TELLICO PLAINS, Tenn. — It has been 75 years since the first Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the Southeastern United States was built near Tellico Plains and manned on May 18, 1933.
Now a special anniversary open house has been scheduled so former CCC workers, relatives and the public can visit the site, which is now the Tellico Ranger District office of the Cherokee National Forest.
Cherokee National Forest spokesman Terry McDonald said visitors will be able to see the original ranger office and an original ranger’s house that have been renovated after falling into disrepair.
“It will be open to visitors throughout most of the day,” Mr. McDonald said.
He hopes former CCC workers and their families will come to the event. He said guides will be posted at sites around the former camp to explain how it worked and where things were.
The picturesque ranger office is in a cove along the Tellico River that is home to spruce trees, wildflowers, mountain laurel and a small mountain stream.
The CCC was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1933, and the Tellico site was established by CCC Company 1453 from Fort Oglethorpe. Mr. McDonald said the location was one of the first established in the country and the first of several built in the Cherokee National Forest area.
Tellico District spokeswoman Mary Dodson said there were about 200 workers at the site. They built what is now the ranger station and the home, which have been preserved.
When the corps was founded, most of the forest had been cut and hauled away by lumber companies, she said. The CCC helped restore the land.
“CCC workers planted trees, fought wildfires, built roads and did natural resource work,” Ms. Dodson said.
Former Tellico Plains Mayor Charles Hall said most of the lumbering was over in the area by 1928.
He said seven CCC camps were built in the area, including one at Coker Creek.
Many of the Tellico District employees are natives of the area and are well versed in the history of the site.
Tellico District Secretary Oma Roberts’ family has lived in the area for generations. She said her mother talks of the time before the district was formed.
“This was originally a cornfield,” Ms. Roberts said of the site where the district office stands. “My mother played here in this area, and she can remember the CCC boys when they moved in and went to work.”
Work was complete in the area in 1934, and the Tellico group moved to establish a camp at Reelfoot Lake in West Tennessee. The Forest Service office then was located in downtown Tellico Plains but moved to the former CCC site in 1937, Ms. Dodson said.
Restoration work on the ranger station and ranger home began about two years ago, she said.
“The ranger home was not usable and was going to be condemned,” Ms. Dodson said. The roof leaked, the floors were warped and there were many other problems. But the district decided it was too valuable to tear down and included it in the renovation program, she said.
Now the home is used to house visiting rangers, research workers and fire crews coming into the district. It includes a full kitchen, rooms with bunkbeds and showers.
Ms. Dodson said the upstairs portion of the home still has the original paneling, flooring and walls.
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