News

'Roosevelt's Tree Army' left its mark in DuPage

Posted April 28, 2009 11:00 pm

By Susan Dibble

CCC workers transport a big tree cut from the woods. Courtesy of Cook County Forest Preserve District

Coming of age during the Great Depression, Don Hocking of Westmont didn't see much opportunity for a job except maybe as a caddie at the Butterfield Golf Club.

But at age 18, Hocking enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps, the emergency work program started by President Franklin Roosevelt to employ young men doing conservation projects on public lands. Hocking was sent to northern Michigan where for 18 months he felled trees, helped construct bridges and built roads in forests to fight fires.

"We only got $5 a month for spending money and the other $25 went home," he said, adding that he got a raise when he was made canteen clerk.

"When I got that job, it gave me an extra $6. Man, I was rich," he said.

Hocking, who soon turns 93, will share his experiences of working in the CCC at 1 p.m. May 3 at Graue Mill and Museum, 3800 York Road, Oak Brook. Bob Good of the University of Illinois Extension will accompany Hocking with a PowerPoint presentation of photographs showing the CCC's restoration of Graue Mill and other construction work at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve where the mill is located.

Both Graue Mill and Museum and the Fullersburg Woods Visitor Center have exhibits on the CCC, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year.

The CCC camp at Fullersburg was one of four in the DuPage County area and among more than 4,000 across the country.

Dubbed "Roosevelt's Tree Army," nearly 3 million men served in the CCC from 1933 to 1942. Their work included the construction of buildings and trails in state and national parks, reforestation, erosion projects and renovation of historic structures.

In addition to their monthly stipend, CCC workers were given food, lodging, clothing and medical care. Many gained valuable work skills and even academic instruction.

Hocking spent a year at a camp in Ontogon, Mich., on the shore of Lake Superior and then was sent Isle Royal National Park in Michigan to help establish a camp there. The men worked five days a week and could go into town on weekends, he recalled. It was a good experience, Hocking said.

"They taught you how to get along with people because you're in a camp with maybe 250 to 300 men. You can't be just for yourself all the time," he said.

Sandy Brubaker, executive director of the DuPage Graue Mill Corporation, said visitors might not be enjoying Graue Mill and Museum today if it had not been for the CCC. Operated by three generations of the Graue family, the mill had been a center of economic life in the 19th century and served as a stop on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves.

By the 1930s, the mill had come into the possession of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District but was in deteriorating condition.

"The mill was just sitting derelict," Brubaker said.

CCC workers removed two later additions to the mill, reconstructed the gears and replaced the waterwheel that had been removed. They also reconstructed the interior of the building, the millrace and dam.

The workers lived in a camp on the Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve that had been established on Hill Top Prairie. The handsome limestone and timber building that serves today as the Fullersburg Woods Visitor Center was constructed by the CCC as a boathouse.

"The logs and everything here is pretty much the original," naturalist Dave Andrusyk said. "Everything was done by hand. All these logs were cut and shaped by hand."

The oak logs were cut from the preserve and the dolomite limestone most likely was mined in Lemont, Andrusyk said.

"If you look really carefully, you can see fossils," he said.

The structure served as a boathouse until pollution put a stop to boating on Salt Creek in 1970. The floating wood dock has been replaced by a concrete floor and a deck added to the upper floor, which once housed a bistro to sell refreshments. Downstairs the Nature Discovery Room reveals fireplaces and limestone ledge seats built by the CCC.

Other work done by the corps at Fullersburg included the construction of the present-day parking lot, bridges and trailside shelters. The largest shelter, the Riverbend Shelter, features another fireplace and is used by the forest preserve today for its maple syrup program in the spring.

McDowell Grove Forest Preserve in Naperville was the site of another CCC camp. Corps workers built bridges, a limestone dam on the West Branch of the DuPage River, picnic shelters and a boathouse and dredged the McDowell lagoon, according to a Spring 1998 article in the DuPage Conservationist.

Workers from the McDowell camp also planted trees in Pioneer and Burlington parks in Naperville, built a shelter and parking lot at Pioneer Park, constructed a still-existing dam at Warrenville Grove Forest Preserve, and dredged a lake at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve in Wheaton.

During World War II, the McDowell camp was taken over by the Army, which had a radar training school there.

Two more CCC camps were located in Elmhurst and in St. Charles, near the border with West Chicago. CCC workers in St. Charles planted trees along North Avenue from Fox River to the Des Plaines River. In Elmhurst, they landscaped the new north-south route Illinois 54 (now Illinois 83) from Roosevelt Road south to Joliet Road.

In other work in the DuPage County forest preserves, the CCC built a shelter at York Woods Forest Preserve in Oak Brook and constructed a waterfall on Sawmill Creek at Waterfall Glen in Darien.

Workers build picnic tables. Courtesy of Cook County Forest Preserve District

Graue Mill in Oak Brook stood derelict before its restoration by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Courtesy of Cook County Forest Preserve District

Civilian Conservation Corps workers at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve built what is now the Visitor Center of oak cut from the preserve and limestone quarried in Lemont. Fossils can be seen in the rock. Bev Horne | Staff Photographer

Civilian Conservation Corps workers construct a boathouse at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve in the 1930s. The structure now serves as the preserve's Visitor Center. Courtesy of Cook Forest Preserve District

The Riverbend Shelter at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps with a fireplace that is used during the preserve's maple syrup days in the spring. Bev Horne | Staff Photographer

Corps workers carry logs for construction at Fullersburg. All the work was done by hand. Courtesy of Cook County Forest Preserve District

Naturalist Dave Andrusyk shows the Nature Discovery classroom downstairs in the Visitor Center. Along the wall are limestone ledge seats that are original to the building. Bev Horne | Staff Photographer

The Visitor Center at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve in Oak Brook was built as a boathouse by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The deck and the outdoor wall facing Salt Creek were added later. Bev Horne | Staff Photographer

Corps workers stand before the completed boathouse at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve. Courtesy of Cook County Forest Preserve District

If you go What: Westmont resident Don Hocking talks about his experiences in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s When: 1 p.m. May 3 Where: Graue Mill and Museum, 3800 York Road, Oak Brook Cost: $3.50 adults, $3 seniors, $1.50 children Info: (630) 655-2090 or (630) 920-9720

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