The Cook County Historical Society is nearing completion of its project documenting the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Of the 61 camps authorized for Minnesota, 16 were active in Cook County from 1933-1942. This photo is of the library at the Hovland Company 722. Joe Spitznagle, the camp’s educational advisor, is standing. Spitznagle’s degree was in industrial arts and it was his job to prepare CCC enrollees for jobs when they left the CCC camp. The camp newsletter reported on the library in its March 26, 1937 issue, noting “Since the arrival of a new traveling library last month, a great many more men have been reading books than ever before. Last month some 150 books were read by enrollees of this company.”
The Cook County Historical Society has completed an exciting project documenting the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Depression-era program gave a boost to young men and their families around the nation during those hard times and was also vital to Cook County.
Of the 61 camps authorized for Minnesota, 16 were created and active in Cook County from 1933-1942. At 200 men per company, the area population doubled. The influence and accomplishments of the CCC in this rural, heavily forested, and isolated area cannot be underestimated.
Many important works were accomplished with this massive influx of labor.
Local men served important leadership roles on many projects, guiding the young enrollees in forest conservation, surveys, roadwork, construction projects, phone line installation and many more impressive feats.
The Minnesota Historical Society awarded a “Legacy” grant to help ensure that these important works would not be forgotten. Over 150 photographs have been digitized and are available for viewing on the Minnesota Digital Library’s website Minnesota Reflections. Oral histories done at the time of the CCC 50th anniversary have been transcribed with audio clips featured in the exhibit.
If you have any CCC memorabilia, photographs or stories to add to the exhibit, contact the Cook County Historical Society at 387-2883 or history@boreal.org. The official open house for the exhibit will be July 4th weekend.
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