CCC Camp Nehalem (former) – Wheeler OR

Description

Located nine miles northeast of Wheeler in Tillamook County, Camp Nehalem was the home to Company #2908 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from 1935 to approximately 1941.

Company #2908 was known as the “Oregon Company,” being made up entirely of Oregon enrollees. Its project designation, P-221, indicates that the company worked primarily on private forest land. When the company was formed in 1933, CCC Camp Boyington near Astoria housed the 200 enrollees of Company #2908. From 1933 – 1936, severe forest fires plagued the area and many of the CCC companies provided forest fighting services. The company was moved from its site in Clatsop County in 1935 to this location and its original home became the side camp. Its location is near the northwest perimeter of the Tillamook Burn.

Referred to as truck trail construction, road building as an aspect of firefighting became the priority of the enrollees at Camp Nehalem. As reported in the 1937 Vancouver Barracks Report, the Company’s primary project was construction of a fire road along the Nehalem River, which would connect Wheeler on the coast with the Wolf Creek Highway (US 26). The road opened up private forest land providing easier access for firefighting purposes. Its secondary effect was to increase access for recreational opportunities.

The 1937 report listed the company’s accomplishments, saying: “Since this company was organized (in 1933), there have been more than 730 miles of telephone line maintenance, 200 miles of truck trail maintenance and truck trail construction. There have been nearly 10,000 man-days spent in the work combating fires, with the result that the acreage damage by fire has been greatly reduced.”

Today, the only sign of Camp Nehalem is the commemorative plaque placed there in 1997 by the Tillamook Historical Society and Oregon Civilian Conservation Alumni. The plaque sits where the camp’s flagpole once stood.