CCC Camp Zane

Camp Zane was located at Zane Caverns from 1935 to 1941

Camp Zane men planting trees at high point in the spring of 1939

Camp Zane men planting trees at high point in the spring of 1939

Joseph Bis, a Toledo WWI Veteran, with his two pet crows, Amos and Andy at Camp Zane

Sketch of Camp Zane from the March 28, 1938, In-Zane Monthly newsletter

Belle Center Herald Voice newspaper article from April 18, 1935

Belle Center Herald Voice newspaper article from November 2, 1935

Newspaper article from November 19, 1939, about Camp Zane men helping fight a grass fire

Newspaper article from April 11, 1940, about nine Logan County men joining the CCC

President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, with an executive order on April 5, 1933. The CCC was part of his New Deal legislation, combating high unemployment during the Great Depression by putting hundreds of thousands of young men to work on environmental conservation projects. The CCC planted more than three billion trees on land made barren from fires, natural erosion, intensive agriculture, or lumbering. They constructed trails and shelters in more than seven hundred parks nationwide during its nine years of existence.

In 1934, Charles and Herbert Richey, owners of Zane Caverns, started making arrangements for a Civilian Conservation Corp camp on their property. On August 18, 1935, Camp Zane 1575-Vet was officially opened with approximately 130 World War I Veterans. The CCC veteran camps were for military veterans who had served in previous wars, mostly from WWI but some also served in the Spanish-American War. Camp Zane was established to help with soil erosion in Jefferson and Monroe Townships, as well as other parts of Logan County.

When Camp Zane opened, C. M. Tucker was the Superintendent of the camp. When the men left to work, they were under the direction of Superintendent Haines Reichel. Paul Burkhart was the Forestry Technician for Camp Zane. He also taught agricultural classes to local farmers during the 1940’s and 1950’s. and worked closely with Logan County Farm Agents.

Camp Zane was initially set up with ten large tents for sleeping quarters. Other tents were set up for the mess hall, officers’ quarters and for supplies and other needs. The camp site was on ten acres of ground near the entrance to Zane Caverns and later had around two hundred enrollees.

The Richeys charged Camp Zane one dollar a year rent for a five-year period. The men dug ditches, put in tile, planted trees, and terraced the land. They also provided education and improvements for pasture, woods, gully management, soil erosion, and strip-cropping. 

Each year, approximately thirty Logan County men worked in other CCC camps in Ohio and Kentucky. They were required to report to Army officers in Springfield for physical examinations to be eligible to work at CCC camps. They then traveled to Camp Knox, Kentucky for two weeks’ physical training before receiving their assignments.

The CCC men were often called upon to help with other duties in Logan County. About 1937, they assisted with a house fire in New Jerusalem. When they arrived, it was determined the house was a total loss; however, some of the contents could be saved. The men formed a line, went through the house, and retrieved as many items as they could before the house was completely engulfed in flames. Another time, Camp Zane was called upon to help put out a grass fire on the William Bosart farm in Jefferson Township. The brigade of twenty men had the fire under control in less than thirty minutes. Another time they helped fight a large grass fire that had spread over twenty-five acres near Zanesfield. The CCC men using special equipment were able to halt the fire before it reached any buildings.

In 1938, Camp Zane was a processing center for CCC enrollees of the Ninth Corp Area. Approximately six hundred men from several attachments were examined, equipped, and then dispatched as far west as California, Oregon, and Washington. Special arrangements were made with the Big Four Railway for transportation of the CCC men.

Logan County also had a Civilian Conservation Corp camp at Avondale, Indian Lake from July 15, 1935, to October 25, 1935. The camp members dredged parts of Indian Lake, cleared ground, and did general cleanup of the area. After the camp closed, some of the members went to Camp Zane.

Each year Camp Zane held an open house for the public to see the camp and hear about their work and accomplishments. Music was provided by the American Legion band, they showed films and had various entertainment. They also had a monthly newsletter titled “In-Zane Monthly.” One of the camp members, Joseph Bis, a WWI veteran from Toledo, had two pet crows, Amos, and Andy while he was stationed at Camp Zane.

In November 1936, Camp Zane along with vocational agriculture teachers, conducted a “woodland contest”. George Antrim, a Zanesfield High School student, won first place when he chopped down a 6-inch beech tree in one minute, twenty-two seconds. Frank Whaley was two seconds slower. Joe Steckler won the sawing contest when sawed a 15-inch beech log in two minutes, seventeen seconds.

In November 1939, twenty-five men from Camp Zane went to Hardin County to assist at Allendale, a 210-acre farm west of Kenton. It was a model farm that showed the benefits of strip-cropping and other soil conservation polices. Work there included rebuilding a dam, fences, planting 25,000 trees, and converting twenty acres for wildlife. The project provided opportunities for CCC work in fish, pasture, wildlife and woodlot management, reforestation, and soil erosion control.

For the April 1940 open house, the camp showed two motion pictures, “The River”, a pictorial illustration of water erosion and “Green Acres” a film about the study of soil erosion. They reported “one hundred seventy farmers owning 26,128 acres had signed cooperative agreements with the camp. The farmers agreed to follow an agronomic program to strip crop 1,590 acres, retire 1,940 acres of cultivated land to permanent meadow, pasture, and woodland and to treat 1,230 acres of pasture with fertilizer and manure. They also agreed to protect 1,660 acres of woodland from fire and grazing.”

“Camp Zane aided cooperators in constructing 39.7 miles of terraces which protected 940 acres, planted 2,780,000 trees and 304,500 seed spots. Other demonstrational work included stream bank protection, timber stand improvement and 22,330 rods of fence construction to facilitate strip cropping and protect wood lots.”

Camp Zane closed in 1941, and at that time, Zane Caverns also closed for several years.