Contrary to the general service impression, it has not always been a case of the Navy with the CCC. In some instances at least, the reverse is true, for the Naval Ammunition Depot, Puget Sound, has been fortunate enough, since November, 1933, to have had the services of a unit camp of the Civilian Conservation Corps. If the benefits accruing to the depot during that period can be taken as a measure of the worth of that organization to the country as a whole, the Civilian Conservation Corps in some form could well be made a permanent activity of the government.
This depot, located about four miles from Bremerton, Washington, consists of some 428 acres of land adjacent to Ostrich Bay, an arm of Puget Sound. Approximately 325 of those acres are wooded with second growth fir, hemlock, and cedar, and since the land was acquired by the Navy, there has been little or no money available to establish and maintain a satisfactory condition within the woods against the start or spread of forest fires. Snags had been left standing, ready to catch a flying spark; under foot was a continuous brush heap of dry branches and fallen timber, and trails and paths over which a threatened point might be reached were entirely lacking.
Woods of this character enclosed the magazine-industrial area on three sides. Two recently constructed high explosive magazines were of necessity so placed that they were entirely surrounded by a particularly heavy brush heap lying in a thicket of young Douglas firs. The situation was made more uncomfortable by the absence of fencing around the magazines.
Therefore, the first task set the CCC camp was the removal or mitigation of the menace of forest fires. This has been done at the cost of some 30,000 man-days of labor. First came a fire break along the depot boundary fence, to give room to work against the spread of fire from without. Then some six miles of fire trails were built within the depot woods, to enable a patrol to be maintained and a fire crew to be moved where needed. The fire break and the inner trails were made so that light trucks could use them and that involved grading, ditching, and graveling, as well as the construction of four bridges. Finally, with access to all parts of the depot established, the woods were "brushed," snags felled, trash burned, and sound down timber was brought out and salvaged. Not only have the woods been made more secure against fire, but incidentally the neglected look is gone and they have become a park in all but name.
The second most important improvement needed was a dependable all-weather road from the center of the depot to the paved state highway leading to Bremerton. For many years the only connecting links between the depot and the state highway have been two unpaved and largely unimproved dirt roads that were logging trails in earlier years. Rains, increased traffic, and more rains have closed them from time to time. As the local authorities had failed to insure their usefulness under all conditions, the CCC camp was called on to build entirely within the depot about 3/4 of a mile of hard surfaced highway directly connecting the depot center and the contiguous state highway. This in turn called for a new gateway, a guardhouse, and the development of the entrance and roadway in keeping with the surroundings and the activity it was to serve.
An idea of the workmanlike manner in which this task has been accomplished can be gathered from the accompanying pictures. The wrought-iron gates, paved roadway, street lighting, planting and landscaping, as well as the two happily conceived and skillfully constructed log cabins, all are the work of the CCC camp located on the depot.
Numerous other projects much less extensive than the foregoing developments have been carried to an equally successful conclusion. They have served the same object, namely, increased security for the naval property at the depot and improvement of its roadways and grounds. All are of the type that would be deferred indefinitely if dependent on funds provided in the regular appropriation bills. If the National Park and National Forest Services have been similarly handicapped in the past and have profited in like measure through the instrumentality of the Civilian Conservation Corps, with its hundreds of camps in the national parks and forests, this work relief agency has indeed proved its permanent value. (See illustrations pp. 783-90.)