Lind: Memories of Fargo's CCC

Neighbors carried a story a few weeks ago about the Civilian Conservation Corps camp located in Fargo in the late 1930s.

The information for it came from Vernon Huseby, 90, formerly of Enderlin, N.D. He was a member of the camp.

Now Vernon provides additional details of life there.

He says he spent a lot of time in the camp's library. "I hungered for an education," he writes, "so I spent most of my spare time there.

"It was run by a civilian named Edward Mueller, who was a graduate of some prestigious college in the eastern USA. He was a very nice man and was kind and patient with those of us who did not have much formal education. He also had a boy assistant named Elmer Holland, who was one of my best friends."

Vernon has both good and bad memories of the CCC experience. But "most were good," he says. "It was great meeting many good men from all over the state and a joy working with them. It was also good to learn how to do many new things."

The bad side, he says, "was our pay was only $30 a month, $25 of which was sent home to our parents, so we got only $5 a month for necessities."

Hungry teenager

Vernon tells of Thanksgiving in 1937 when the CCC men were given four days off.

"My friend and I got a pass so we could go home," he says.

"We took the Marion (N.D.) branch of the Northern Pacific Railway; it had a passenger car at the rear end of the freight train.

"We got up early and missed breakfast as the train left at 7 a.m.

"We walked all the way from the east end of Ninth Avenue North (where the camp was located) to the foot of Broadway.

"The train crew did not want to miss their noon meal, and Casselton had the only open restaurant on the line, so the crew ate there.

"The train was scheduled to be in Nome at 11 a.m., but we did not get there until 4 p.m., a little late for my dinner. It had been almost 24 hours since I had eaten, a long time for a teenager."

Big pay raise

Vernon worked on a variety of CCC projects. He put barbwire fences around shelterbelts, dug waterholes for farmers ("The hard way, with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows," he says), helped survey land for shelterbelts, and he worked in the Soil Conservation office during the winter making miniature farms to depict conservation practices.

Eventually he was named an assistant field leader and given a $6 pay hike. "I now had 11 whole dollars for my own," he writes joyfully.

Vernon and his wife now live in a condo in south Fargo. From it, they can see the stream of traffic on 45th Street South, which he says is "a contrast to the time I spent in the CCC camp and we drove the length of Broadway in our CCC trucks without meeting a car."

As was true for the majority of the CCC boys, Vernon served in the military during World War II, serving in the Air Corps in the Panama Canal Zone.

The CCC now is long gone, and Fargo has changed a great deal. But the memories for Vernon linger on.

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107; fax it to 241-5487; or e-mail blind@forumcomm.com