession. Times have changed a bit.

Times have indeed changed. Right into the 1950's in Oakland, CA, mail was still delivered twice a day on weekdays. Phones were only then beginning to saturate the population, with a large number still on party lines. Mail was a much more important communication channel.

It's high time for a really good article in Trains or something about the man. He was a true visionary.

As a retired high school teacher, you should be teaching history somewhere. Your posts are thought provoking, informative and the writing is exceptional. Thanks and keep them coming! One of my grandfathers and two greatuncles were CCC boys.

norm, the Oakland you describe sounds exactly like the Muncie, IN, in which I grew up during the same era. Double-daily mail, sparse phones, none of this instant communication mania of today. For the 1st ten years of my life, our family had no phone at all, no TV, a big coal stove for heat and the wonderful Philco radio for news and entertainment. And, of course, steam whistles echoing at all hours.........