Remember When?

90 YEARS AGO • NOVEMBER 8, 1933

THOMPSON TO HAVE AN AIRPLANE LANDING FIELD

Nick Mamer of the North West Airways was in Thompson Falls two days this week, establishing a temporary emergency landing field for high speed planes. The present Thompson Falls landing field is inadequate for the large high speed planes. A lease has been obtained from J.B McGurk and all markers and necessary leveling on the run-way has been arranged for the Forest Service and Chamber of Commerce which when completed will make one of the nicest landing fields between Missoula and Spokane on account of the gravel soil.

While this route has not yet been made permanent and approved by the Federal Government it is hoped that when Federal inspection is made that this route will be made the National Air-way northern route from New York to Seattle.

THE C.C.C. WORK

by A.H. Abbott

Many people will doubtless be interested in the results accomplished by the boys in the Civilian Conservation Corps during their encampment in the Cabinet National Forest this summer. They will want to know if the forest work has been a benefit to the morale of the young forest workers, and also if the five C.C.C. camps in the Cabinet have directly benefited the counties in which they were situated.

Note: My readers must remember that the Civilian Conservation Corps was developed as a relief agency during the Great Depression years. President Roosevelt convinced Congress to create the C.C.C. which provided conservation jobs for unemployed men, ages 18 to 25.

Taken as a whole, the men who have worked in these forest camps have had their wage earning capacity increased, have bettered themselves both physically and mentally, and have furnished a very substantial share of the necessary living expenses for their families.

According to the relief employment plan, the local county enrollment for Montana was based on the population on the ratio of one local enrollment for each 500 residents. This gave Sanders County a local enrollment of 11 men and three men were enrolled from Mineral County.

The number of local men employed in the fire summer C.C.C. camps was considerably in excess of the average number of men employed by the Forest Service for improvement work under normal conditions and the period of employment also averaged longer. In addition, some 12 teams and teamsters were hired for C.C.C.forest work and a number of trucks and drivers were given intermittent employment. The foregoing figures do not include the protection force of lookouts, packers and smoke chasers, nor do they include men employed for a very limited amount of trail and telephone maintenance.

Two Emergency Conservation Forest Workers’ camps in the Cabinet Forest were occupied exclusively by Montana men. Two camps were filled by enrolled men from cities in the upstate New York and one camp had an enrollment principally from New York City.

It was not to be expected that these camps, composed largely of young, unskilled men, unfamiliar with local conditions and some working for the first time, would do the amount of work comparable with what might be expected of selected crews. Yet the work accomplished on the Cabinet Forest is well worth recording and totals are quite creditable.

The construction of the five camps, including the clearing of grounds, construction of mess houses toilets, bathhouses, erection of tents, policing of the grounds, piping water and construction of other camp conveniences in itself was no small matter. Feeding and taking care of upwards of 1,000 men required a lot of work This does not include the field jobs performed and supervised. In our tabulation of this work, the Cabinet Forest has the following figures of totals to report:

Roads constructed 76 miles; roads maintained 40 miles; bridges constructed, 11; bridges maintained, 26; cut 1500 telephone poles; lookout buildings erected, 1; painting and other building maintenance work, 10 buildings; land cleared, 30 acres; work at the Forest Service nursery, 4155 man days; 167 man-days fire training; fire suppression 72 man-days; besides some 40 to 50 miscellaneous jobs involving two to 15 man-days per job.

Looking ahead to winter work, the Cabinet Forest will have three winter camps, all located in the St. Regis Paradise Cutoff Camp construction, now well underway. Approximately 675 Montana men reside in these camps and will be provided with winter work. These camps will not only provide means for their care, but provide funds toward the support of over six hundred Montana families.