CCC Camps in Bossier Parish, Part 3

Continued from March 16, 2022

The previous 2 weeks we explored the CCC camps on Barksdale Air Field and in Haughton, LA. Those camps were charged with improvements to the young military reservation at Barksdale, such as creating landing fields and roads out of wilderness and were categorized as “A” (for Army) camps and, in Haughton, were designated “SCS” for soil conservation on private agricultural land. This week, let’s look at the work and recreational life of the Plain Dealing camp.

In 1939, men from the 3498/C at Barksdale and a few from camp 3499/C of Haughton were transferred to a new camp at Plain Dealing in north Bossier Parish toward the Arkansas line. Their project number was P-81, the P designating it a forestry project on a private forest. Their company number remained 3498. 

Forestry and forest products were and are a valuable source of income for the state of Louisiana and Bossier Parish. It goes without saying, the need to protect Louisiana’s forests became a high priority. The U.S. Forest Service instructed that the CCC could work forestry projects on private lands that participated in the Clarke-McNary program, where landowners contributed two cents per acre annually to the Division of Forestry for fire protection. 

On the 14 forestry camps on private land in Louisiana, the projects worked toward forest fire protection using the latest science on the topic. Roads and fire breaks were constructed through the forest, fire hazards reduced, telephone lines constructed, and fire lookout towers were constructed. Sometimes the crews did actual firefighting. Overall, Louisiana’s CCC crews built 31 fire towers, 10 tower residences, 2,998 bridges, 2,142 miles of telephone lines, 63 cattle guards, and 3,070 miles of truck trails.  

In the History Center’s collection we have much less material on the Plain Dealing camp than on the Haughton and Barksdale camps to learn about camp activities. However, the nationwide newspaper for the CCC, Happy Days, shows that like all other CCC camps, recreational opportunities in Plain Dealing included many sports and Plain Dealing had strong representation in the District E “Negro Olympics.” In fact, the Plain Dealing camp won the 1939 volleyball championship, defeating Saucier, Mississippi. Louisiana CCC companies were established within District E of the Fourth Corps Area of the U.S. Army, which included Louisiana and the southwestern portion of Mississippi.

On July 11, 1940 The Bossier Banner praised the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps. “Here in Bossier Parish we have had several CCC Camps in the past few years.  We regret that the last is now being moved from Bellevue to some other section.” The editor delineated the continued needs he saw for CCC work in Bossier, which called on greatly expanding much of the same type of military base improvement, soil conservation, and forestry work already conducted by Bossier’s CCC camps.

When World War II began and the draft went into operation, Congress voted to close the CCC program as the need for work relief declined. Nevertheless, the benefits of the CCC continued on through the War. Capt. J.E. Kidd, a staff officer in the CCC program at Camp Beauregard in Louisiana who served with distinction as a colonel in Europe during World War II, often acknowledged the role the CCC played in the Allied victory. He stated that the CCC had prepared the men physically and mentally for the dangers and hardships imposed by war, and their CCC experience helped them qualify in a variety of military specialties. 

To learn more about CCC Camps in Bossier and surrounding parishes, please visit us in the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. If you have any information, stories or photos about the Bossier Parish CCC Camps, we would love to see them or to copy them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok

Photo: Sports page in the Sept. 16, 1939 issue of  Happy Days – The Weekly Newspaper of the Civilian Conservation Corps, detailing the first Negro CCC Olympics between Mississippi and Louisiana teams  (District “E” of 4^th Corps Area) and Company 3498 of Plain Dealing’s championship win in volleyball.

Article by: Pam Carlisle