Narrator: Harry Hart
It is April the 22nd, 2001. I am at 11392 E 25th Place, Yuma, Arizona, 85367. My name is Harry T. Hart. I was 18 years old when I entered the CCC's in October of 1940. I served at NP-7 at Glen Creek, Yellowstone National Park. I was about seven miles from Gardiner, Montana.
My family are Native Americans. My Dad was a railroader in Ohio, before the First World War. After he came back, we moved to West Virginia; I was 6 months old. I lived in West Virginia until I went into the CCCs and the United States Navy. I have three brothers, two died as infants; three sisters, one died as infant. I finished three years of high school; got a GED test after I came out of the Navy.
I read a lot. I read about the CCCs in the newspaper, I wasn't recruited. I went to Moundsville, West Virginia, on 10/14 of 1940. I was there until 10/19/1940. Then, I went to Yellowstone, Yellow Springs Park, Ohio. I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio, from 10/20/40 to 10/21/40. Then we got on a train the 10/23rd and was on the train until 10/24/40. I stayed in Yellowstone Park 10/24 to 9/9/41. When I went to Moundsville, West Virginia, they asked for volunteers to go to Yellowstone. All there that was with me stepped forward and we went by train to Yellowstone via Yellow Springs, Ohio. Why did I want to go to Yellowstone? I always did want to go to the west.
I was only in Moundsville Camp, then we went to Yellow Springs, Ohio. Then from there, we went to the railroad station and got on the train and stayed there until we moved to Yellowstone Park. Then, we got on trucks from this railroad station and went up the mountain to camp. I was assigned to Bear 2. There, we met with the officers for orientation. Then, they fed us in the mess hall. There were four barracks, two on each side of the parade ground. In the middle was the mess hall, and above the barracks was the officers’ buildings, the canteen, the rec. hall, and behind that was the carpenter shop and maintenance building. How many were in the barracks? There were twenty-five to thirty of us, two rows. It was finished on the inside with sheet rock and it had two stoves in it, one at one end and one at the other for heat in the winter.
Layout of the camp, I don't know if it is east, west, north, or south. I have a picture in the book that I am sending you, that you can see how the camp was laid out. I will try to say and tell you here, the camp was laid out as follows: coming into the camp from Mammoth Hot Springs, there was a “Y” or a “V” in the road, the main road going past the officers’ clubs, canteen, the rec hall, and the library and repair shop, plumbing and carpenter shop, dispensary and laundry. The barracks were two on each side of the parade ground; the mess hall was at the end of the barracks, between the four barracks. The motor pool was behind barracks one and two coming into camp.
I had no special job until the last month. Last month or two, I was made a plumber's assistant. I worked on the road, beautifying the roadsides right below the hospital. I worked with the surveyors about a month, worked in the nursery, and night guarded the motor pool during the winter. We changed jobs a lot each month, so no one would get all the dirty details duty, but I always liked it. I didn't have no special jobs at that time. The only thing we did was landscaping, like I said, along the roads, surveying campgrounds at Fishing Bridge, and of course, raising small pine trees and other trees.
Park personnel was over us; they told us what to do and where to go. The foreman was William L. Sheridan, Camp Superintendent; Ida Halverson, Foreman Firefighting; Harrison Wade, Senior Foreman of Landscaping; James R. Williams, Junior Foreman of Plumbing. They were the overseers of personnel working under them They made all the assignments.
I didn't have any special likes or dislikes of the job, I liked them all. I don't think I had a job I hadn't done.
My friends they were all from Ohio and West Virginia. They were all friendly. They all came from poor families. Every one was goofier than the other.
What did we do in the off hours? I didn't play any sports. We went to town, Mammoth Hot Springs, Gardner, Montana, and Livingston, Montana--went there for rodeo.
I think I had every sandwich of all kinds of wild meat there was. Our food in the camp was pretty good food, it was prepared good. Just remember all the fellas came from poor families, there was very little to eat. I don't remember lots of menus, but there was plenty to eat. Things at the holidays: we had turkey for Thanksgiving and all the trimmings.
There was very little incidents with the grizzlies in the park. We were told to stay away from them and don't feed them. We'd see an old bear out loose at night. We had a bear living underneath the mess hall, but she had cubs, every year--twins. At night, they'd come out and eat out of the garbage cans. We fed the deer, about the only thing we ever fed. And we fed them bread or whatever we had. They just got used to people being around them, but that was the only animal I go closed to.
I don't remember any funny stories, except trying to skiing. And a sad story is: we were coming from out of a job at the nursery. The driver of the stake body truck turned a comer in loose gravel and tipped over from the turned the corner too sharp and the backend went up over the cab. I was sitting next to the cab, and I got knocked out, cut on the forehead. One fella lost his life, he was from Fairfolk, West Virginia [Fred Jacques of Fairmont, West Virginia, died on August 3, 1941] . Another one had most of his muscles cut out of his arm above the elbow, and others were hurt with sprained wrist or arm or shoulder. That's about all of that.
We did have to fight fires, but we learned how. Summer time, we'd go out and simulated fires and how to put them out. And we didn't have to rescue anybody. There was another camp, Camp 535, right behind us. Oh, it wasn't more than fifty feet from us. They did a lot of firefighting. But we never had to go.
The men in our Company were just common lifers, we never had any local men working, except the Park Service people. The only challenges I faced was each job, each job was a challenge. And I don't think there were any worse times, I enjoyed working.
There weren't any awards or citations, except a certificate for $169 for a machinist trade.
I was out of the CCCs when the Second World War started. I was home going to machinist school. I went in the Navy in 1942. Among the skills I learned in the Navy was hard work, plumbing, and machinist trade.
The wife and I went back to the old camp, Yellowstone, in 1989. I could not see any of the barracks. There were other buildings that housed the young people who worked for the Park Service, I think they said. I guess they were college kids.
I don't know, I--important history of the park. I am sending you a book, a pictorial review of the CCCs and it has a lot of history in it.
I still think the United States should begin the CCCs again. There is so much young people can do for our national parks and keep them off the streets, and let them learn something besides standing around on the corners selling dope, and drinking, smoking.
That's about all I've got to say. I hope you can understand it, what I've said. I've got emphysema and it's hard to talk, thank you very much.
Yellowstone National Park Oral Histories
