Park event honors CCC

By KIPP HANLEY
Published: September 28, 2008

Pennsylvania native Burton Ulmer remembers more than a few things about his days at the Civilian Conservation Corps, some of them not so historically important but memorable nonetheless.

On a weekend when all the “CCC boys” from the 1930s were invited back to Prince William Forest, the 87-year-old World War II veteran recounted his responsibilities at the now-defunct sawmill, the Dumfries moonshine that looked like “soapy water” and the movie theater in the sleepy town of Quantico.

“We could get in [to the movies] for free,” Ulmer said. “...One movie I remember in particular [because] I missed the truck going back. It was a nine-mile walk. The movie was ‘King Kong.’ I had a big rock in each hand but the only thing out there [in the forest] were the skunks.”

Like many of his counterparts, Ulmer was just a teenager at the time of the Great Depression. The CCC was born out of president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in an effort to keep young men employed after high school.

From 1933 to 1945, “the CCC boys” made up 5 percent of all American men between the ages of 18 and 25. They helped build hundreds of city, state and national parks as America tried to get back on its collective feet.

“I couldn’t get a job, I couldn’t go to school and the Navy turned me down,” Ulmer said. “The only thing open to me was the CCC camp.”

Melvin Rau, who was raised in Gettysburg and now lives in Florida, preceded Ulmer at the Prince William site. The 92-year-old Rau did a variety of work that included driving trucks and general manual labor.

“We got plenty to eat, it was a good life but we worked for it,” said Rau, who had to send $25 of $30 monthly salary back to his family like the rest of the boys. “We learned to be responsible.”

That responsibility to Mother Nature has been passed on through future generations after the federal government stopped funding the program at the onset of World War II. A perfect example of that came Saturday when more than 150 volunteers attended National Public Lands Day at Prince William Forest.

Along with dignitaries from the National Park Service, Department of Interior and the United States Army Corps of Engineers, there were Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, college students and traveling retirees known as park “hosts.” For two hours, they made trails, painted and in general, just cleaned up the park before breaking for lunch. 

Mike and Sharon Peters started their lives as “hosts” after Mike retired from his job in Florida in 2005. The adventurous twosome purchased an RV and travel from park to park each year. Their job involves everything from cleaning up after families rent cabins to being sort of an unofficial ombudsman.

On Saturday, Sharon was there to encourage parents and their children as they moved from cabin to cabin, making paths from woodchips and removing nails left by visiting parkgoers.

When one cabin was cleaned, girls from Girl Scout Troop 987 of Montclair raced to the next one, eager to do more work.

“It’s neat to see the kids out here,” Sharon Peters said. “To get up on Saturday morning isn’t easy to begin with.”

NPS maintenance mechanic Taiwan Herndon lives an more than an hour away in Caroline County but managed to get son Malik and daughter Malia up at 4:30 a.m. to help out dad for the all-day event.

Herndon was responsible for overseeing the building of trails from the fire road to the cabin steps and Malik and Malia were there every step of the way to help out.

“They often want to come to work with me but they can’t,” said Herndon, who started the project at 10 a.m. “They didn’t want to wait until now [to start].”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.