Off-duty in the Redwoods: Leisure Time in the Camps


Humboldt Redwoods CCC camp baseball team

It wasn't "all work and no play" around the CCC camps. The young men of the CCC still had plenty of energy outside of work hours to participate in organized sports, tour the local territory, take in some evening entertainment, and further their education. They had chores to do, too.

Sports
Russian Gulch CCC camp basketball team

The CCC administration encouraged organized sports. Teams played against other CCC camps and local teams. Russian Gulch's basketball team is shown above, a fine team of players all over 6'2", according to the photo album caption for this shot. Boxing was very popular at all the CCC camps. It was a sporting event and also a way to settle disagreements. The photo below, taken at the Humboldt Redwoods CCC camp in Dyerville, could be of either sport or two-fisted diplomacy.

Boxing at the Humboldt Redwoods Dyerville camp

The boys loved their baseball, both as players and fans. The Humboldt Redwoods camp fielded a winning team, pictured at the top of this page. The camp newsletter article at right indicates that the Humboldt Redwoods baseball team was integrated long before major league baseball, until the "colored" members of company 925 were moved to a segregated company at Camp San Pablo Dam. (Click on the link after the article image to read a transcription.)
 
In-Camp Leisure-time Activities
The Humboldt Redwoods camp newsletters contain accounts of weenie roasts and movie nights put on by camp management for the enrollees. There were also occasional lecturers, and an ongoing education program.

Initially, many camp commanders started education programs when they discovered how little schooling some of the enrollees possessed--a fair number were illiterate. Within the first year after President Roosevelt created the CCC, education became an official element of the program. Soon every camp had its own educational advisor. Enrollees could learn to read, complete a high school diploma, or acquire new skills toward future employment. Some classes were more for fun than work or education goals. The educational advisors also set up libraries for the edification and entertainment of enrollees.

The boys organized some of their own leisure activities. Musicians formed bands, sometimes performing at other area camps and local functions, and groups put on theatrical productions. (Raymond Burr, later of "Perry Mason" and "Ironsides" TV fame, served in the CCC at Calaveras Big Trees State Park and acted in amateur productions there.)

Free Time Outside CampRichardson Grove swimming, 1930s
The CCC boys had free time on the weekends to pursue activities outside camp. Movies in town were popular, as was visiting young women--in town, or (at Humboldt Redwoods) in the Burlington campground, which was conveniently next door to the CCC camp!

Camp commanders would sometimes arrange recreational excursions, such as trucking the Humboldt Redwoods enrollees to the swimming beach at Richardson Grove in the summertime. The photo at right is of  Richardson Grove in the 1930s.


On a weekend outing, Dyerville, 1933
The CCC boys had occasional multi-day leaves. They would visit local towns, travel to see more of the area they were stationed in, take a quick train trip farther away, or even backpack. For the many boys who were from the big city, the state park environment was a new, fascinating, and sometimes frightening experience.


Personal Chores


Washing Clothes at Humboldt Redwoods

Days off weren't all fun and games; there were still chores to be done. The CCC camps in parks and national forests had rather primitive facilities, such as the "laundry room" above. The beds weren't exactly Ritz-Carlton, either—


New Mattress Day at Camp Russian Gulch. Just take your Canvas Tick, empty it, and fill it with nice, new, comfortable straw.