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Wood Basket of the World: Lumbering, Commerce, and Conservation in South Carolina’s Forests: Chapter 4: Poinsett State Park

Wood Basket of the World: Lumbering, Commerce, and Conservation in South Carolina’s Forests
Chapter 4: Poinsett State Park

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Notes

table of contents
  1. Cover Page
  2. Halftitle Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
    1. Figures
    2. Tables
  7. Editors’ Preface
  8. Introduction
    1. Notes
  9. Chapter 1: “A Town of Their Own”
    1. Along the Santee River
    2. Southern Lumber, Black Labor
    3. “The Gentle Art of Going Without”
    4. Conclusion
    5. Notes
  10. Chapter 2: Expert Adviser
    1. Early Forest Conservation in South Carolina, 1900–1922
    2. Women’s Leadership in Progressive-Era Conservation
    3. Opposition to Early Forest Conservation in South Carolina
    4. Daisy Priscilla Smith Edgerton’s Professional Life, 1890–1922
    5. Governor Wilson G. Harvey
    6. Edgerton’s Influence on South Carolina Forest Conservation, 1922–23
    7. Conclusion
    8. Notes
  11. Chapter 3: “A Question of Community Salvation”
    1. Big Lumber’s Big Start
    2. The Trees
    3. O. L. Williams and Chester F. Korn Arrive
    4. Planning Industrial Sumter
    5. South Carolina’s High Point?
    6. Funds for the Furniture Factory
    7. Becoming Williams Furniture
    8. Brooklyn Cooperage and Galloway-Pease
    9. Sumter’s “Largest and Most Important Industrial Enterprise”
    10. Galloway-Pease Arrives
    11. The Workers and Their Communities
    12. The Great Depression
    13. There Goes the Neighborhood
    14. Brooklyn Cooperage’s Ties to Santee-Cooper
    15. Sumter’s Wood Products Post–WWII
    16. Conclusion
    17. Notes
  12. Chapter 4: Poinsett State Park
    1. Overview of the Civilian Conservation Corps
      1. Race in the CCC
      2. The End of the CCC
    2. The Civilian Conservation Corps in South Carolina
      1. SC State Park System
      2. CCC Forestry Education in South Carolina
    3. The Origin of Poinsett State Park
      1. History in the High Hills
      2. Poinsett State Park Proposal
    4. Poinsett State Park Development
      1. Company 421
    5. Camp Life at Poinsett State Park
      1. Education
      2. Athletics
      3. Social Life
      4. Company 4475
      5. Company 2413
      6. Poinsett State Park Opens
    6. The Impact of Poinsett State Park
      1. Conservation at Poinsett
      2. Environmental Education
    7. Conclusion
    8. Notes
  13. Chapter 5: An Independent Force for Change
    1. Beginnings
    2. Logging by Rail and Road
    3. The Growth Years
    4. Industry Leadership and the Question of Wood Supply
    5. Confronting the Environmental Movement
    6. Takeover
    7. Aftermath
    8. Legacy of Holly Hill Lumber Company
    9. Notes
  14. Chapter 6: Conservation in Four Holes Swamp
    1. Four Holes’s Past
    2. Norman Brunswig’s Early Years at Beidler Forest
    3. Inspiring the Public
    4. Expanding Conservation in Four Holes Swamp
    5. Brunswig’s Legacy
    6. Notes
  15. Chapter 7: “Redwoods of the East”
    1. Harry Hampton and the Origins of the Congaree Preservation Movement, 1930–59
    2. Ecology, Preservation, and the National Park Service
    3. Congaree Action Now! Student Activists in the 1970s Campaign
    4. The Politics of History and Memory in the Swamp
    5. Notes
  16. Chapter 8: Seven Hours of the Santee Cooper Century
    1. Corridors
    2. Memory Is an Action Word
    3. Accelerating Through the Santee Cooper Century
    4. The Santee Cooper Barrier
    5. Beyond the Bridges, Behind the Pine Curtains
    6. The Outdoors as Historical Source
    7. The Palmetto Trail of Sand
    8. Small Towns and Community
    9. Eutawville
    10. Witness Trees
    11. The Ditch as Archive
    12. The Edge
    13. Darkness
    14. Notes
  17. Afterword
  18. Acknowledgments
  19. Contributors
  20. Index

Chapter 4 Poinsett State Park

Page 103 →A Landscape of Recreation, Racism, and Conservation in Sumter, South Carolina

– Maggie Kemp –

In the early twentieth century, Sumter County was one of South Carolina’s “leading agricultural and lumber areas.”1 Still, the geography of the county’s High Hills made it challenging for industries to access portions of the landscape. At the start of the century, roughly one thousand acres in the High Hills of Santee were marred from agricultural overuse or too steep to traverse safely. The devastating effects of the Great Depression also left Sumter County’s workforce underutilized, with 1,400 Sumter County families coping with unemployment in 1932.2 Between 1934 and 1938, hundreds of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees worked to transform land overlooking the Wateree River floodplain into Poinsett State Park, a “clean, wholesome, uplifting recreational area for the benefit of Sumter’s citizens and our visitors.”3 This chapter explores the landscape of Sumter County’s Poinsett State Park and the CCC labor that created it.4 By providing an overview of the CCC and how the federal agency came to South Carolina, it illustrates how the development of Poinsett State Park jumpstarted the state’s park system, revealed racism in South Carolina’s outdoor recreation, spread appreciation for the Palmetto State’s forests, and educated the public on the importance of conservation.

Overview of the Civilian Conservation Corps

On March 4, 1933, less than a week after his inauguration as the thirty-second president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt called a special session of Congress to propose Emergency Conservation Work, a New Deal program with the potential to address both unemployment and environmental Page 104 →concerns of the Great Depression. After moving quickly through Congress as bill S. 598, Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act into law on March 31, 1933.5 Despite uncertainty about what it would entail beyond general reforestation and forest maintenance, Congress appropriated over $300 million in 1933 dollars—more than $7.2 billion today.6 Not entirely sure of the details himself, Roosevelt was eager to take advantage of any potential opportunity for increased employment. Five days after its passage, he issued an executive order and officially started the New Deal agency known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This colloquial name became an official title in 1937 when the original act was revised.7

Labor union leader Robert Fechner was to direct Emergency Conservation Work with guidance from an Advisory Council of representatives from the federal Departments of Labor, War, Agriculture, and the Interior, specializing in enrollee selection, camp operation, and work project supervision.8 The Department of War distributed responsibility to nine major generals responsible for different portions of the country. South Carolina belonged to the Fourth Corps Area along with Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Within each Corps Area, companies of around 200 men performed Emergency Conservation Work at camps. Companies were assigned names of three or four digits according to when and where they formed. When working on CCC projects, companies stayed in nearby camps with numerical identifiers based on project type. Companies often moved locations based on project needs, so camps usually had nicknames in addition to their official numeric identifiers to help avoid confusion. An army officer led each company. Enrollees oversaw sections and subsections within the companies as leaders and assistant leaders.

By September 1933, CCC enrollment reached over 360,000, surpassing President Roosevelt’s initial expectations. Young men, desperate for work due to the Great Depression, were attracted to the program’s benefits. The CCC provided housing, clothing, food, medical care, and eventually education and paid enrollees about $30 a month, $25 of which was sent directly home to their families.9 While a women’s camp operated briefly, women were mostly excluded from Emergency Conservation Work save for clerical and teaching roles. Skilled laborers, many of whom were ineligible for work as enrollees, opposed Emergency Conservation Work over concerns that unskilled enrollees would take their already diminishing forestry work opportunities. To quell this fear, the CCC hired 25,000 “Local Experienced Men” to help train the novice enrollees.10

Page 105 →To join the CCC, men applied and passed a physical examination before being sent to training at an army fort, which included early wake-up calls, hours of hiking and drilling, and plenty of food to prepare the enrollees’ bodies for the hard work ahead.11 Despite its resemblance to the military, the program did not outlaw desertion. Enrollees were allowed to leave at any point. Those who finished the training joined their companies at their assigned camps for six-month enrollment periods.12 On weekdays, the bugle call woke enrollees at 5:30 a.m. to eat and prepare their barracks before rollcall at 7:45 a.m. Enrollees worked from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., breaking for a thirty-minute lunch. Dinner at 5:00 p.m. provided an hour to wash the workday off and listen to mail call. At night, enrollees played sports, practiced with musical groups, attended educational classes, went to town, or socialized in camp. Lights out was at 10:00 p.m.13

Race in the CCC

Initially, the CCC only recruited young, white, unmarried men with limited education. When the Emergency Conservation Act went through Congress in 1933, Oscar De Priest, then the only African American member of Congress, challenged this limitation, insisting on the inclusion of an antidiscrimination clause in the legislation.14 Thanks to his efforts, Congress forbade racial discrimination during enrollment. Unsurprisingly, “Southern selection agents were reluctant to begin enrolling blacks, especially when so many white youths needed employment.”15 Still, South Carolina was more inclusive in its CCC enrollment than other states in the region. With an African American population that comprised 46 percent of its population, South Carolina’s African American CCC enrollment was 33 percent in 1933. This was higher than African American CCC enrollment in North Carolina and Georgia combined.16 While the CCC operated, more than two thousand African American men served as enrollees in South Carolina.17

Despite parity, African American CCC enrollees faced discrimination in the organization and administration of official “Colored” camps. Emergency Conservation Work Director Fechner made it clear from the CCC’s beginning that he would segregate camps as much as possible, mandating complete camp segregation in 1935, with the only exception being states where there were too few African American enrollees to form a separate company. Fechner doubled down on this directive when challenged by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Roosevelt stayed quiet to avoid political pushback.18 Fechner and his Advisory Council believed that Black camps needed the leadership of white officers and officials. Still, in 1934, the CCC’s educational director Page 106 →assigned two dozen African American men as camp educational advisors. By 1940, Black CCC camps in South Carolina had Black educational advisors and enrollee leaders, along with white commanding officers and project superintendents.19

The Poinsett State Park project is a perfect example of stark differences in the experience of white and African American CCC companies, especially in community relations. The white community of Wedgefield, South Carolina enjoyed interacting with white enrollees of Company 421 as teachers and spectators, watching them compete against local sports teams, attending dances, and perhaps most telling, helping enrollees organize and perform a minstrel show.20 When African American Company 4475 came to Poinsett, the same local residents refused to be near the enrollees.

The End of the CCC

Though President Roosevelt wanted the CCC to be permanent, the prized New Deal agency ended in 1942. Economic improvements had increased the potential for young men to find employment elsewhere. Those who had completed CCC service gained marketable skills. Many joined the workforce rather than reenrolling. Meanwhile, global tensions drew the Army from managing the CCC to World War II preparation. And, because the Army had overseen their CCC training, some enrollees feared that they would be the first group of men drafted, leading to increased desertion. Though President Roosevelt advocated for the CCC as a military training organization, he failed to persuade Congress, and the CCC was deemed unnecessary in wartime. When the United States officially entered World War II, Congress stopped funding the CCC, allowing it to expire on July 1, 1942, as the United States shifted its focus to the war effort.21

The Civilian Conservation Corps in South Carolina

When the CCC began, South Carolina was not a promising candidate for Emergency Conservation Work. In March 1933, federal legislation required that the agency’s work be performed only in national and state forests. South Carolina had neither. The South Carolina Forestry Commission (SCFC) and State Forester Homer A. Smith recognized this as a substantial obstacle to receiving federal assistance toward state environmental interests. Smith and SCFC representatives went to Washington, DC, to advocate for land acquisition and other methods to make Emergency Conservation Work happen in the Palmetto State. These efforts persuaded the federal government to allow for Emergency Conservation Work on land not Page 107 →belonging to a national or state forest as long as a relevant organization was responsible.22 In April 1933, the SCFC applied for sixteen CCC camps for fire prevention projects on private land. These first South Carolina camps employed roughly 3,500 men and helped make the case for further Emergency Conservation Work.23

SC State Park System

Convinced that they would benefit the state by spreading the idea of conservation, repurposing overworked land, encouraging tourism, boosting the state’s economy, and offering affordable recreation for South Carolina families impacted by the Great Depression, the SCFC began planning state parks in 1931. When the CCC started in 1933, the SCFC saw the program as an ideal instrument for their plans, one that could employ local men while building parks. In 1934, the South Carolina General Assembly granted the responsibility of creating and maintaining state parks to the SCFC but held that state park development had to occur on donated land. Because the SCFC had not yet received land donations, it could not start working on state parks.24

Along with the SCFC, residents of the town of Cheraw are credited with jumpstarting South Carolina’s park system. Hurting from the Great Depression and hoping that a state park would bring some economic relief, Cheraw citizens and officials worked to establish a state park in 1934, spurring donations of more than seven hundred acres of Chesterfield County land to the state. The SCFC then authorized the creation of a state park on the donated land and sent a CCC company to start the Cheraw State Park project, the Palmetto State’s first.25 Though Cheraw was the first park started, Myrtle Beach State Park was the first completed, officially opening on July 1, 1936.26

By June 1935, the SCFC established guidelines for state parks and authorized the creation of seven additional parks on 25,000 acres, all donated by private citizens, organizations, or county government.27 The SCFC established a Division of State Parks led by the assistant state forester, who worked alongside the CCC’s forest camps director.28 Together, they continued to push for the creation of parks on “land possessing unusual natural beauty, historical interest, educational value, or recreational importance.” The goal was to preserve the land “forever for the use of the people in securing wholesome recreation and education.”29

During the late 1930s, the SCFC Division of State Parks continued developing the state park system in cooperation with the CCC and generated more public interest in the parks. Entrance was free, and so were most park Page 108 →recreational activities. In the summer of 1936, three state parks, including Poinsett, opened for twelve weeks, drawing an attendance of nearly 50,000.30 The following year, more than 478,000 visitors went to the seven state parks.31 By 1940–1941, South Carolina had fourteen state parks that attracted 830,000 visitors, with out-of-state cars numbering over 24,000.32 Historian Tara Mitchell Mielnik reports that, “The CCC state parks provided the genesis of the state park system in South Carolina.”33 By the end of the CCC in 1942, enrollees had constructed sixteen open and operating parks for the South Carolina State Park System.34

CCC Forestry Education in South Carolina

CCC enrollees learned and practiced forestry management. The SCFC’s 1936 booklet, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, exemplifies the forestry education enrollees received.35 Using State Forester H. A. Smith’s definition of forestry as “the utilization of lands, which are submarginal from the standpoint of intensive agriculture, for the production of forest products, major and minor,” the booklet explained the crucial role forests play in meeting mankind’s basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and covered forestry economics, biology, and management.36

Using concepts of agriculture and industry, the booklet explored the economic importance of forests, introducing forestry management by explaining it in terms of corn farming. Like corn, timber must be protected from dangers to its growth, weeded selectively to lower growth competition, spaced adequately, thinned if necessary, and sold by some exact measure. Explaining how a decline in South Carolina’s forests would lead to a decline in the state’s wood industries and lumber and timber product mills, the booklet provided a simple yet effective tactic that touched on the unemployment many enrollees faced before joining the CCC.37

Because many enrollees had limited education, the booklet reviewed the fundamentals of forest science, defining a tree, its parts, and the conditions necessary for tree growth. More than one hundred trees native to South Carolina are listed.38 In terms of forestry governance, the booklet advocated for public land ownership to maximize opportunities for protecting watershed forests, promoting public recreation, continuing productive wood production, restoring depreciated land, and relieving submarginal agricultural lands.39

The booklet also shared with enrollees the SCFC’s best practices for regulating “the forest growth and the treatment of trees as a crop for timber production, erosion control, recreational development, watershed protection, or shelterbelt,” the “purpose of forestry” as defined in the booklet.40 Page 109 →The practices described include forest protection, reforestation, forest improvement cutting, forest thinning, management plans, and managing timber. Forest fires are identified as the greatest threat and fire prevention practices and forest fire control measures are discussed at length.

The Origin of Poinsett State Park

Southwest Sumter County is home to the High Hills of Santee, a region of hills “nearly twenty-five miles long and five miles wide at their widest point … situated conspicuously between the level expanse of the coastal plain to the east and the swampy lowland of the Wateree River valley to the west.”41 The Santee, the Wateree, the Catawba, all Siouan Native American tribes, and perhaps the Congaree used the area as hunting grounds.42 When CCC enrollees later found arrowheads and pottery fragments suggesting the prior presence of Native Americans, they saw it as a sign of hope: “The fact that the Indians used this as a camping ground leads one to believe that game has been using this area long before the white man invaded the banks of the Wateree. We earnestly hope and believe that when this section is left undisturbed by man, game will return and inhabit it as in yesteryear.”43

History in the High Hills

In the 1740s, brothers John and Timothy Dargan obtained hundreds of acres along Shanks Creek, a small waterway running through the High Hills. The Dargans took advantage of their proximity to the creek by building a grist mill and establishing several dams that flooded swampland, likely for rice or indigo cultivation.44 In the late 1760s, Matthew Singleton, a settler from Virginia, bought some of the Dargan property, including the mill, as part of a three-tract purchase.45 On the tract near Shanks Creek, Singleton developed Melrose, one of several Singleton family plantations. He lived on Melrose in a prerevolutionary plantation house with “hand-hewn timbers joined by wooden pegs, cypress weatherboards and blacksmith shop nails.”46 Cypress timber was a popular building material as it was abundant and durable yet relatively soft and easy to work with. Construction of the Melrose plantation house clearly depended on a sawmill, but no records exist “for dating the first sawmills east of the Wateree.”47 After Matthew’s death, the Singleton family remained “intimately involved in the development of both the Sumter area and of the state.”48

Slowly, other plantation owners and their families moved to the dryer High Hills, “seeking refuge from the heat and malaria of the South Carolina Page 110 →Lowcountry.”49 The growing Sumter County, including the more traversable portions of the High Hills, was involved with the cotton industry. Around 1850, the earliest railroads connected Sumter County to Camden, SC and Wilmington, NC, spurring further growth.50 Progress temporarily slowed in 1855 when cotton prices dropped, and multiple fires devastated the region.51 The Civil War brought more fires, especially during Potter’s Raid, a three-week Union effort led by General Edward E. Potter to destroy buildings, cotton, and railroad property from Georgetown to Sumter.52 Eventually, most of the plantations and summer residences in the High Hills burned. The blazes claimed the Melrose plantation, leaving a graveyard and little else behind. Throughout the nineteenth century, records indicate that the Williman, Belser, Manning, Wells, and Levi families also owned acreage along Shanks Creek.53

By 1884, local manufacturing included “one cotton factory, … 73 flour and grist mills, 31 lumber mills, and 10 turpentine establishments,” reinforcing Sumter County’s expanding economy.54 In response to the boll weevil in the early 1920s, Sumter properties near the Wateree “became a source of great income to their owners when the large corporations bought up their abundant supply of cypress, ash, maple, oak, poplar and other timber trees.”55 Lumber was Sumter’s most prominent industry by 1922.56 However, the High Hills’ physical geography made some of it inaccessible to lumber companies, inadvertently preserving future parkland.57

Poinsett State Park Proposal

In the early 1930s, South Carolina State Forester Homer A. Smith and Mac Boykin, president of the Sumter County Game and Fish Association, went to Washington, DC. Hoping to bring the CCC to Santee’s High Hills, Boykin proposed a game refuge and recreational area on roughly one thousand acres near Shanks Creek, land that for decades had only been used for hunting and fishing. The land included the remnants of a mill and an overgrown lakebed known as Old Levi Mill Lake, a nod to a previous owner.58 Supporting Boykin’s efforts, Sumter County purchased 1,000 acres and donated it to the South Carolina Forestry Commission. Accepting the donation in August 1934, the SCFC reviewed construction plans and signed off on a CCC camp for the new state park project in October 1934 (see fig. 4.1).59

Company 421, the first CCC company to work on the project, named the fledgling state park “Poinsett” to honor Joel Roberts Poinsett, a state legislator, US congressman, diplomat, and secretary of war.60 Poinsett, a naturalist and amateur botanist, also presided over the South Carolina Board of Public Works and contributed to the Smithsonian Institution.61

Page 111 →Architectural drawing illustrating the layout of a state park.

Figure 4.1. Poinsett State Park General Development Plan, architectural drawing, 1938. Courtesy of Open Parks Network, South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

Poinsett State Park Development

On October 22, 1934, Company 421 began working on Poinsett State Park. The enrollees of Company 421, all young, single, white men, trained at Fort McPherson in Georgia and received a year of fire protection work in Blaney, South Carolina.62 During their ten-month tenure, Company 421 enrollees built several park roads and established water, power, and telephone access.63 They also completed a picnic shelter and started construction of a bathhouse and a park ranger residence.64

Company 421

Company 421’s most notable contribution to Poinsett State Park was likely the renewal of Old Levi Mill Lake. While the lakebed remained, historic fires in the High Hills had ruined the structures used to flood it, allowing the lake to dry and vegetation to return. After clearing ten acres of land, Company 421 enrollees built a new dam on Shanks Creek, transforming roughly 200 acres of the lake perimeter into a sandy beach and establishing a landscaped parking area and more than five miles of foot trails.65 After months of anticipation, Poinsett State Park officials closed the dam gates on May 27, 1935, filling Old Levi Mill Lake with water from Page 112 →Shank’s Creek. As the lake filled, the public’s interest in Poinsett State Park increased. When the lake reached capacity, excess water exited via the spillways along Shank’s Creek.66 Before the park officially opened, visitors came, with numbers reaching “as many as five hundred [visitors] on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.”67 In late summer 1935, Company 421 left Poinsett State Park to work on an erosion prevention project in Rock Hill, South Carolina (see fig. 4.2).68

Four people work outdoors, digging into the ground with tools.

Figure 4.2. Poinsett State Park, South Carolina, “Company 421, Planting Kudzu, n.d.” Courtesy of Open Parks Network, South Carolina Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

Camp Life at Poinsett State Park

While the CCC Advisory Council designed the agency for young, white, single men with limited education, of the three CCC companies that created Poinsett State Park, only Company 421 fit this mold. Perhaps because of this, more records remain for Company 421 than its successors. Company 421’s monthly “Poinsette Pointers,” written by and for enrollees, offers a glimpse into their camp lives. After acquiring a mimeograph machine, an editorial staff of ten enrollees printed the first issue on April 15, 1935. Those wishing to contribute content for the paper were encouraged to do so.69 The “Poinsette Pointers” addressed three main areas: education, athletics, and social life.

Education

Page 113 →At the CCC’s start, the agency only offered classes directly related to camp work. While Department of War personnel opposed further CCC education, civilian administrators saw an opportunity to train and educate poor and unskilled young men. Eleanor Roosevelt emphasized expanded education beyond forestry training to ensure the employability of enrollees after CCC service. Frank Persons, chief of CCC enrollee selection, designed an enhanced CCC educational program, and the army amended it as they saw fit. In November 1933, President Roosevelt signed an executive order approving the compromise.70 The Department of Interior’s Office of Education then established a system of CCC camp educational advisors who organized courses in literacy and secondary or higher education depending on the needs of local enrollees.71 Participation was initially voluntary. After the revision of the Emergency Conservation Work Act in 1937, enrollee education became compulsory.72

At Poinsett, agriculture was one of the earliest classes. Taught by a local teacher from Pinewood, “star pupils” learned how to navigate the administrative side of tobacco farming.73 Soon, Company 421’s course offerings included woodworking, mechanics, algebra, French, piano, and voice. A military officer at Poinsett led the woodworking instruction and taught the algebra class, and the company’s forestry mechanic taught the mechanics class. Frank Wells, an enrollee who would become a USC football player, organized the French courses. A Wedgefield woman traveled to camp twice weekly to teach music lessons and organize a glee club. Her students performed for park visitors.74 The chief medical officer offered Red Cross first aid classes.75 Company 421 also sent some enrollees to lifeguarding training in Charleston. Later, swimming, lifeguarding, and other Red Cross training classes were held in Poinsett State Park’s lake “to teach every man to swim” and qualify as many enrollees as possible as lifeguards certified by the American Red Cross.76

Athletics

Some CCC Company 421 members played on basketball and baseball teams, competing against local teams at Sumter’s YMCA in preparation for participation in the Western Carolina League, composed of teams from various CCC camps, including Montmorenci, Union, Whitmire, and Sumter. When an epidemic of flu, pneumonia, and mumps hit Company 421 in 1935, the team performed poorly in the district playoffs.77

Page 114 →While basketball and baseball were popular, Company 421 enrollees were encouraged to work with the camp’s athletic officer to start other sports teams, including boxing and tennis.78 By July 1935, a camp employee had built a boxing ring. Tennis courts and a volleyball court were also erected. Balls, rackets, and other necessary equipment were provided.79

Social Life

Like many white CCC companies, Company 421 regularly interacted with the nearby white community. Some enrollees attended weekly camp dance lessons taught by young women from Sumter. On many weekends, Company 421 hosted dances with live music to connect with neighboring communities, inviting white community members, especially young women, to honor visiting dignitaries.

April 1935 exemplifies Company 421’s flourishing social scene. On April 1, a dance with music provided by a Columbia orchestra attracted two visiting National Park Service technicians as well as “all the company officers and enrollees, and a large number of charming young ladies and gentlemen from the neighboring towns.”80 On April 12, Company 421 hosted a dance in their camp’s Hodge Memorial Hall featuring another Columbia orchestra.81 On April 19, a square dance featured the Company 421 band with two enrollee callers. On April 26, a dance honoring a retiring commanding officer of Company 421 earned rave reviews: “one of the best dances that we have had.”82

Occasional field trips gave enrollees time away from the park. One of the first in May 1935 was to Pocalla Springs Tourist Court and Swimming Pool, a few miles from Sumter, advertised as “the best swimming pool in seven states.”83 In July 1935, Poinsett State Park had a full-circle moment when Mac Boykin, the Sumter County Game and Fish Association’s president who helped secure the park’s approval, organized a barbecue at the newly completed picnic shelter. Hundreds of white community members and CCC enrollees attended.84

Company 4475

CCC leaders met resistance when they informed the Sumter community that a Black CCC company would continue the Poinsett State Park project after Company 421’s departure. White Sumter leaders, including city council members and county commissioners, contacted officials from the CCC, the SCFC, and their senator to discuss their concerns over sharing the park, especially the lake, with African American enrollees.85 In response, CCC district headquarters sent an open letter to the Sumter County Game and Fish Association, the Sumter Board of Trade, the Sumter mayor, and Page 115 →The Sumter Daily Item in late July explaining that Old Levi Mill Lake would be “off-limits” for the African American company at all times. Enrollees would not even be allowed in the public portion of the park outside of working hours!86

On August 19, 1935, about two hundred young African American CCC enrollees from Greenwood, Clinton, and Orangeburg, South Carolina, arrived at Poinsett State Park as Company 4475.87 After training, Company 4475 enrollees continued the CCC development of park roads and structures.88 Their accomplishments did little to appease those bothered by their skin color. F. H. Murray, superintendent of Poinsett State Park, stood up for the “good workers” of Company 4475, stating they “are easily controlled and have given no trouble in the community.”89 His efforts had little effect. In November 1935, less than ninety days after their arrival, Company 4475 was reassigned from Poinsett State Park to a state park project in Chester, South Carolina.90 While preparing for their departure, Company 4475 cleaned up around the park, collecting and storing leftover material for when park work resumed.91 White community members preferred to halt work on Poinsett State Park indefinitely rather than tolerate the presence of an African American CCC company!

Prejudice against African American CCC companies extended beyond Poinsett State Park. Emergency Conservation Work Director Fechner complained about the challenges of placing African American companies.92 The dilemma, however, was largely of Fechner’s making: by attempting to improve the placement process by ordering African American enrollees to work only within their home states and refusing to allow for integration within CCC companies, Fechner insisted he was mitigating racially motivated violence among enrollees. In reality, his policies increased the number of all-Black CCC companies while restricting the number of project opportunities available to them.93

Company 2413

After racial intolerance quickly forced Company 4475 out, CCC work at Poinsett State Park paused for three months. In February 1936, 200 white World War I veterans moved to Poinsett and resumed the state park project. Established three years earlier, Company 2413 had previous experience on projects in Hardeeville and Givhans Ferry, South Carolina. With an average age of 41, Company 2413 “together had experience at 156 different civilian occupations,” while nearly all the men had overseas service.94

By the end of March 1936, the Poinsett State Park projects were back on track. Company 2413 completed structures started by previous CCC companies Page 116 →and built several from scratch, including a recreation building, two picnic shelters, four overnight rental cabins, and a gatehouse by the park entrance. At Old Levi Mill Lake, the large spillway was concreted to enhance its longevity, and a second spillway drop was added to help prevent erosion (see fig. 4.3). The veteran enrollees also built a reservoir building to hold potable water for the park and constructed five water fountains using coquina, “a rock formed from ancient sand and seashells.”95 After two and a half years, Company 2413, Poinsett’s last CCC enrollees, transferred to work on Lake Greenwood State Park in Ninety Six, South Carolina, marking the end of nearly four years of CCC involvement with Poinsett State Park.96 By June 1939, Poinsett’s twenty-two CCC camp buildings were taken down.97

Children and adults swim and play together in a calm lake.

Figure 4.3. Swimming at Poinsett State Park, ca. 1940. Courtesy of Open Parks Network, South Carolina Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

Poinsett State Park Opens

On August 5, 1936, the South Carolina Forestry Commission officially opened Poinsett State Park, the state’s second after Myrtle Beach, to the public. CCC Company 2413 was about halfway through their work when the bathhouse was far enough along to welcome visitors formally. While the public had Page 117 →unofficially visited the park since Old Levi Mill Lake’s 1935 opening, the formal dedication allowed Poinsett State Park to “properly care for such visitors’’ by employing Red Cross-certified lifeguards, organizing emergency services with local police, and selling concessions.98 The SCFC advertised Poinsett, highlighting its “beautiful 18-acre lake” constructed by CCC workers on the site of the old Manning Mill pond, “several miles of picturesque trails,” and a “picnic area composed of a shelter with fireplaces, picnic tables, outdoor fireplaces and comfort stations.”99 The only fee was for the use of dressing rooms in the bathhouse.100

Poinsett State Park quickly became a popular spot for visitors. During the summer months, Old Levi Mill Lake and the swimming it offered drove much of the park’s popularity. A Clemson swimming coach became the park’s recreational director in 1938. The following year, several star college swimmers formed a team to “represent Sumter and Poinsett state park.”101 Poinsett State Park offered “swimming, boating, and surf board lessons.”102 An end-of-the-summer pageant and water show was held on Old Levi Mill Lake; in 1938, there were nearly 6,000 attendees.103

Poinsett State Park attracted local schoolchildren on field trips and other groups including the Sumter County Farmers’ Exchange, which held meetings there.104 Local newspaper advertisements emphasized Poinsett’s natural beauty, facilities, and activities.105 A Company 2413 enrollee wrote a poem encouraging people to use the park: “Better go out doors now, shut the door on trouble; Lest, if I stay indoors, care will bend me double.”106

Company 4475’s time at Poinsett foreshadowed decades of segregation following the park’s opening. A segregated space, Poinsett State Park’s offerings were restricted to white visitors. While the SCFC began developing six African American recreational areas, including Mills Creek, near Poinsett, as part of the state park system in the 1930s, it allocated scant funding, allowing these parks to offer far fewer facilities and recreational activities. Park officials upheld the color line at Poinsett and Mill Creek.107

The racism African Americans faced in the state park system is revealed by correspondence between Poinsett State Park’s superintendent and the assistant state forester in the summer of 1940. A picnic invitation led to a large group of African Americans mistakenly arriving at Poinsett, where they were prevented from entering, an occurrence that “could have been very embarrassing to the interests of the Park.”108 The confusion led the forester to confess: “Confidentially, the negro problem is one which worries us quite a good deal. Legally we probably have no right to keep them off a public area but we have been able to handle the problem in the Page 118 →past by a little tactfulness on the part of our park superintendents as well as a little bluff.”109

In 1963, only after a federal mandate, Poinsett State Park was integrated. All South Carolina state parks, including Poinsett, closed for a year. Then, in the mid-1960s, Poinsett operated without swimming or cabin camping. A fully integrated Poinsett State Park officially reopened on July 1, 1966.110

The Impact of Poinsett State Park

In the early 1930s, the South Carolina Forestry Commission and land use planners at the federal and state levels agreed that “sub-marginal lands,” when intentionally restored, provided the perfect opportunities for forest conservation and public recreation.111 Poinsett State Park, which included land “made up of largely deforested, abandoned agricultural fields,” was an ideal site for the SCFC to implement its vision.112 Located in Sumter County’s High Hills, Poinsett also made several useful natural resources accessible for construction. Enrollees collected coquina from a local quarry three miles from Poinsett and used it as “building blocks” in the structures throughout the park.113 Enrollees also took advantage of the nearby Wateree Swamp, using its cypress trees as shingling and interior decoration on some buildings and as poles supporting power. The swamp’s soil, rich from decaying plant matter, was used to improve the health of the newly planted areas in the park.114

Conservation at Poinsett

For the CCC, conservation remained a central goal. In April 1935, during CCC Company 421’s first six months at Poinsett, a National Park Service wildlife technician performed a ten-day wildlife census that identified deer, turkey, wildcat, many species of game birds, and more than fifty species of songbirds, findings “on par with the other parks in the state.”115 To help preserve and improve the condition of wildlife at Poinsett, park officials designated a wildlife area where the CCC would reforest or plant, ensuring lots of vegetation cover to accommodate “furred animals” and enough elevation from the Wateree River for turkeys to use it as a breeding ground. The technician returned three months later to complete another wildlife census, where he recorded greater species diversity.116

In addition to building and infrastructure projects, CCC enrollees planted and landscaped around the park, recycling what had been cleared from other portions of land. During work on Old Levi Mill Lake, enrollees Page 119 →left the tupelo gum trees to encourage a healthy return of the lake habitat. When developing the park’s roads, they formed the road slopes using hand tools and fortified them against erosion by planting trees. Throughout the park, they “obtained native plants from the surrounding woods and planted hundreds of dogwoods, wax myrtle, black willow, crab apple, ferns, and fetterbush.”117 Enrollees collected nutrient-rich soil and leaf mulch to encourage the growth of their landscaping. Company 421 started a redbud nursery and planted over 200,000 longleaf pines on Poinsett State Park grounds.118 Company 2413 put two hundred and fifty man days towards general maintenance and cleanup and planted almost 2,000 individual plants, some of which were nearly full-grown trees.119 Thanks to the enrollees’ efforts, Poinsett State Park became full of “flora such as dogwood, mountain laurel, rhododendron, wax myrtle, holly, and live oak complete with Spanish moss—a unique blend of upcountry and lowcountry vegetation.”120

Environmental Education

In addition to conservation and recreation goals, the state forester wanted to use Poinsett and the state’s park system for environmental education and a greater understanding of the importance of conservation.121 In the years following Poinsett State Park’s opening, park officials and the SCFC published news articles boasting of the park’s beauty and encouraging the public to see it for themselves. The “unforgettable pleasure” of thousands of blooming dogwoods and wild azaleas in late March and early April was touted, as was the “magnificent sight” of the mountain laurel.122

In its efforts to foster forestry, the SCFC also hosted visiting forestry students and practitioners at Poinsett State Park. By the 1930s, South Carolina had become a popular destination for such groups “because of the great variety of forest conditions, the progressive nature of the forestry work being done by the State Commission of Forestry and the hearty welcome and hospitality they receive.”123 In September 1936, nearly thirty silviculture students from Syracuse University toured Poinsett after visiting Sumter industries like Williams Furniture Company and Sumter Hardwood Company.124 In April 1938, University of Michigan forestry students stayed in the park’s vacation cabins.125 The following month, Poinsett hosted the annual meeting of the Appalachian Section of the Society of American Foresters.126 The SCFC also emphasized fire protection at Poinsett State Park, holding “South Carolina’s first statewide forest fire protection meeting” there.127 In May 1939, the Sumter County Forest Protective Association hosted 500 firefighters and families at their annual barbecue at Poinsett State Park (see fig. 4.4).128

Page 120 →Men gather around logs as one gestures during a grading demonstration.

Figure 4.4. Public Relations—South Carolina, 1940. Photographs Relating to National Forests, Resource Management Practices, Personnel, and Cultural and Economic History, Records of the Forest Service, National Archives, Record Group 95.

Conclusion

Following President Roosevelt’s New Deal creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, efforts began to develop South Carolina state parks. Sumter County citizens pushed for a CCC project both to turn the underutilized land in the High Hills into a recreational area and to help put local men to work. Sumter County delegates arranged for a land donation, and the SCFC approved a CCC state park project. From 1935–1938, Companies 421, 4475, and 2413 transformed a thousand acres into a community commons, offering the Caucasian public outdoor recreation and a closer relationship with nature. The CCC forestry training advanced the environmental awareness, educational attainment, and employability of hundreds of South Carolina men. The creation of Poinsett, South Carolina’s second state park open to the public, supported the budding state park system. The racism in that state park system, however, is evident in both the white community’s rejection of the African American enrollees of Company 4475 and the Poinsett Park officials’ rejection of African American visitors.

Page 121 →Poinsett State Park’s distinctive combination of swampland and steep hills, the same characteristics that prevented a heavy industrial presence before the Great Depression, made it an ideal early addition to the South Carolina State Park System. The availability of timber from the adjacent Wateree Swamp and coquina from the High Hills provided accessible materials for CCC construction of park features unique to Poinsett. Today, Poinsett visitors travel not only through mixed ecosystems but also through time. A trip to Poinsett could involve fishing by the CCC dam spillways on Old Levi Mill Lake, gathering for lunch under one of the CCC picnic shelters, or camping overnight in one of the CCC cabins.129 The enrollees of Companies 421, 4475, and 2413 left a legacy that goes beyond the structural. Their labor and lived experiences, combined with Poinsett State Park’s unique geography, produced an enduring landscape of recreation, racism, and conservation.

Notes

  1. 1. Works Projects Administration Writers’ Program, South Carolina: The WPA Guide to the Palmetto State (University of South Carolina Press, 1941), 266.
  2. 2. Al Hester and Laura Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2015), 5–28; “South Carolina’s Poinsett State Park Civilian Conservation Corps History,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service, https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/scprt/sbwffsgphw/PO_ccc_brochure.pdf?u=sgt8lu
  3. 3. “Hilly Region Shows Nature at Her Best: Cabins, Bathhouse and Picnic Grounds Are Among Features,” The Sumter (SC) Item, August 10, 1938.
  4. 4. Britannica, s.v., “Carl O. Sauer,” last modified July 14, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-O-Sauer; Don Mitchell, “Dead Labor and the Political Economy of Landscape—California Living, California Dying,” in Handbook of Cultural Geography (SAGE, 2003), 9. Sauer brought the concept of the landscape to American geography. Geographer Don Mitchell expanded Sauer’s landscape to include the people working on it.
  5. 5. Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, “CCC Brief History,” last modified 2018, https://ccclegacy.org/CCC_Brief_History.html.
  6. 6. CoinNews Media Company, “Inflation Calculator,” US Inflation Calculator, last modified May 15, 2024, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com.
  7. 7. Thomas Clark, The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forest (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), 74–80.
  8. 8. Tara Mitchell Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened’: The Civilian Conservation Corps and South Carolina’s State Park System,” (PhD diss., Middle Tennessee State University, 2007), 68.
  9. 9. Clark, The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forest, 76.
  10. 10. Page 122 →Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 69–70.
  11. 11. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 102–3.
  12. 12. Clark, The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forests, 75–76.
  13. 13. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 113–14.
  14. 14. Robert A. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” The South Carolina Historical Magazine 104, no. 2 (2003): 122.
  15. 15. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 148–49.
  16. 16. Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States,” (US Census Bureau, 2002), 83; Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 122.
  17. 17. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 163–64.
  18. 18. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 151–53.
  19. 19. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 156–58.
  20. 20. W. R. Gantt and W. H. Howze, “Social News,” Poinsette Pointers, April 15, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; W. R. Gantt and W. H. Howze, “Social News,” Poinsette Pointers, May 20, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  21. 21. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 91–94.
  22. 22. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 253–54; Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 102.
  23. 23. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 254–59.
  24. 24. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 168–78.
  25. 25. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 175–79.
  26. 26. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 292.
  27. 27. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 264–65.
  28. 28. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 103.
  29. 29. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 285–86.
  30. 30. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 289–90.
  31. 31. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 301–8.
  32. 32. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 323–24.
  33. 33. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 4–5.
  34. 34. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 4–5.
  35. 35. DeLanson Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester (The [SC] State Commission of Forestry, 1936), vi, Forestry Commission Historical Documents, South Carolina State Library, Columbia, SC, http://hdl.handle.net/10827/7334.
  36. 36. Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, 1–8.
  37. 37. Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, 3–9.
  38. 38. Page 123 →Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, 10–15.
  39. 39. Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, 16–19.
  40. 40. Lenhart, The South Carolina Civilian Conservation Corps Forester, 20.
  41. 41. Matthew A. Lockhart, “High Hills of Santee,” South Carolina Encyclopedia, University of South Carolina Institute for Southern Studies, April 15, 2016, last updated August 8, 2022. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/high-hills-of-santee/.
  42. 42. “Poinsett State Park,” South Carolina History Trail, http://www.schistorytrail.com/property.html?i=183.
  43. 43. “Poinsett State Park,” South Carolina History Trail.
  44. 44. “Early Settlers Were Close to The Land,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, October 15, 1969; Anne King Gregorie, History of Sumter County, South Carolina (Library Board of Sumter County, 1954), 12–13. Records are not clear on who the Dargans purchased this land from.
  45. 45. “2001 Report of Gifts,” (University South Caroliniana Society, 2001), 89.
  46. 46. Josie P. Parler, “Melrose: A Real Colonial House-Oldest Residence in Sumter County,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, October 31, 1939.
  47. 47. Gregorie, History of Sumter County, South Carolina, 17.
  48. 48. Katherine N. McNulty, “Singleton’s Graveyard,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1976), 2.
  49. 49. Katherine H. Richardson, “St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Bradford Springs,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1996), 6; Lockhart, “High Hills of Santee.”
  50. 50. “Our History,” Sumter County South Carolina, https://www.sumtercountysc.gov/.
  51. 51. Gregorie, History of Sumter County, 228–29.
  52. 52. Randy Burns, “Potter’s Raid Most Significant Event in Civil War in Sumter Area,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, April 12, 2011.
  53. 53. “History of land use and land ownership in the Poinsett State Park Area,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  54. 54. Gregorie, History of Sumter County, 486.
  55. 55. Josie P. Parler, The Past Blows By: On the Road to Poinsett Park (Knight Brothers, Inc., 1939), 12.
  56. 56. Ralph Ramsey and A. Green, Sumter County: Economic and Social (University of South Carolina Press, 1922), 34.
  57. 57. Parler, The Past Blows By: On the Road to Poinsett Park, 12.
  58. 58. Parler, The Past Blows By: On the Road to Poinsett Park, 12.
  59. 59. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 107–8; Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 265–66.
  60. 60. “Poinsett State Park,” South Carolina State Park Service, 2022, https://southCarolinaparks.com/poinsett.
  61. 61. James T. Hammond, “Poinsett, Joel Roberts,” South Carolina Encyclopedia, University of South Carolina Institute for Southern Studies, June 20, 2016, last modified August 22, 2022. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/poinsett-joel-roberts/.
  62. 62. Page 124 →Copy of “History of Company 421” from the Civilian Conservation Corps District Annual, 1933, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “History Company 421” from the Civilian Conservation Corps District Annual, 1938, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 266–67.
  63. 63. Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3 Wedgefield, S.C. December 1, 1934–February 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park No. 3 for Period August 1st–October 1st 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3, Wedgefield, S.C., February 1, 1935–April 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number Three, Wedgefield, S.C. April 1, 1935–June 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; “Park Service News,” Poinsette Pointers, July 9, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  64. 64. Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3 Wedgefield, S.C. December 1, 1934–February 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3, Wedgefield, S.C., February 1, 1935–April 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park No. 3 for Period August 1st–October 1st 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  65. 65. Poinsette Pointers, April 29, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3 Wedgefield, S.C. December 1, 1934–February 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number Three, Wedgefield, S.C. April 1, 1935–June 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park No. 3 for Period August 1st–October 1st 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  66. 66. Ralph Lee, “Park Service News,” Poinsette Pointers, June 10, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  67. 67. Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number Three for Period June 1st to August 1st, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  68. 68. Copy of “History Company 421” from the Civilian Conservation Corps District Annual, 1936, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  69. 69. Page 125 →“Our Camp Paper,” Poinsette Pointers, Apr. 15, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; Poinsette Pointers, Apr. 29, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  70. 70. Joseph M. Speakman, “Into the Woods: The First Year of the Civilian Conservation Corps,” Prologue Magazine 38, no. 3 (2006).
  71. 71. Robert A. Waller, “Happy Days and the Civilian Conservation Corps in South Carolina, 1933–1942,” The Historian 64, no. 1 (2001): 46.
  72. 72. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 81–82.
  73. 73. A. L. Pearce, “Sports,” Poinsette Pointers, April 29, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  74. 74. H. Goodwin, “Camp News,” Poinsette Pointers, July 9, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; W. R. Gantt and W. H. Howze, “Social News,” Poinsette Pointers, May 20, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
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  76. 76. H. Goodwin, “Camp News,” Poinsette Pointers, July 9, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; “Life Saving School for CCC Boys to Be Held at Poinsett,” Sumter (SC) Item, June 25, 1937.
  77. 77. A. L. Pearce, “Sports,” Poinsette Pointers, April 15, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
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  79. 79. “Sports,” Poinsette Pointers, July 9, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649; H. K. Snell, “Sports,” Poinsette Pointers, July 27, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
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  81. 81. Gantt and Howze, “Social News.”
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  83. 83. Pocalla Springs, advertisement, Florence (SC) Morning News, June 26, 1926; “Pocalla Springs Tourist Court and swimming pool, 3 miles south of Sumter, S. C., U.S. Page 126 →Hy. 15A,” Card; “Tichnor Quality Views,” Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. Made Only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass., [ca. 1930–1945]. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/vx021g54c.
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  85. 85. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 270.
  86. 86. “CCC Company 421 Ordered to Rock Hill: Transfer from Poinsett Park Camp to York County August 22,” The Sumter (SC) Daily Item, July 26, 1935.
  87. 87. Copy of “History Company 4475,” from the Civilian Conservation Corps District Annual, 1936, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  88. 88. Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park No. 3 for Period August 1st–October 1st, 1935” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC; Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park SP-3 for Period of October 1st to Nov. 6th, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  89. 89. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 271–72.
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  92. 92. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 160–61.
  93. 93. John A. Salmond, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Negro,” The Journal of American History 52, no. 1 (1965): 79–83, https://doi.org/10.2307/1901125.
  94. 94. Waller, “Happy Days,” 4.
  95. 95. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 5–28; “South Carolina’s Poinsett State Park Civilian Conservation Corps History,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service, https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/scprt/sbwffsgphw/PO_ccc_brochure.pdf?u=sgt8lu.
  96. 96. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 121.
  97. 97. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 5–28.
  98. 98. “Poinsett Park Will Open for Public Tomorrow,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, August 4, 1936.
  99. 99. “Poinsett Park Will Open for Public Tomorrow,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item.
  100. 100. “Poinsett Park Will Open for Public Tomorrow,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item.
  101. 101. “McHugh to Direct Athletics Activities at Poinsett Park,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, June 4, 1938; “Poinsett Swimming Team To Compete At Greenville: Number of College Stars Compose Team-They Hope to Make Good Showing,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, August 3, 1939.
  102. 102. “Aquatic School At Poinsett State Park,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, July 16, 1938.
  103. 103. “Pageant At Poinsett State Park Tonight,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, July 18, 1939.
  104. 104. “Many Visit Poinsett State Park Sunday,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, June 8, 1938; “Mail Carriers To Meet At Poinsett,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, May 24, 1939; “Stockholders Page 127 →Hold Meeting At Poinsett: 250 Attend Annual Gathering of Sumter County Farmers’ Exchange, Inc.,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, July 9, 1939.
  105. 105. “Poinsett State Park Shares with Famous Flower Famous Name,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, Mach 29, 1938.
  106. 106. “Lake Big Attraction at Poinsett,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, April 6, 1938.
  107. 107. Mielnik, “‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened,’” 164–65.
  108. 108. Dwight to Mr. R. A. Walker, July 29, 1940, Poinsett State Park files, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  109. 109. Walker to Mr. F. Marion Dwight, August 7, 1940, Poinsett State Park files, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  110. 110. “Poinsett: A Touch of the Mountains,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, October 15, 1969.
  111. 111. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 30.
  112. 112. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 36.
  113. 113. Copy of “Narrative Report for Poinsett State Park Number 3 Wedgefield, S.C. December 1, 1934–February 1, 1935,” South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.; “South Carolina’s Poinsett State Park Civilian Conservation Corps History,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service, https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/scprt/sbwffsgphw/PO_ccc_brochure.pdf?u=sgt8lu.
  114. 114. “South Carolina’s Poinsett State Park Civilian Conservation Corps History,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service; Copy of “Narrative Report,” March 31, 1936, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  115. 115. Ralph Lee, “Park Service News,” Poinsette Pointers, April 15, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  116. 116. “Park Service News,” Poinsette Pointers, July 9, 1935, D-18363 The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL, https://dds.crl.edu/crldelivery/19649.
  117. 117. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 43.
  118. 118. Hester and Kirk, “Poinsett State Park Historic District,” 36–43.
  119. 119. Copy of “Narrative Report,” March 31, 1936, South Carolina State Park Service Archives, Sesquicentennial State Park, Columbia, SC.
  120. 120. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 121.
  121. 121. Waller, “The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Emergence of South Carolina’s State Park System, 1933–1942,” 36.
  122. 122. “In and Around the Town,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, April 10, 1937; “Flowers At Best At Poinsett State Park,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, March 28, 1938; “Poinsett State Park Shares With Famous Flower Famous Name,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, March 29, 1938; “Laurel in Bloom in Poinsett Park,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, May 8, 1937; “Poinsett Park Now Beautiful: Laurels at State Center to Reach Height by Coming Sunday,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, May 11, 1937.
  123. 123. “Michigan Foresters Visit South Carolina: Spend Last Night at Poinsett State Park After Visiting Nursery, CCC Shop in Sumter,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, April 15, 1938.
  124. 124. “Syracuse University Students to Inspect Poinsett Development,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, September 14, 1936.
  125. 125. Page 128 →“Michigan Foresters Visit South Carolina: Spend Last Night at Poinsett State Park After Visiting Nursery, CCC Shop in Sumter,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, April 15, 1938.
  126. 126. “Foresters Meet Here This Week,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, May 18, 1938.
  127. 127. “State Forest Fire Protection Meeting: Two Day Gathering of Forest Workers at Poinsett Park,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, July 29, 1936.
  128. 128. “Fire Fighters Enjoy Annual Barbecue,” Sumter (SC) Daily Item, May 10, 1939.
  129. 129. “South Carolina’s Poinsett State Park,” n.d., South Carolina State Park Service, https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/scprt/xhjayr4zwv/39_poinsett.pdf?u=sgt8lu.

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