STRATTANVILLE, PA (EYT) — Strattanville’s fire crew went to Cook Forest on July 20, 1933, to compete at a task familiar to men who fought woodland fires: making a fire line. Pennsylvania’s chief forest fire warden, George H. Wirt, judged the contest, and a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crew from Camp No. 106 at Dean Dam took first place. Strattanville finished second.
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The competition was the main event at the annual picnic for fire wardens, crewmen and their families. About 1,500 people attended, The Clarion Democrat reported a week later, describing a full day of contests, speeches, exhibits and entertainment.
The gathering brought local fire crews together with men from a federal conservation program that was only a few months old. In the summer of 1933, the CCC was beginning the work that would put unemployed men into camps and onto conservation projects across the country.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed the executive order establishing the program on April 5, following congressional authorization in March. Its work included fighting fires, building trails and improving public lands, as the National Park Service’s history of the program explains.
At Cook Forest, the newspaper identified CCC participants from two camps: the Dean Dam crew in the fire-line contest and men from Camp No. 53 at Clear Creek who provided boxing bouts later in the day.
A fire line is a strip scraped or dug down to mineral soil as part of a line used to contain a fire. That underlying soil has little combustible material, as the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary explains. The picnic report recorded the winning crews but didn’t give the contest’s dimensions, times, or scoring rules.
The program began with morning contests open to everyone, along with a judging contest reserved for wardens. Free ice cream and coffee were served at lunchtime. Wirt and Clarion County Judge Harry M. Rimer were among the speakers, with other forestry officials also attending.
In the afternoon, wardens faced crewmen in a tug-of-war. The wardens won after what the newspaper described as a hard battle. Boys had a pie-eating contest, and forest and snake exhibits drew visitors during the gathering.
Businesses across the region helped supply the prizes. The report named merchants in Clarion, Brookville, Franklin, Reynoldsville and Shippenville as donors, extending the picnic’s participation beyond the crews and their families.
The final events included four boxing bouts by the Clear Creek CCC men and a shooting exhibition by Virgil Richard of the Remington Arms Co. The paper reported that both drew applause.
After the organized program ended, many of the wardens and their families stayed to visit points of interest in the forest before heading home.
Source: The Clarion Democrat, July 27, 1933, page 1
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