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CCC Legacy Journal:
Nov./Dec 2009
Wyoming
Statue Dedication
Submitted
by Linda Fabian
Wyoming
History News
Photo
by: Kathy Wright
Friends of
Guernsey State Park were forced to cancel the unveiling of the CCC statue
scheduled for Sunday, October 11th at the Guernsey State Park Museum.
Thirteen inches of snow landed in Wyoming’s southeast corner, and with the
promise of wind, canceling the dedication seemed the only sensible thing to do.
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
said, “I promise to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple
work; more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and
spiritual value of such work.” Simple work it was
not. The results of what the CCC built around the state of Wyoming is
breathtaking, and is especially represented throughout Guernsey State Park.
More than 36,000 men served
in the CCC in Wyoming between 1933 and 1942. Two companies were located at
Guernsey Lake. Company 844 was located on the east side of the reservoir,
and Company 1855 was located on the west side. Competition between the two
companies resulted in extraordinary structures, including
the Sitting Bull and Castle picnic shelters, along with the “Million Dollar
Biffy,” probably the most elaborate latrine in the CCC system!
The Rustic style
architecture is especially evident at the park museum where the building and
displays are essentially intact since its construction in 1937. The floor
of the museum was quarried, assembled and numbered in Thermopolis. It was
then disassembled, shipped to the museum and then reassembled. A close
look still reveals some of the numbers on the museum floor. Guernsey State
Park remains a national gem and a living testament to the success of the CCC.
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Friends of Guernsey State Park 
