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Three Concrete Steps: The Search for Wolf Gap CCC's Lost History
When host Janet Michael talks with Rosemary Wallinger and Laura Fogle for this episode of The Valley Today, she expected a straightforward conversation about local history. What unfolded instead was a remarkable story of discovery, perseverance, and the fight to preserve a crucial piece of American—and African American—heritage that has been hiding in plain sight for nearly 90 years.
A Tale of Two Camps
Rosemary, president of the CCC Legacy organization, and Laura, the vice president, share how Shenandoah County is home to two historically significant Civilian Conservation Corps camps. While Camp Roosevelt is well-known as the nation's first CCC camp, Wolf Gap - located just 22 miles away - has remained virtually unknown.
"Nobody here that we've talked to, other than maybe three people, had ever heard of it," Rosemary reveals. "So we are giving concentrated effort to get it into public awareness."
Both camps were among the first ten CCC camps established in the nation. But there's a crucial difference: Wolf Gap became one of the very first African American CCC camps in the country, opening just one month after Camp Roosevelt in 1933.
Roosevelt's New Deal in Action
As the women explain, the CCC was born from desperation. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed. People were starving. The CCC became one of his fastest-activated New Deal programs, up and running within weeks of his inauguration.
The scale was staggering: over 3 million men employed across 4,500 camps nationwide, including 250,000 African Americans and 80,000 Native Americans. Young men—officially aged 17 to 25, though many lied about their age to enroll as young as 15—earned $30 a month. Twenty-five dollars went directly home to their families; they kept just $5 for themselves.
"It was another great stimulus program for the whole country," Laura explains. "The guys that were working got to keep $5 a month and their families got the other 25 back home to spend on groceries and needs. The communities around the CCC camps profited because they supplied the food. The farmers had work, the mercantiles had work, the lumber yards had work."
The average enrollee gained 35 pounds during their service—a stark testament to the poverty they'd escaped. They learned carpentry, metalworking, and conservation skills. Those who couldn't read or write were taught in camp classes.
The Accomplishments History Forgot
During the conversation, Rosemary rattles off Wolf Gap's impressive achievements: 16,000 acres of trees planted, 45 miles of road built, 60 miles of horse trails, 100 miles of telephone line, 50 miles of roadside naturalization, and three miles of stream improvement. The camp protected 100,000 acres of local forest, fought a three-day fire at Cedar Creek in 1935, and rescued more than 1,200 residents from floodwaters in March 1936.
"Their accomplishments were just astonishing," Rosemary says. "It's shocking that it's unknown to have a list of accomplishments that long, and yet nobody even knows they were here," says Janet.
The infrastructure these young men built—in national parks, state parks, and forests across America—still stands today, a testament to the quality of their work.
A Serendipitous Discovery
Rosemary's discovery of Wolf Gap came while researching her family's involvement in the 1880 race riot at Columbia Furnace. On the Edinburg Memories website, she found a post from Helen Larkin Burton describing how, as a young girl in her father's store, she watched "the boys from the Wolf Gap CCC" come to shop. It was, Burton wrote, the first time she'd ever seen a Black person.
"I thought, what CCC are we talking about at Wolf Gap?" Rosemary recalls. She contacted a local historian who confirmed it: "Best kept secret in Shenandoah County."
That discovery sparked a grassroots movement. Rosemary assembled a team of dedicated women to pursue state byway designation for Route 675, the road connecting both camps. They succeeded in getting the byway designation and are now working to have it officially named the Shenandoah County CCC Memorial Byway.
The Segregation Story
The conversation delves into the painful reality of segregation within the CCC. Though African American legislator Oscar De Priest had declared there would be "no discrimination according to race, creed, or color," Robert Fechner, a southerner who helped administer the program, declared that "separate was not unequal."
Wolf Gap started as a white camp in its first year but became an African American camp in 1934 when administrators realized they hadn't factored in "how deeply segregated the south still was in the thirties," as Laura explains. African American camps were intentionally placed in remote areas, presumably to avoid racist confrontation.
The irony, Rosemary notes, was that when African American enrollees worked battlefields to the point where tourists wanted to visit, they were often transferred to another remote location. Local populations frequently protested the placement of these camps.
Finding the Descendants
One of the team's greatest accomplishments, shared emotionally during the conversation, was connecting with Roy Allen Cooper, whose father, Oswald Bentley Cooper, was an enrollee at Wolf Gap. While serving, Oswald met Evelyn McAfee from Woodstock. They married and raised nine children—eight boys and one girl named Georgia—on Water Street and Spring Street in Woodstock.
Roy's brother Bobby became a well-known local restaurateur, first as the opening cook at the Spring House restaurant in 1973, then running his own establishment. Roy now serves on the CCC Legacy board, providing a vital personal connection to Wolf Gap's history.
The Research Challenge
"The white CCC was well recorded, records up your wazoo," Rosemary says candidly during the conversation. "But the history of the Black camps is just sparse and what's there is difficult to find."
The team has uncovered treasures, including a regional annual with the only known photographs of Wolf Gap enrollees—two large portraits showing the men's names and hometowns. Many came from a community in Southwest Virginia called Agricola, offering potential leads for finding more descendants.
Rosemary's research has also uncovered broader stories, including the Preston Lake Rebellion in upstate New York, where African American enrollees trained as leaders were told to step down when white enrollees joined the camp. The men rebelled for three days before being sent back to Harlem—a story that even New York State's historical resources department didn't know about.
The Interpretive Center and What's Next
The women discuss the James R. Wilkins Sr. Interpretive Center at the US Forest Service Office in Edinburg—a partially completed museum dedicated to CCC history. Wilkins supervised projects at both camps. His son, Jimmy, has been a primary funder along with his sister Donna. The center is open to the public but unfinished. The organization is working to finalize a new agreement with the US Forest Service.
As Laura emphasizes in the conversation, 2033 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the CCC's birth, and Camp Roosevelt was the first CCC camp in the nation. "Virginia was truly the epicenter of the CCC," she says. "The state of Virginia needs to embrace that history."
Why This Matters
When board member Colette Sylvestri presented to 300 students at George Mason University, the most frequent question was: "Why weren't we taught this?"
"So much of the history of the CCC in general has just fallen by the wayside," Laura laments. Many people in their forties have never even heard of the Civilian Conservation Corps, let alone understand its contribution to the nation.
The CCC didn't just build infrastructure—it restored America. As Laura puts it: "These men who built this country, really the CCC restored the United States of America to what it became after World War II."
How to Get Involved
The CCC Legacy welcomes new members at $35 annually. Members receive quarterly publications including bulletins and a journal with stories from CCC camps across the country. The organization also offers presentations to civic groups and is actively seeking volunteers, particularly web developers to help update their website at ccclegacy.org.
For those with family connections to the CCC, the National Archives has digitized enrollee names, making it possible to search for relatives online.
As the conversation wraps up, Rosemary makes a simple request: "Spread the word that this is a thing. We want people to know that this is our history."
Both Camp Roosevelt and Wolf Gap are accessible to visitors today. Camp Roosevelt operates as a Forest Service campground with interpretive signage throughout. Wolf Gap, currently undergoing Forest Service renovations, will soon have its own signage installed.
Standing at these remote, quiet sites at dusk, Rosemary shares, "I can hear the voices" - a poignant reminder that history isn't just about dates and statistics. It's about the young men who slept in West Virginia, walked to Virginia for breakfast, and built the America we know today.
To learn more about the CCC Legacy organization, visit ccclegacy.org or find them on Facebook. Donations can be mailed to CCC Legacy, PO Box 341, Edinburg, VA 22824.
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By Janet MichaelWhen host Janet Michael talks with Rosemary Wallinger and Laura Fogle for this episode of The Valley Today, she expected a straightforward conversation about local history. What unfolded instead was a remarkable story of discovery, perseverance, and the fight to preserve a crucial piece of American—and African American—heritage that has been hiding in plain sight for nearly 90 years.
A Tale of Two Camps
Rosemary, president of the CCC Legacy organization, and Laura, the vice president, share how Shenandoah County is home to two historically significant Civilian Conservation Corps camps. While Camp Roosevelt is well-known as the nation's first CCC camp, Wolf Gap - located just 22 miles away - has remained virtually unknown.
"Nobody here that we've talked to, other than maybe three people, had ever heard of it," Rosemary reveals. "So we are giving concentrated effort to get it into public awareness."
Both camps were among the first ten CCC camps established in the nation. But there's a crucial difference: Wolf Gap became one of the very first African American CCC camps in the country, opening just one month after Camp Roosevelt in 1933.
Roosevelt's New Deal in Action
As the women explain, the CCC was born from desperation. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, 15 million Americans were unemployed. People were starving. The CCC became one of his fastest-activated New Deal programs, up and running within weeks of his inauguration.
The scale was staggering: over 3 million men employed across 4,500 camps nationwide, including 250,000 African Americans and 80,000 Native Americans. Young men—officially aged 17 to 25, though many lied about their age to enroll as young as 15—earned $30 a month. Twenty-five dollars went directly home to their families; they kept just $5 for themselves.
"It was another great stimulus program for the whole country," Laura explains. "The guys that were working got to keep $5 a month and their families got the other 25 back home to spend on groceries and needs. The communities around the CCC camps profited because they supplied the food. The farmers had work, the mercantiles had work, the lumber yards had work."
The average enrollee gained 35 pounds during their service—a stark testament to the poverty they'd escaped. They learned carpentry, metalworking, and conservation skills. Those who couldn't read or write were taught in camp classes.
The Accomplishments History Forgot
During the conversation, Rosemary rattles off Wolf Gap's impressive achievements: 16,000 acres of trees planted, 45 miles of road built, 60 miles of horse trails, 100 miles of telephone line, 50 miles of roadside naturalization, and three miles of stream improvement. The camp protected 100,000 acres of local forest, fought a three-day fire at Cedar Creek in 1935, and rescued more than 1,200 residents from floodwaters in March 1936.
"Their accomplishments were just astonishing," Rosemary says. "It's shocking that it's unknown to have a list of accomplishments that long, and yet nobody even knows they were here," says Janet.
The infrastructure these young men built—in national parks, state parks, and forests across America—still stands today, a testament to the quality of their work.
A Serendipitous Discovery
Rosemary's discovery of Wolf Gap came while researching her family's involvement in the 1880 race riot at Columbia Furnace. On the Edinburg Memories website, she found a post from Helen Larkin Burton describing how, as a young girl in her father's store, she watched "the boys from the Wolf Gap CCC" come to shop. It was, Burton wrote, the first time she'd ever seen a Black person.
"I thought, what CCC are we talking about at Wolf Gap?" Rosemary recalls. She contacted a local historian who confirmed it: "Best kept secret in Shenandoah County."
That discovery sparked a grassroots movement. Rosemary assembled a team of dedicated women to pursue state byway designation for Route 675, the road connecting both camps. They succeeded in getting the byway designation and are now working to have it officially named the Shenandoah County CCC Memorial Byway.
The Segregation Story
The conversation delves into the painful reality of segregation within the CCC. Though African American legislator Oscar De Priest had declared there would be "no discrimination according to race, creed, or color," Robert Fechner, a southerner who helped administer the program, declared that "separate was not unequal."
Wolf Gap started as a white camp in its first year but became an African American camp in 1934 when administrators realized they hadn't factored in "how deeply segregated the south still was in the thirties," as Laura explains. African American camps were intentionally placed in remote areas, presumably to avoid racist confrontation.
The irony, Rosemary notes, was that when African American enrollees worked battlefields to the point where tourists wanted to visit, they were often transferred to another remote location. Local populations frequently protested the placement of these camps.
Finding the Descendants
One of the team's greatest accomplishments, shared emotionally during the conversation, was connecting with Roy Allen Cooper, whose father, Oswald Bentley Cooper, was an enrollee at Wolf Gap. While serving, Oswald met Evelyn McAfee from Woodstock. They married and raised nine children—eight boys and one girl named Georgia—on Water Street and Spring Street in Woodstock.
Roy's brother Bobby became a well-known local restaurateur, first as the opening cook at the Spring House restaurant in 1973, then running his own establishment. Roy now serves on the CCC Legacy board, providing a vital personal connection to Wolf Gap's history.
The Research Challenge
"The white CCC was well recorded, records up your wazoo," Rosemary says candidly during the conversation. "But the history of the Black camps is just sparse and what's there is difficult to find."
The team has uncovered treasures, including a regional annual with the only known photographs of Wolf Gap enrollees—two large portraits showing the men's names and hometowns. Many came from a community in Southwest Virginia called Agricola, offering potential leads for finding more descendants.
Rosemary's research has also uncovered broader stories, including the Preston Lake Rebellion in upstate New York, where African American enrollees trained as leaders were told to step down when white enrollees joined the camp. The men rebelled for three days before being sent back to Harlem—a story that even New York State's historical resources department didn't know about.
The Interpretive Center and What's Next
The women discuss the James R. Wilkins Sr. Interpretive Center at the US Forest Service Office in Edinburg—a partially completed museum dedicated to CCC history. Wilkins supervised projects at both camps. His son, Jimmy, has been a primary funder along with his sister Donna. The center is open to the public but unfinished. The organization is working to finalize a new agreement with the US Forest Service.
As Laura emphasizes in the conversation, 2033 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the CCC's birth, and Camp Roosevelt was the first CCC camp in the nation. "Virginia was truly the epicenter of the CCC," she says. "The state of Virginia needs to embrace that history."
Why This Matters
When board member Colette Sylvestri presented to 300 students at George Mason University, the most frequent question was: "Why weren't we taught this?"
"So much of the history of the CCC in general has just fallen by the wayside," Laura laments. Many people in their forties have never even heard of the Civilian Conservation Corps, let alone understand its contribution to the nation.
The CCC didn't just build infrastructure—it restored America. As Laura puts it: "These men who built this country, really the CCC restored the United States of America to what it became after World War II."
How to Get Involved
The CCC Legacy welcomes new members at $35 annually. Members receive quarterly publications including bulletins and a journal with stories from CCC camps across the country. The organization also offers presentations to civic groups and is actively seeking volunteers, particularly web developers to help update their website at ccclegacy.org.
For those with family connections to the CCC, the National Archives has digitized enrollee names, making it possible to search for relatives online.
As the conversation wraps up, Rosemary makes a simple request: "Spread the word that this is a thing. We want people to know that this is our history."
Both Camp Roosevelt and Wolf Gap are accessible to visitors today. Camp Roosevelt operates as a Forest Service campground with interpretive signage throughout. Wolf Gap, currently undergoing Forest Service renovations, will soon have its own signage installed.
Standing at these remote, quiet sites at dusk, Rosemary shares, "I can hear the voices" - a poignant reminder that history isn't just about dates and statistics. It's about the young men who slept in West Virginia, walked to Virginia for breakfast, and built the America we know today.
To learn more about the CCC Legacy organization, visit ccclegacy.org or find them on Facebook. Donations can be mailed to CCC Legacy, PO Box 341, Edinburg, VA 22824.