CCC Camp Fairchild

 Something I ran across recently....

This sign is a bit difficult to read thanks to the attentions of various perching birds.  But it reads: FORMER SITE OF CCC CAMP FAIRCHILD COMPANY 1605 1933-1942.

This seems straightforward, but actually isn't.

There is a very helpful 1937 document on the CCC Camps of Wisconsin.  It indicates that Company 1605 was organized in June of 1933 at a Camp Fairchild that was roughly ten miles from where this sign is standing.  A lengthy description in the Eau Claire Leader from August describes an orderly, military style camp where 190 men lived in tents, operating on a military basis with bugle calls waking them up each morning.  The main work was related to the prevention of forest fires, through brush clearing and such, and fighting of same.

The article gives an interesting glimpse of how CCC camps were organized: "Drawn from company personnel is a permanent detail consisting of one company foreman, one company clerk, one supply clerk, two first aid men, one steward, seven cooks, seven group foremen (each in charge of a sub-organization of 24 men), one truck driver, one mail orderly, one athletic director and librarian, two guards and one charge of area."

 In November of '33 they moved to the spot shown above, right on the edge of Fairchild.  The old camp was presumably abandoned and the name transferred.

Although they arrived fairly late in the year 1605 seems to have been pretty industrious in the "new" Camp Fairchild. Among other things they dammed up the creek behind the camp to make a small lake,  and seem to have constructed a number of buildings.

After spending winter and spring on this site 1605 moved to another camp near Gilmonton for a summer of "erosion control work".  On their return to Fairchild the first thing they had to do was rebuild the previous wooden dam out of rock and cement.  It has held up well, traces of it can be seen in the modern dam that still holds back the Fairchild Mill Pond.  As an aside, I can see no visible evidence of a mill anywhere around this site, despite the fact that Fairchild was essentially a company town for a giant lumber mill somewhere nearby.....*

The first edition of the camp newspaper "Reville" came out in November of '34.  The nifty arches at the camp entrance were probably real, many camps had elaborate structures like this and were proud of them.  I suspect this is the exact perspective of the 2024 photo above, now a baseball field.

The second issue of the "Reveille" is largely focused on a camp wide quarantine that kept men confined over the holidays.  Scarlet fever and chickenpox went through the place. 

It is frustratingly difficult to get a sense of what the physical layout of the camp was.  The in house newspaper only drops hints.  There would be no need to describe in detail the things their readers saw every day.  But its clear it was a more substantial affair than the early tent city Camp Fairchild.  We know this because of the Dances.....

There seem to have been two of these in February of 1934.  They are described in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram.  This was presumably during the first stay at Camp Fairchild.  According to the article:

  "The first C.C.C. dance in Eau Claire county will be held at Camp Fairchild, Friday, February 9th."

"It is planned to throw open to the public at least the mess hall and recreation room and to have the grounds open for inspection so that guests may see how the boys actually live."

"Local business men and their wives and ladies are being asked to attend as sponsors of the affair".

A follow up article and announcement of a second dance based on the success of the first say that there were approximately 400 people in attendance.  Trucks were dispatched to area communities to bring guests in.  The dancing was in the mess hall, with the recreation room being elaborately decorated and used as a place for people to rest up.

It sounds as if there were a number of permanent buildings at Camp Fairchild.  But its occupation remained on and off.

1605, the CCC Company most associated with Camp Fairchild, moved around a lot.  The went back to Camp Gilmanton in the summer of 1934 to do more erosion control work.  They returned in October, only to move permanently to a camp in Dodge Wisconsin in the summer of 1935.  The 1937 CCC history refers to Dodge as a "portable camp" that was designed to be moved in quickly with the contents of 14 boxcars.  This seems to fit with 1605 being something of a mobile force.

At this point the Great Depression was starting to ease a bit, and the CCC was no longer expanding.  A new company, 3669, was moved in but records of events at Camp Fairchild become scarce at this point.  

When Camp Globe, some 10 miles to the north, was closed in December of 1937, it was noted that the nearest CCC Camp was at City Point which is most of the way to Wisconsin Rapids.  It was noted that the Federal Government was scaling back the CCC program, and that only 12 of the original 26 camps remained.  Curiously I did find a solitary reference in 1939 to a new superintended being appointed to Camp Fairchild, so perhaps it remained in intermittent use to that point.

So what remains?  Well, if the run of camp newspapers interests you they have been  digitally preserved.    Much of the information within is of more daily than historic interest, but here's a page that alludes to the members of 1605 doing occasional radio programs, excelling in sports, and winning the "Best Camp Award".

And what else is left?  What trace is there of Saturday night movies and social dances and a life of outdoor work in a quasi military establishment?

Not much compared with other CCC camps I've explored.  The road by it is still called Camp Road.  On the lake side there are new homes now, and a baseball field that the athletes of 1605 would have really appreciated.  On the other side is an RV park/campground that would obscure any previous building.  But if you do a bit more looking around, on the shores of the lake that the CCC claims to have created you will find this:

Nothing fancy, just a floor surface.  Could it have been part of the mess hall where CCC Boys and local Belles danced to the tunes of the Keller Brothers Orchestra eighty years ago?

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* It took a bit of searching old maps, but the big mill was indeed on the mill pond, just nowhere near the dam.  It was steam powered, not water powered and the pond was just for log storage.  As the mill went out of business in 1905 it is plausible that the CCC just rebuilt a deteriorated dam 29 years later.

Addendum:  The buildings of Camp Fairchild were demolished in 1936 by a crew from CCC Camp Globe.  The connection between these two camps was close.  Personnel went back and forth between them, and when Fairchild closed Globe acquired two dump trucks!