Civilian Conservation Corps history featured at Granite Falls exhibit

Published 10:44 pm Thursday, April 29, 2010

GRANITE FALLS — Have you heard of the Civilian Conservation Corps? What about your children?

If not, it may be time to take them to the Granite Falls Museum, which recently acquired dozens of photographs and documents from the Depression-era organization known as the CCC.

The corps was started by the federal government in 1937 as a way to preserve the country’s forests and to provide work for young men whose parents were unemployed.

The items displayed in the museum came from the private collection of Walt Bailey, 90, of Marysville, a CCC alum well known in the community.

Bailey served a year in the CCC camp in Darrington, then worked farther north in Maple Falls. He remembers those days.

“We could handle saws and axes; we grew up with them,” Bailey said at his Whiskey Ridge home a few weeks ago. “But it was hard work.”

The CCC helped build more than 800 state parks throughout the country. They repaired countless roads and buildings and did much more.

A large topographical map made by the corps also was donated to the museum by the U.S. Forest Service.

CCC training served Bailey well as he went on to serve in the U.S. Army and later to work for Weyerhaeuser. He also started a fire department in Getchell and built a trail that now bears his name.

Bailey hopes CCC history won’t be forgotten. So does Fred Cruger, a member of the Granite Falls Historical Society who helps run the museum.

“The numbers of what they were able to accomplish are mind-boggling,” Cruger said. “When you start learning about it, you realize the impact.”

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.