Camp Arboretum Sign Shop

The Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is an excellent example of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) building constructed in the 1930s in Oregon. It is typical of CCC buildings that were built in the mid-1930s to meet the immediate need for utilitarian forestry buildings. Because of its association with the CCC and Oregon State University's Department of Forestry, the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its significance in the area of conservation. Built in 1936, the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is located in OSU's George W. Peavy Arboretum approximately six miles north of Corvallis, Oregon. It is one of the few remaining examples of CCC building in Oregon.

OREGON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE'S SCHOOL OF FORESTRY, PEAVY ARBORETUM, AND MCDONALD FOREST

Oregon State University's School of Forestry, founded in 1913, has educated forestry professionals for nearly a century. Students interested in forestry education found a curriculum of interest at Oregon Agricultural College as early as 1893 when V. Moses Craig of the Department of Botany dedicated the third term of his class to the subject. By the 1905-1906 school year, a four-year curriculum in forestry had been established, and the department's first graduates obtained their degrees in 1910.

The initiation of the forestry curriculum at the Oregon State Agricultural College was partially the result of a burgeoning forestry-related industry in the region. It can also be understood in the context of a growing interest in and awareness of conservation practices during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century in the United States. The American Forestry Association was formed in 1875, signaling a new conservation ethic. President Benjamin Harrison established the first forest reserve in 1891. Oregon's first forest reserve, the Cascade Forest Reserve, was established by President Cleveland in 1893. In 1907, Oregon's national forests multiplied through the efforts of conservationists President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot of the Forestry Division in the Department of Agriculture. Oregon's larger industrial lumber interests generally supported federal regulations and scientific management of forests; although their views often conflicted with that of smaller private interests. The Oregon Conservation Commission, a state conservation body, was established in 1909. The evolving forest conservation movement brought about a need for professionally trained foresters, and the forestry curriculum at the Oregon Agricultural College strove to meet that need."

Early students in the Department of Forestry, and later at the School of Forestry, lacked a suitable place for field experiments. The four students who graduated from the department in 1910 conducted outdoor laboratory experiments at Avery's Woodlot in Corvallis, Camp Reserve near Mount Jefferson, and the City of Corvallis' watershed on Mary's Peak. By 1916, however, the Forestry School had its own building. A small parcel of land at the back of the building, informally known as the "Campus Arboretum," was used for instruction in tree identification. In 1921, the Charles K. Spaulding Logging Company donated a 160-acre plot to the school.

Even with these resources, School of Forestry officials saw a great need for an outdoor laboratory for experiments on various tree species and forest cultivation practices. The School of Forestry's first dean, George W. Peavy, appointed an Arboretum Committee in 1923 to gather funds for land acquisition for the school's education programs. The committee succeeded, and in 1925 the Board of Regents purchased an 80-acre tract approximately eight miles north of Corvallis, the first plot of land of what would become the George W. Peavy Arboretum. Later that year, a second tract was purchased to connect the Arboretum with Highway 99. It is on this tract that the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop sits.

The Peavy Arboretum was officially inaugurated on January 23, 1926. By that time, the school had grown to include more than 100 students. The event was significant because the Arboretum served as the first link between the forest and the students and faculty of the school. Other acquisitions of land soon followed, thanks to generous donations of land to the Oregon State Agricultural College by Mary J.L. McDonald in her Last Will and Testament dated August 3, 1927.
According to one source, McDonald's gifts were influenced by the emerging conservation movement. In 1931, the State Board of Higher Education designated the land acquisitions that resulted from McDonald's generosity as the "McDonald Forest." The forest, which was adjacent to Peavy Arboretum, greatly fostered hands-on research and learning at the school. Continued land acquisitions have resulted in the approximately 11,500 acres of forest and meadow that today comprises the McDonald-Dunn Research Forest, Oregon State University's main research and teaching forest.

CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS AND CAMP ARBORETUM

The Civilian Conservation Corps was one of the most successful New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. With the country in the middle of the economic crisis of the Great Depression, the CCC put unemployed young men to work on projects related to the conservation of natural resources. More than 2.5 million Americans participated in the program during its nine years of operation from April 1933 to June 1942. With camps established throughout the United States, the program's benefits reached many segments of American society. Camps that specialized in soil erosion in reforestation and fire control assisted farmers. Local businessmen received a boost from CCC enrollees who became their customers. Likewise, local building contractors found employment constructing CCC camps. Families of the enrolled benefited from monthly allotment checks. Lastly, the program's participants not only received employment, but gained valuable work experience, vocational and academic training, and the benefits of camp experience."

Oregon was the home to seventy-five CCC camps during the program. Oregon and Washington comprised Region 6 of the United States Forest Service or the North Pacific Region of the U.S. Forest Service. Work conducted in this region focused on forest fire protection, recreation, transportation improvements, and structural improvements. Forest road construction comprised fifty-four percent of all work projects in Oregon. In addition to creating networks of truck trails and fire roads, these roads also made Oregon's forests more accessible to campers and hikers.
Fire protection, including prevention and firefighting, comprised nineteen percent of Oregon's projects. Oregon experienced severe forest fires between 1933 and 1936. CCC crews helped to combat such notorious fires as the 1933 Tillamook or Wilson River Fire, the 1935 McKenzie Bridge fire, and the 1936 Bandon fire.

Peavy Arboretum was dedicated by Oregon State Agricultural College in 1926, and under the direction of the U.S. Forest Service, and the State of Oregon Department of Forestry, and operated as a CCC camp from 1933 to 1942. The state CCC Administration in cooperation with Oregon State Agricultural College had determined that locating a CCC camp at the Arboretum would be mutually beneficial. In 1942 again OSU took over the ownership and operation of the Arboretum through a series of leases and agreements between OSU and the State of Oregon. In 1963, Oregon State University officially took over ownership and operation of Peavy Arboretum.
Camp Arboretum, which was located within the boundaries of Peavy Arboretum, was established in 1933. Local civilian carpenters constructed the majority of the buildings, and the camp was completed on May 18, 1935. However, unlike the rest of the camp, the Sign Shop was constructed in 1936 by CCC enrollees. Upon completion, the Corvallis Gazette-Times described the camp as "the largest CCC camp ever to be erected in this country" and a "model unit." While this may have been an exaggeration, the facility was the largest permanent camp to be located in Benton County.

The camp was administered by the U.S. Forest Service, North Pacific Region, until 1934, when jurisdiction changed to the State Department of Forestry and in cooperation with the War Department. In general, the Forestry Department was in charge of assigning and managing work projects, while the War Department oversaw other camp functions such as transportation to the camps, clothing, medical care, and the like.

On account of the camp's administration by the State Forester, most of the work performed at the camp took place on state-owned lands, including those owned by the Oregon State Agricultural College. Camp enrollees greatly improved conditions within the school's McDonald Forest. Improvements to the forest included increasing its accessibility to students, faculty, and hikers alike by creating a system of roads and trails. This work included blasting rock to make gravel in the rock quarry, leveling roads, and marking areas with signs constructed at the camp. Documentation exists concerning CCC construction of two roads through the forest, namely Schreiner Road and Sulphur Springs Road. Former camp enrollee Edward Sekermestrovich recalls that most of the roads that existed within the McDonald Forest by 1942 were constructed by Camp Arboretum laborers.

The McDonald Forest and the Peavy Arboretum also benefited from CCC work projects related to fire prevention, such as the construction of telephone lines, firebreaks, and guard stations. One firebreak encircled the Peavy Arboretum. The Oak Creek Guard Station in the McDonald Forest was built by CCC men. A CCC engineer conducted a survey of McDonald Forest in 1936 in an effort to reduce fire hazards. That same year, a large reforestation project commenced on 160 acres of Peavy Arboretum land. Construction of Calloway Dam and Cronemiller Lake was also carried out by CCC enrollees in 1937 and 1938. Although limited documentation prevents the identification of every project related to the college's forest land, it is clear that the location of Camp Arboretum was a boon to Oregon State Agricultural College."

Correspondence between school officials and State Forestry members confirms the interest the school had in the operations of the Camp and the influence it exerted over the types of projects conducted by its enrollees. On August 2, 1940, a meeting attended by representatives of the federal Forest Service, the state CCC Administration, and the School of Forestry took place at the School of Forestry to determine a 5-year plan for the division of work at Camp Arboretum.

All parties agreed that the Camp was to divide their materials and services between the McDonald State Forest and the Lincoln County and Polk County Fire Protective Associations. Unless Camp laborers were called to emergency fire service, all men and equipment of the Camp were to be used for improvements on the McDonald Forest from October to April, and for the rest of the year, fifty men would work for the protective associations.

In a letter dated March 8, 1941, School of Forestry Dean Peavy expressed concern to Dr. F.A. Gilfillan, Chairman of the Administrative Council at Oregon State College that CCC men were not going to fulfill their obligations in the McDonald Forest. Noting that as a member of the State Board of Forestry, he had played a part in bringing about the establishment of the CCC at its location at the Peavy Arboretum, Peavy reiterated the college's objectives for CCC camp operations. Among them was the erection of a model forest using sustainable-yield practices that would "serve as an example for owners of timberlands in Oregon." Road building, fire line construction, and service building construction were among the tasks necessary to complete this job. Another objective was to use CCC labor to introduce new tree species to the McDonald Forest on an experimental basis.

Dean George W. Peavy asserted that another important objective of CCC labor was to transform the McDonald Forest into a "laboratory" for the School of Forestry. To illustrate his point he made an analogy using another department at the school:

In this, the McDonald Forest will stand in the same relationship to the School of Forestry as the Engineering Laboratory does to the School of Engineering. Until the area of the McDonald Forest is completed and until the entire tract is put in shape for final use as a sustained yield unit, the situation is comparable to that of an unfinished laboratory building. To take men off the job would be just as reasonable as to take laborers off a campus laboratory building which might be partially completed.

Although official management of Camp Arboretum fell under the state Forestry Department, it is clear that Peavy believed that he had some clout in making decisions that affected Camp activities. A separate letter addressed to Dr. F.A. Gilfillan by the School of Forestry Assistant Dean supports this notion-it states, "Insofar as Dr. Peavy is a member of the State Board of Forestry by virtue of his position as Dean of the School of Forestry, the State Forester would appreciate very much having any proposed changes in the work list of the Arboretum CCC Camp receive Dr. Peavy's approval before being submitted for official consideration."

CAMP ARBORETUM SIGN SHOP

Unlike most of the buildings at Camp Arboretum, the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop was constructed by camp enrollees as opposed to Corvallis-area contractors. Erected in 1936, it was the last building constructed at the camp. CCC buildings of this period were commonly designed utilizing locally available materials in a rustic style. Common features of CCC buildings often included horizontal board or board-and-batten siding, and rows of many windows, in order to provide natural light for workers utilizing the buildings. Often they were temporary in nature, with no permanent foundations. Typically CCC camp architecture consisted of buildings with a rectangular frame, multi-pane hopper windows, and low-pitch-gable roofs. As originally constructed, the buildings made a uniform, cohesive collection created by their simple repetitious design, material, and paint scheme. Interestingly, while the Sign Shop was one of the last structures built for the Camp, this building is the last extant building from the Camp in its original location and is one of only a few remaining in Oregon.

During the CCC era, Camp Arboretum was designated the sign headquarters for the State Forestry Department. A crew of between fifteen and twenty-five camp enrollees labored in the Sign Shop, creating hundreds of rustic signs. Sign types included section-line markers, directional markers, road and trail markers, and large identification signs for lookout stations, guard stations, and headquarters complexes. The enrollees were involved in the entire sign-making process gathering logs from Peavy Arboretum and other state-owned land, to installing the signs. The first floor of the structure housed the woodworking area, and the signs were painted on the second floor. Paul Francis, a CCC enrollee who worked at the sign shop from 1938-1940 remembered:

We'd work on [a sign] maybe six weeks from start to finish... The lettering was all hand-done. One sign would be in Old English, the next maybe in just regular American. There was a layout man who specialized in this... It was all done by hand. All clear, cedar worked easily for that.

Weekday evenings and weekends were leisure hours for CCC enrollees, at which time they were free to do as they wished. The Sign Shop was open to them as a craft center where they made items of wood or leather. The CCC also offered enrollees some academic and vocational training during non-work hours as a benefit of the program. The State Forestry Department and instructors from the agricultural college taught woodworking classes in the shop. Frequent rain made such indoor activities popular for hobbyists.

In 1942, OSU took over the ownership and operation of the Arboretum, including the Sign Shop through a series of leases and agreements between OSU and the State of Oregon. In the months after the disposition of the CCC program in June 1942, the State Forestry Department used the Sign Shop, along with other Camp buildings, as a station for an emergency fire crew.

In October of 1942, School of Forestry Dean Paul M. Dunn approved the use of the remaining CCC buildings as quarters for civilian employees of Camp Adair, a military cantonment located between Corvallis and Albany.

The state Forestry Department used the Sign Shop shortly after the CCC era for drying and cleaning tree seed. The "Inventory of Historic Properties" compiled by Benton County notes that the Camp's remaining facilities were used by firefighting organizations during World War II. In 1963, Oregon State University officially took over ownership and operation of Peavy Arboretum, including the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop at which time it was used for a variety of purposes to support the work being completed at the Arboretum related to the College of Forestry. For example, in 1980 the Sign Shop was used as storage by the Forest Genetics Laboratory; today it continues to be used for storage by the College of Forestry.

EXTANT CCC CAMP BUILDINGS IN OREGON

The Camp Arboretum Sign Shop stands as one of the only examples of CCC camp construction methods in Benton County and perhaps in Oregon. Very few camp buildings from the CCC era remain standing because most were not intended to be permanent structures. The first CCC camps in Oregon and throughout the United States were comprised of tents. These camps were generally replaced with camps of solid, "permanent" structures. Camp Arboretum is an example of this type of "permanent camp." In 1936, after Camp Arboretum was constructed, CCC Director Robert Fechner mandated that future camps would be constructed as "portable camps." From that time onward, building materials were pre-cut and of a standard design, making it easy to assemble, and more importantly, disassemble when the camp was to be transported to a new location.

Two buildings from Camp Arboretum other than the Sign Shop remain standing; however, both have been moved from their original locations. The infirmary remains but was moved outside of the Camp's boundaries and as of 1980 was used as a residence. The Camp's state Forestry Department office building was moved from its original site to Philomath, Oregon to house the Department of Forestry, West Oregon Philomath Office.

As opposed to the ranger stations, campground shelters, and other structures the CCC constructed for the Forest Service, very few CCC camp buildings are known to be extant across Oregon. One is "Building Number 1381," a barracks from Camp Angel in Waldport, Oregon. It had been constructed as a portable CCC camp; however, no records exist beyond the construction of the camp of any work projects accomplished or started by the workers in this camp because of the timing of its construction. Camp Angel was built in the spring and fall of 1941, and enrollees first occupied it in December, almost precisely as the United States entered World War II, which in a matter of months led to the end of the CCC. As of 1986, there was one other building standing from the Camp, but by that time it had been moved to Seal Rock, Oregon, and was privately owned.

Historian Stephen Dow Beckham identified two other extant CCC barracks at the University of Oregon Marine Biology Station in Charleston in 1986; however, he noted that they were marked for demolition that year as a part of a $3,000,000 construction project at that site. A study published in 1986 by the Forest Service mentions two remaining CCC camp buildings in Region 6, which covered Oregon and Washington. Both sites are in Washington and include Lost Lake Camp in Chelan (now Okanogan) Forest, and Growden CCC Camp in the Colville National Forest. The source mentions a possible third extant building, a mess hall at the Union Creek Young Adult Conservation Corps compound. This building is located in Oregon, but the study was unable to confirm that the structure was constructed as a CCC mess hall.

CONCLUSION

The Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is an excellent example of a Civilian Conservation Corps building constructed in Oregon. The Sign Shop was constructed as part of the New Deal programs established by Roosevelt between 1933 and 1938 which were aimed at providing relief to the jobless during the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps specifically employed young men to perform unskilled work in rural areas. This program provided relief to the 12 to 15 million Americans who were jobless and hungry. Locally, the work of the CCC had the impact of putting young men to work, while improving local forests, parks, and range lands.

The 1936 Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is typical of CCC buildings that were built in the mid-1930s to meet the immediate need for utilitarian forestry buildings. Because of its association with both the CCC and Oregon State University's Department of Forestry, the Camp Arboretum Sign Shop is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in the area of Conservation. The Sign Shop exhibits several distinctive features that are identified as characteristic of CCC utilitarian forestry buildings, including its original rectangular form, board-and-batten and horizontal board siding, exposed rafter ends, and rows of six-light windows. It is one of the few remaining examples of CCC building in Oregon.