In May, 1933, fifty men were gathered together in San Francisco under the command of Captain J. R. Cameron, CA-U.S.A., to form the nucleus of Company 1910. Aided by several non-commissioned officers, Captain Cameron proceeded with his men to Indian Creek, California, which was then and until about a year later in the Redding District, and on May 25, 1933, construction of a camp was begun.

         Camp buildings had been almost completed on June 19 when the main body arrived from Los Angeles to bring the company strength up to the 206 mark. Under the superintendence of Mr. Ray O. Breiding, who has remained with the company from the time of its inception to the present day, projects were immediately begun.

         The Happy Camp bridge, a 300-foot, all –steel suspension structure across the Klamath was the first project completed; work on the construction of two truck trails and the improvement of one road was carried on at the same time.

         Captain William Ryan, present Welfare Officer, took command in November 1933, remaining for more than a year. In this important first year of camp building and job organization the new company was fortunate in not being hampered by forest fires. The men bent all their energies to pushing forward the roadwork. In the summer of 1934 three road projects were simultaneously carried on from the main camp and two spike camps. The company held the flag almost continually and was runner-up for the rating of the finest amp of the Ninth Corp Area. Thirty miles of road was put up into the Siskiyous before snows drove the workers to lower levels, where they spent the winter gravelling the completed roads and road-side clearings.

         The favor of fortune that spared fire duty failed in another way, for a meningitis case put the camp into a working quarantine for almost the duration of the winter.

         In January 1935, Captain Guy W. Saunders, Inf. Res. took command and remained until September 1937. Road building was continued throughout the summer. The company upheld its record of never letting a fire get out of control or grow into dangerous size. But in March 1936, a call from the city of Shasta sent the men 120 miles to tramp through snow-filled forests against a serious fire. Two days fighting were ended by a snowstorm that came up and smothered the blaze, against which the fighters frozen tank wagons had made little headway.

         On June 15, 1936, the Indian Creek location was given over to a spike camp and the main cap was moved to a river-side, mountain-circled site in Seiad Valley, where the abandoned barracks were reoccupied by Company 1910 in a drenching downpour.

         A project of building campgrounds and developing recreation areas up and down the river was now begun. In the spring of 1937 machinery was regained and work on the mountainous China Creek road was resumed, bringing the total mileage of road construction close to 100. Most of the roads have been built over uneven, fairly rocky mountain areas, necessitating the removal of approximately 7,000 cubic yards of dirt per mile.

         Eight campgrounds, two ranger stations, and two guard stations have been completed. The four lookout stations were constructed by spike camps that perched on the mountain tops, transporting the timber and cement for towers by mule pack trains over the trails that they later made into roads.

         The company pre-casts campground stoves and concrete cribbing for the entire forest. It has put up fifty miles of telephone line and built four steel bridges.

         The camp athletic activities produced outstanding baseball teams in the early years and a district champion basketball team in the winter of 1935-36. The fighters of 1910 have made consistently excellent showings in Medford boxing contests.

         In 1936 a building to provide schoolrooms and house the company’s 3,000 books, one of the district’s finest libraries, was completed.

         Numerous enrollees have been promoted to Forestry positions, including the five bulldozer operators, one bridge foreman, two junior assistant technicians, three semi-skilled laborers, and one junior foreman.

         The present commanding officer is Captain Albin M. Cibula, CA-Res; 2^nd Lieut. Warren S. LeRoy, CW-Res., is Camp Adjutant; Mr. Maurice M. Gentle is Education Adviser; Dr. Henry Staff, Camp Surgeon.

Seiad Camp 1910 Memories

     Now 83 years old, Chuck Edwards of Tracy, CA. remembers fondly his years in the Indian Creek, Seiad, and Yreka CCC camps during the mid 1930’s.

         Chuck remembered many of the enrollees” Bob Walters and Holly Thomas were close friends. Bob was in Fremont High School in Oakland, CA when he joined the CCC’s. He came home on a short leave telling me all about Happy Camp and what the CCC’s offered to him by living in the mountains, clothed, well fed, making $30. a month and sending his folks $25. a month. This was when I decided to join but being only 15 years old, I had to recreate my birth date by using my cousin’s birth certificate and ID. This was no problem and I was lucky to be sent to Happy Camp with some help from Bob. My family really needed the money and I was so happy to be free from attending school and to get out of Oakland and to get fed regular meals. The 30’s depression made my dad struggle to keep a home and family.

         After arriving in the Indian Creek camp, Holly became my leadman and a friend. We fished Indian Creek, borrowed horses, hiked on weekends, went to HC to see a movie in back of the hotel, played the hometown ball team and looked at all the pretty girls in town.

         I also remember Biage Arrietta and his buddy was Lou Bari, they came from North Beach in San Francisco, a very Italian neighborhood. When Holly became a lead man, I took his place as Biage’s timber falling partner. He refused to work with me because I had no experience other than I could swing an axe left-handed. Biage just had to accept me since there were no other left-handers and I had no fear of working off a springboard up in the air. I was later transferred to Seiad Valley to be trained as a tree faller on the China Creek road project then on to Yreka Forest Service Maintenance shops until 1938 when I decided to return to school.

         Gabby Miller and Ken Fox were my friends. Vince Costa was a truck driver and raised close to my neighborhood in the Bay area.

         When World War II broke out, we were all just the age to make the Armed Service. I know Holly had a couple of Purple Hearts.  After the war, I heard Bob Walters did not survive the war in Europe. He was on an Armored Tank, making it all thru the invasion and across France. The war was officially over and they were entering a town to accept their surrender, Bob was standing up in the turret when a sniper shot and killed him.

         Lawrence Roberts was the construction foreman at the camp and I remember him well, and his brother, Ernest was dozer operator. I also remember Bob Hutton, he was also from the Bay Area. He married a local girl from Happy Camp and they raised a family.

         My last part of the CCC enlistment was in the Yreka Spike camp in back of the forest Service Shops along Hwy 99. I worked under a man named Cook who taught me a lot about the Machinists Trade, we had a Lathe Planer Radial Drill Press so when I left the CCC to enter a trade school, the teacher saw that I had enough training to be a qualified Machinist saving me from serving a 4yr. Apprenticeship.