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The most interesting part of my summer was doing further research
regarding a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp that was established
in my home county for black veterans of World War I.  I agreed to do a
presentation for our country historical society in late August.  It was
part of an initiative by the John Honey Jones Afro-American Awareness
Committee. I'm part of this committee and it oversees a bequest that the
county received about four years ago for study and research into local
black history.

 

            I had done some research on the camp back in the late 1980's
for our county's bicentennial history that took place in 1991, but
learned a great deal more by examining more of our local newspapers.
The camp was established in a place called Straits Corners and was
active from 1935 to 1938.  It was known as camp SCS - 7, Company 2225
VC.  SCS meant that it was camp that was run through the Soil
Conservation Service; VC referred to "colored veterans".  It was one of
the first camps established in New York State that worked exclusively on
private lands and established a very fine record for itself.

 

            In the process I was able to meet a fellow historian from
Long Island, Tom Patton.  He is a retired school teacher who has had
several articles published concerning the CCC camps.  He and his family
were camping in Ithaca.  We visited the site of the Straits Corners camp
along with the site of a camp that had been established for black youth
in Preston, NY, not far from Binghamton.

 

            Tom and I would both like to learn more about the experience
of blacks in the CCC.  There has been a book written about this aspect
of the CCC in California, but there doesn't appear to be too much else
that has been done.  I would especially like to find copies of the camp
newspaper from Straits Corners which was called The Tioga County Sachem.
I t may be in one of the archives in the University of Illinois, but I
haven't had time to pursue that angle.  

 

Ed Nizalowski, SMS

Newark Valley High School

Newark Valley, NY

enizalowski@nvcs.stier.org

 

 

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning
to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness
is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not
only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of
life."

 

John Muir

 


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