News: Abandon Globe As CCC Unit
Contact: Tiffiney Hill

Abandon Globe As CCC Unit

Dec 30, 1937

***

State Conservation Commission at Madison Is Held Responsible for Abandonment

***

Camp Globe in Clark county has been abandoned without a hearing granted as requested by officials and citizens of Eau Claire, Clark and Chippewa counties, which have been well served by this camp. About 150 of the men and officers entrained at Fairchild for Toulon, Ill., another CCC camp, and others drove down trucks. The camp site has been abandoned except for two men who will remain for a time to take care of the buildings. The fact that no hearing was granted, and that at the last minute plans were changed for abandoning the City Point camp and Camp Globe was dropped instead proved a big disappointment to Clark and Eau Claire counties.

Recommendation for discontinuance of Camp Globe under the present reducing program was made by the State Conservation commission, a message from Senator F. Ryan Duffy to the protesting counties stated. He also said that the CCC program does not call for the operation of any camp merely for forest fire protection, and that the forest service of the department of agriculture could not approve the continuance of the camp for such a purpose. If the order is changed it must come from R. B. Goodman, chairman of the state conservation commission, which makes the recommendations and is responsible, Senator Duffy noted.

The nearest CCC camp in this area now is the one near City Point serving mainly Wood and Jackson counties. The abandonment of Camp Globe is a part of the CCC reduction by the national government which at present has only 12 of 26 original camps in the state left. Camp Arbutus at Hatfield, in southern Clark count, was abandoned last summer.

Camp Globe was founded in 1934 to accommodate close to 200 workers in cleaning forests, building fire lanes, and in reforestation work in Clark and Eau Claire counties. The camp was equipped with a telephone system and lookout towers which facilitated work of extinguishing small forest fires. Since the camp has been in operation fire losses in forest areas have been small, only about 10 acres burning last year in the dry season, in this county. Previously a great deal of Clark’s forest lands were burned over every few years.

Application to share the camp with the conservation workers had been made by the county with good chances for success, Calvin Mills, county clerk, reports. Withdrawal of the camp is a serious hazard to county forests, even though the conservation commission shares equally the cost of fire fighting expense, as men are not conveniently located. If the county is given a share of the CCC camp, men will be assigned there to carry on the work started three years ago.