“Requests Removal of CCC Camp” from the May 15, 1936 Door County Advocate
REQUESTS REMOVAL OF CCC CAMP
Through petitions signed by residents of Gibraltar and others in the near vicinity of Peninsula State Park, and arguments presented before the board by influential citizens of the resort villages, the county board at its session last week voted unanimously to support the move to have the CCC camp removed from Peninsula State Park by July first.
Reasons given were “work being done by the National Park Service at Peninsula State park is definitely injurious to the tourist patronage and that the area is not large enough to warrant the continuance of a CCC camp.”
A federal officer in Washington, D. C., identified with the work, states that “complainants from Door county against administration of a civilian conservation corps at Peninsula State park are certainly misinformed and apparently prejudiced.”
There are CCC camps in the different state parks in Wisconsin, engaged in development work similar to that being done in Peninsula State park. All of these areas are smaller than Peninsula Park. At the Devil Lake Park the tourist visitors about double that of the Door county parks.
A rumor was started some time ago that the CCC camp was to be discontinued at Devil's Lake, and a great protest was raised against its removal. Other sections have also protested against removal of camps from their area.
The Advocate believes that the complainants have some justification in making their protest in regard to work and conditions of the camp in Peninsula Park, but we, with many others in Door county, have our doubts that removal of the camp is going to result in the best welfare of the park and Door county interests for the future. We believe that it might have been well for the county board to have appointed a committee to make a thorough investigation of the whole matter, consulted with the conservation department to find out what the result would be by the removal of the camp. If the state conservation has any funds to keep up the work, or even maintain the present improvements? If, as Mr. Harrington of the conservation department, has stated in the past, that in time the CCC boys would extend their work into county parks, securing development that in no other way could be secured, there might be great possibilities of making Door county one of the greatest playgrounds in Wisconsin.
This is what other sections of the state are figuring on doing with the CCC camps for the purpose of drawing tourist business to their sections.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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