Program helped add to White Rock Lake's charm
Dallas: Reunion ends today for conservation corps started by FDR08:55 AM CDT on Saturday, September 30, 2006
Carl E. Parkey walked along a circle of trees in front of the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake.
He was looking for his tree – the last one he planted while a Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee more than 60 years ago.
"I hauled that tree in and put it there," the Pleasant Grove resident said. "Unless something happened to it, that's my tree."
Mr. Parkey had not been to White Rock Lake since he left President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Depression-era work program.
This visit was spontaneous. He learned Wednesday night about the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni reunion at the lake. The three-day event started Thursday.
"My daughter told me about it, and I just had to be here," he said.
Mr. Parkey was the only White Rock camp alumnus at the reunion. Others who worked the many projects at the lake and around Dallas are active in the organization but could not attend.
About 35 alumni plus their families attended a rededication Thursday of the recently restored Flag Pole Hill picnic pavilion. Constructing the recreation area at Flag Pole Hill, then called Doran's Point, was Company 2896's first big project, according to historian Steven Butler.
The reunion concludes today with the dedication of a Texas historical marker and other activities at Winfrey Point. Participants attended the State Fair of Texas and a banquet dinner Friday.
The Dallas Park and Recreation Department is sponsoring the event. The city wants to honor the corps' contributions to the lake, said Sally Rodriguez, the department's volunteer historian.
"White Rock Lake would not be the lake we know without the CCC," she said. "It wouldn't have the same character."
The White Rock camp opened in 1935. During the program's seven-year run, 4,500 camps operated nationwide, mostly in national parks. Dallas was one of the few municipalities to get one.
Civilian Conservation Corps workers not only built many of White Rock Lake's existing amenities, they performed the first lake dredging, Mr. Butler said.
"I think the CCC itself, not just at White Rock but in the nation, was one of the greatest things to ever happen to this country," he said.
At the depth of the Depression, unemployment was at 25 percent and even higher among young workers. The corps put young, unmarried men in camps across the country.
"It saved our country," said alumni association president Walter Atwood of Columbia, S.C. "And the money we sent home, it helped the families and also the communities."
Those who enrolled to perform public works projects earned $30 per month but sent $25 to their families.
Jim Leavelle of Garland joined at 17 and was stationed in Red Rock, N.M. His brother went to Oregon.
"There wasn't anything to do. There was no work," Mr. Leavelle said. "We probably did millions of dollars worth of work, and we were basically working for $5 a month.
"But in a lot of cases like my family, they needed the money. Twenty-five dollars went a long way back then."
Kathy Mays Smith of Dallas has written two books about the CCC, one about the White Rock camp. Her interest was piqued when she discovered her father commanded a camp in West Virginia.
"It's a wonderful bunch of people. These men are so patriotic and so appreciative of anybody who recognizes them," Ms. Smith said. "They didn't want handouts. They didn't want charity. They wanted jobs, but there weren't any."
Mr. Leavelle certainly has stories to tell. He is a World War II veteran who survived Pearl Harbor. More famously, he was the Dallas police officer handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot the accused presidential assassin.
But in his mind, neither brush with history outshined his experience in the Civilian Conservation Corps. "I'm as proud of the CCC as I am of my involvement in the other two," he said.
E-mail elangton@dallasnews.com
Bachman Lake picnic pavilion, benches and fireplaces
Big Thicket, Sunset Bay and Winfrey Point buildings at White Rock Lake
Dixon Branch lily pond and bridge
East Lawther Drive entrance to White Rock Lake
Fair Park centennial celebration
Flag Pole Hill (formerly Doran's Point)
Highway construction
Water fountains, picnic tables and more than 20,000 tree plantings at White Rock Lake
White Rock Lake dredging