CCC Camp – Trimmer CA

“Company 1986, F-224 was originally organized out of Fort Knox, Kentucky in May 1933 in the start of the CCC program. Before setting up Camp Trimmer, the Company occupied Chiquito in the Sierra National Forest, The Pinnacles National Monument in San Benito County (1933-34), Crane Flat (1934) and Oak Flat in Yosemite NP, Hutchins, and finally Trimmer. During their first summer at Trimmer the Company built roads, fought fires and constructed a steel and concrete bridge and wooden bridge across the San Joaquin River, a bridge over Big Creek, and a wooden bridge over Dinkey Creek https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/dinkey-creek-ranger-station-shaver-lake-ca/.  After the first year at Trimmer, all of the Kentucky boys were transfered out and replaced by LEM (local experienced men) men, most of whom were experienced miners and woodsmen from the Sonora gold mining region, one of the rare types of camps in the country. On March 31, 1935, the company was redesignated Company 1986, a California Junior Company.

April of 1935, the Italian Bar Bridge was started, the company then located at camp Hutchins. Fires fought: a fire at Coarsegold CA, at Hutchins, 2 fires at Huntington Lake, Florence Lake fire fought in rowboats, 150 acre Oak Flat fire in Yosemite, & Malibu Canyon Fire near Los Angeles. Exhibition of wild flowers at at Fresno County Fair. Jack Wright sells his herbarium to the University of Notre Dame. February 1936 concrete piers for Big Creek bridge poured. July 1936 roadway connecting Patterson Mountain by way of the bridge at Ross Crossing completed (McKinley Grove Rd). August 11 1936 the CCC orchestra entertains at Ducies Resort. October 1936 Ross Crossing Bridge over Dinkey Creek completed. Trimmer men rescued women from December 1937 flooding on the Kings River.” (Fresno District CCC 9th Corps Area 1938 Yearbook.)

Marked on the enclosed map is a WPA camp—one of the many transient camps the WPA the ran in California. Records of the camps can be found in WPA job cards in the archives of the Fresno Public Library. The camps are listed on the WPA job cards with minimal location information, and thus are difficult to locate.