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CCC set up camp at Kinter farm in 1935A stone historical marker honoring the U.S. Civil Conservation Corps and its work in the area stands off Tanoma Road in Rayne Township.(Gazette photo by Toni Peel)up.By MARY ANN SLATERGazette Staff WriterIn 1935. when Ruth Kinter Crist was a teen-ager growing up off Tanoma Road in Rayne Township, she watched a government social program take shape right outside her front dooT.That year, the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps settled into Indiana County.The CCC was a federal programthat employed young men in a variety of jobs designed to benefit rural America. Throughout the country, teams of workers were hired for jobs related to agriculture and conservation.The workers, who were recruited from across the state, lived in quarters right.out in the countryside. -According to Clarence Stephenson's Indiana County: 175th Anniversary' History,” a CCC detachment from the Blue Hole Camp, Somerset County, began erecting an 80-foot fire tower on Penn View Mountain, Burrell Township, in February 1935.Another early CCC site in Indiana County was on the Kinter farm off Tanoma Road, according to Stephenson. The workers arrived there in the spring of 1935.They were in tents on a 20-acre piece of ground owned by my uncle,” said Crist, now 82 and a resident of Home. “They lived on it rent free, but they did a lot of fixingThe youths employed in the Indiana County program arrived from South Park, Allegheny County. Their tents were set up on a piece of Kinter property located on the south side of Tanoma Road, just a little east of Route 119.A few months later, die workers were moved to more permanent barracks located in fields on the north side of Tanoma Road.The CCC unit stationed off Tanoma Road was designated as Soil Erosion Service, Pennsylvania, No. 1, according to Stephenson.A major duty of the unit was dieplanting of evergreens to halt soil erosion in the area, Crist said. The land here had been Farmed, and die rain had destroyed the soil.”The evergreen seedlings were started along a creek that ran through land belonging to Andrew Robert Kinter, Crist's father. The creek and die seedlings were close to the house where Crist grew up.The trees were then planted throughout die farmland. Rows can still be seen along die rolling hills of die area. Crist does not know how many were planted.The CCC’s work served its purpose on her family’s farm, she said.“It worked fine. That is why the land here is so good.”When the CCC first arrived at her family’s farm, no local boys were involved in the project, Crist said.“Then my brodier, Richard, was in it.” He earned $30 a month and was given housing, food and Army clothes to wear on the job.That $30 was a fair amount of money back in the mid-1980s, Crist said. From his wages, her brodier helped her pay for classes that she took at what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania.'At die end of two years, he was taken to another farm (with the CCC) in Jefferson County,” Crist said. “When that camp closed, he went to one camp below Saltsburg.” Crist said her brother stayed with the CCC until the United States’ entry into World War II.A second CCC camp was started in late June 1935 outside Shelocta. Eighty youths from the Kinter camp were transferred to the new site. By July, their move was complete. Stephenson wrote that the 27 new tents held 208 youths for die CCC.“The work of the two CCC camps was related to die soil conservation project of the Crooked Creek watershed,” Stephenson wrote in his history. “By August 2 it was reported 88 farmers had agreed to cooperate for a five-year period.”The two CCC camps had a column that ran on a semiregular basis in the Indiana Evening Gazette. Thecrew from the Shelocta camp reported this news on Sept. 14,1935:“ Upon arriving at the new campsite, one mile north of Shelocta, Pa., we were confronted with a field over-run with weeds and underbrush. Not to be dismayed and due to the foresight of Captain Reed, who thought to bring along some scythes, we pitched in to clear our future home. With plenty of muscle and lots of ambition, the camp was soon laid out.Uteri came the big job of unloading and pitching of 27 tents and stitching so that we wouldn't be washed away in event of rain.Not having any bathroom facility, a dam was started and soon the boy' were taking every advantage of this pleasurable and necessary construction. Then came the job of erecting a flagpole and flower gardens.The projects now underway are as follows: Building erosion ditches, building breech dams, sand bag dams and numerous other things so necessary to the farmer.Besides CCC news, die columns also included personal tidbits about some of the camp members:Since our handsome first cook Mooney came back from a four-day leave, there has been a soft light in his eye and a smile on his face due no doubt to the reception fair Edna gave him....That dashing Lothario ‘What a man’ Mathues is all atwitter over a certain hash slinger in town.
Newspaper Details
Indiana Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, US
Tue, Jun 13, 2000
Page 34
Full Page
Clipped by
Kathleen B.
PA, USA 22 Sep 2018
Other Publications Near Indiana, Pennsylvania
Indiana Democrat
Indiana Weekly Progress
Indiana Progress
Indiana Messenger
Indiana Evening Gazette
