By TOM KELLY
Editor and Publisher

"Our nation could not have fought and won a two-ocean war as fast as we did in the 1940s, without the CCCs," said Kisatchie National Forest archaeologist Timothy Phillips, in an interview backgrounding his ongoing research of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Louisiana in the 1930s.

Born of the Great Depression by an Act of Congress passed in March, 1933 during the first 100 days of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, the CCCs organized a civilian army of unemployed young men 18-25 years old, primarily from destitute families on public relief. The men were brought into military-type camps administered by Army personnel, and given work building public facilities of many kinds, restoring forest lands, soil erosion prevention, and other work.

"They had all the military discipline except combat training," Phillips said. "When World War II came, the vast majority went directly into the military services. Some had gone to work, and then into the military. The United States, through the CCC, had three million-plus young men exposed to military-type discipline. All that was necessary was to provide combat training, and they were ready to go."

Thus, the CCC may be said to have saved the nation twice - first by implementing a program of natural resources conservation and preservation which continues to enrich the country, and second by fighting and winning the World War which placed America on course as the world's foremost industrial, economic, and military superpower. Quite a generation . . . the "Greatest," according to today's evaluation.

Veterans of the CCC are dying at a rapid pace, Phillips said - a fact which is spurring his effort to complete his history of the organization in Louisiana, and prepare it for public use. He began oral interviews, which are preserved on tape, last year, and has located over 150 CCC veterans from various parts of the State, with about 80 interviews concluded.

Among the facilities built by CCC members are the original Gum Springs recreation area on the Winn District unit of Kisatchie National Forest west of Winnfield, the Stuart Lake camp area in the Catahoula District at Bentley and many others.

"Many of the roads and state parks that we use today, and millions of trees in the Kisatchie National Forest, were built and p[;anted by the CCCs," Phillips said.

Several chapters of Phillips' written history are already prepared, including stories on Winn, Rapides, and Natchitoches parishes.

Shortly after Congress passed the CCC act, camps were established in Central Louisiana, to provide forestry and conservation work. On June 5, 1933, Camp Allen, named for then-Governor O.K. Allen, was established on the eastern shore of Saline Lake, about a mile and a half northwest of U.S. Highway 84. It was the first of several to be established in Winn parish before the demise of the CCC in July, 1942, shortly after the start of World War II.

Camp Allen was eventually moved to Knoxville, Mississippi. Others in Winn Parish were Camp Willis, at Sikes, Camp 1422 at Verda, Camp 4507 at Calvin.

The camp at Calvin became a trans-shipment site, where men scheduled for transfer to other locations came for processing.

In Rapides Parish, Camp Packard, named after Major Gooding Packard, was established for tree planting, building roads, bridges, firelines, and construction of the Valentine Lake recreation area.

A camp was established at Forest Hill, to help farmers protect farms from soil erosion, and building roads, a local telephone system, and fire fighting systems.

In Natchitoches parish, a camp was established at Provencal, for reforestation, fire fighting, and road building.

Tim Phillips, born in West Virginia, and reared in Ohio, made it to Louisiana as an offshore oil worker in 1974. In the mid-1970s he enrolled at University of Southwestern Louisiana at Lafayette, and began studying anthropology and archaeology. He joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1984, and has learned, "hands-on" the history and pre-history of the Kisatchie Forest area. His interest in the CCC came from learning of the work the organization did in the early years of establishment of the forest.

He and his wife, Jeannie, a native of Breaux Bridge, not far from Lafayette, are residents of Natchitoches. They have a son who lives in Bossier City, a daughter in Farmerville, and one granddaughter, age 3.