Mission La Purísima Reconstruction: The Civilian Conservation Corps Story

NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine Of The Santa Barbara Historical Society Vol. L. No. 2

Summer 2004

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Mission La PuRisiMA Reconstruction:

'Re Civilian Conservation Corps Story

As ivas the case across(he nation, Santa Barbara County wlIs the benejiciary ojanuniheroj jederalAku’ Deal projects as the nation struggled ivith theejjects ojthe Cjrcat Depression m the 29305. In Santa Barbara proper, the County Boiul, the main post oljice, and Los Banos municipai pool are just some of(he projects built uith AJciv Deal funding. One of the most diiunting projects taken on during this period was the reconstruction oJO Ussion Im Pwisima by the Civilian C onsen alion Corps.

By the time the CCC project got undenuay in ihespringofLg-]g.,AiissionLa Pnrisima ivas truly in a sad slate ofdecay after decades oj neglect. Careful research wits conducted to insure as accurate a reconstniction ofthe mission aspossible within sajety guidelines. I lundreds ojyoung men ivere employed by the CCC at La Pw-isima during the seven years it look to complete the restoration pwject. 0lany of these uent on to apply the skills leaniedtU La Purisima in siiccessfjd careers in a variety ojfields later in lije. the CCC project at La Purisima u>as a vital source ofemployment during difjicult economic times jo,■the county ivhilepreserving an impo,-iant pa,'t of Calijo,-nia’s heritage.

Chi-istine Palmer draivs upon the public ,-ecord and a rich crop ojpersonalmemoirs and i,ite,Ticu’s to tell the story oj the I'ebrnth oj La Purisima. Pier accowit is especially tiniely for A fission La Pwisima State Pai'kis schedided to open a next' i'75!';orcciifcrn! September of this year under the supenhsion of its docent orgtinLation, Prelado de los de.soros. Ihe design of the neiu center is based upon the utilitarian camp buildings oj the CCC. All photographs are cowtesy ojA fission La Purisima State / lisUmic Pa,'kArchive wdess noted oth erwise. I ront coverphotog,-apli shmdng (he bell tenverat A fission La Purbinia, takenjrom the cemetc's g)-ounds, is from the collection of the Santa Ba,-ba,a I listoiical Society. Backcover image shows cew re-roojingthe padres ’cjiumters.

THE AUTHOR: Christine Palmer canted a master’s degree in Public I listorical Studies at L’C Santa Barbara in 2990. / lerbook. New' Deal Adobe: The Civilian Conscrvacion Corps and the Recon struction ol Mission La Purisima, [9M-\.9A2,wasptiblishedin 2991. She hasivorkedin (hejield oj liLsto,-icpix’sei-uation for tiventy-three years Lnanumberojcapacities. In iggy shewas appointed. City tlisto,-ia,i for (he City ofSanta Barbara and, ajler leaving that position, launched hcroivnjinn, Palmer Historical Cotisidting. She presently also serves as the I (istoric I louse Aiuseums Coordinatorf,r the Santa Barbara Hishmical Society. She luis p,-eviously authored pieces o?! f/ie 2925 earduiuakeand Santa Bai-bara County adobes_/or Noticias.

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ERRATA: Winter 2003/Spring 2004: P. 11, . with her husband. Lyman . . ." should read ". . . with her husband. Amasa . . ."

P. 3811., "Terras” should read "Terres."

iN!-oR.MATioN EOR CONTRIBUTORS: NOTiciAS is a quarterly journal devoted to the study ol the histiiry ol Santa Barbara Countv. Contributions oi articles arc welcome. Those authors whose articles are accepted lor publication will receive ten gratis copies ol the issue in which their article appears. Further copies arc a\'ailab!c to the contributor at cost. The authority in matters ol style is the Univosity oj Chicago Adanual of Style, i^th edition. The Publications Committee reserves the right to return submitted manuscripts lor required changes. Statements and opinions expressed in articles are the sole responsibility ol the author.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Succlillc, Designer © 20o4 The Santa Barbara Fliscorical Society 136 E. Dc la Guerra Street. Santa Barbara. California 93101 ● Telephone; 805/966-1601 Single copies ^^5.00 ISSN 0581-5916

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CDission I3a ^pisinoA JReconscpuccion:

Civilian Conservation Corps Story The United States faced a serious un-

a "new deal” for the unemployed. After Roosevelt was inaugurated President on March 4, 1933, he put through a scries of swilt executive and legislative enactments

employment problem after the stock mar ket crash of 1929 and ensuing Great De pression of the 1930s. During this era when men. not women, were regarded as family breadwinners, hundreds of thousands of the

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former were unemployed and living in homes where their fathers were also un

which became collectively known as the New Deal to help alter the adverse economic and social effects of the Depression.

Acting on Roosevelt’s suggestion, on March 31. 1933, Congress passed Senate Bill 598 entitled "An Act for the relict ot

able to earn a living. The American public perceived private charities and President Herbert Hoover’s administration as inef fectual against the increasing tide of un employment. and socialist and communist reform movements gained attention. Dur ing the presidential election in November, 1932, voters turned to a new candidate,

unemployment through the performance of useful public work, and for ocher pur poses.”' The Act provided for: . . . the employment ofcitizjens of the United States who are unemployed, in the construetion, maintenance and carrying on ofworks of a piddic nature in connection with thefor estation ofpublic lands, the prevention affor estfires,floods and soil erosion,plant,pest and disease control,the construction,maintenance

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised

Cbpiscine :RALor)ei2 49

50 and repair ojpaths, trails and fire lanes [Jor the]purpose ojrelieving the acute condition oj widespread distress in unemployment} On April 5, under auchoricy conferred by chis Acc, Roosevelt issued an Execu tive Order appointing a Director of Emer gency Conservation Work, and requiring that the cabinet secretaries of the Labor.

War,Agriculture and Interior departments each appoint a representative to an Advi sory Council tor the new Director. This Act and Executive Order created the Ci vilian Conservation Corps(CCC), a pro gram in which Roosevelt took a personal interest from the start. Volunteer indigent young men were removed from the effects of unemployment, crime, starvation, and the communist influences of American cit ies and taken by the army to rural lorest camps for temporary work projects. It be came the most popular program ol the New Deal when measured by Congres sional support and journalistic attention In the 1930s. The CCC men appealed to an enduring American mystique with their work in the nation’s remaining forest fron tiers, More than any other New Deal agency it bore the personal stamp ol Presi dent Roosevelt.^ In his inaugural address, FDR said. "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work,”** and that goal be came the foundation of nine years ol CCC productivity.

The President immediately called the Emergency Conservation Work Director and his Council to a conference where he outlined the program he had in mind and suggested the type of organization he wanted to administer it. Roosevelt made

NOTICIAS tion had ever experienced.-'^ During the De pression, starting pay for engineers and construction supervisors was $1,500 per year; these were the specialists who most frequently supervised CCC enrollees on projects across America.®

C(onsei2VAaon COCoRk Originally called the Emergency Con servation Work force, or ECW the Civil ian Conservation Corps functioned as a public employment program from April 5, 1933 to June 30, 1942.^ It employed more than three million Depression-era men. Ten percent of CCC enrollees were AfricanAmericans, special programs were created for Native Americans, and separate camps were established for World War 1 veterans.' With a speed typical of early New Deal programs, the Labor Department cer tified the lirst man to the army lor CCC enrollment on April 7. and the first CCC camp was established on April 17 in the George Washington National Forest at Luray, Virginia (appropriately named Camp Roosevelt). ByJuly 1.1933, 274,000 men had been settled in 1,330 National Forest, National Park, and State Park camps located in every state.^ Administratively, the CCC was a joint effort among offices within the federal gov ernment, The Labor Department selected enrollees through its community employ ment relief offices, and the War Depart ment operated the camps through the U.S. Army. The Departments of Agriculture and Interior directed most of the work

it clear that he wanted at least 250,000 men

projects in the camps. The Office of Edu cation administered educational activities,

between the ages of eighteen and twentyfive years actually at work in forest camps

by July 1, 1933. As a result, the CCC be came the largest and most rapid peace time mobilization of men and materiel the na¬

but these efforts were controlled by the army in the camps. Although the admin istrative organization was complex,it func tioned surprisingly well. This was partly due to Roosevelt’s personal support, and

LA PURISIMA

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From 1933 fo 1942, the CCC put some three million men to work, jvlission La Purisima in the summer of1

Robert Fcchncr’s administrative skills. A prominent labor leader whom the President chose as director of the CCC, Fechner was fifty-eight years old at the time of his ap pointment. A native of Chattanooga. Ten nessee. he had been the respected vice-presi dent of a nationwide industrial workers’ union, the International Association of Machinists.'^ Over the nine-year existence oi the CCC, an average of 1,500 camps consist ing of approximately 200 men each were located in all parts of the nation, but camps were more common in the western states where there were many national forests and national parks." By November 1933 the army's plans for CCC camps constructed of milled lumber buildings had been ac cepted by the Director and the Advisory Council. The Army’s typical CCC camp had eleven buildings, including four barracks, a mess hall, a recreation hall, an in firmary. officers’ quarters, truck garages, latrine and shower buildings. The recreation hall measured 20 bv 140 feet and contained

CCC heguyi reconstiiictmi oj

writing and reading rooms, a library, and a lecture hall. The army purchased cooking and heating stoves, fire extinguishers, and lighting plants for the camps. All purchases were made through local competitive bid ding so that every section of the country felt the positive economic ellect of CCC camps. Locally hired labor was preferred for camp construction.'^

IjAoonwibe CGC( Q^mp OpQAntzAOon By 1936, the army advocated construc tion of portable buildings for CCC camps because they could be reused for other pur poses after each camp’s project was com pleted; camp buildings tended to be func tional rather than decorative. Tliese por table structures rarely had foundations. De signs were standardized across the nation based on military precedents. Very few of these buildings are left standing today be cause they were not built to be permanent.

The army construction standards revealed no regional architectural style. At the most

52 isolated project sites, side or "spike” camps were created lor small crews ol CCC cnrollees and a supervisor. They lived in tents and were supplied from a main camp for the duration of their labors. For adminis trative purposes, the army divided the country into nine corps areas which were further subdivided into districts.’^ The CCC Camp was the final organi zational unit, usually commanded by a cap tain or first lieutenant in the regular or re serve army who served as the supervisor of camp operation and enrollcc welfare.

Work projects were the responsibility of the "technical services” personnel from various government departments, usually the Department of Agriculture or Interior.

The Department of Agriculture supervised seventy-five percent of camp projects, and over half of these were operated by

NOTICIAS camp.'^ In all but the most isolated camps, enrollces were able to visit nearby towns on weekends.

The CCC was completely male ex perience devoid of female personnel in the ranks or as supervisors.^'’ Nationally, the average enrollcc was a white twenty-yearold. equally likely to be from an urban or rural background, who had never held a regular full-time job prior to entering the CCC. He came from a household of six chil dren where the father was employed, and joined the CCC primarily to help his family financially. He had an eighth grade educa tion, weighed 147 pounds and stood five feet, eight inches in height. Tlie average enrollcc stayed in the CCC for ten months.^' Tlie CCC operated for nineteen enrollment periI, 22 OC.i lasting six months each.

Agriculture’s subdivision, the U.S. Forest Service.'"^ Other Department of Agricul

CSQC(JIccoropLisbmencs

ture agencies administering camps included the Soil Conservation Service, the Bureau

The CCC had two major objectives; to provide economic support for enrollces and their families, and to protect and enhance natural resources through reforestation, fire control, soil conservation, development of outdoor recreation areas, and preservation of historic sices. For many families, the earnings of their CCC family member was the only source of income,and the program touched the lives of as many as cwo-anda-half million households while it existed.

The value of CCC conservation work

of Aaricultural Engineering, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The National Park Service, a division of the Department of the Interior, administered a large num ber of the remaining camps. Many more work projects were carried out under the direction of state park organizations which were still in a developmental state.

CCC enrollces signed on for six-month hitches, and could re-enroll three times, for a maximum of two years of service. The daily routine in a CCC camp called for an eight-hour work day. five days per week.

For their work, cnroflces received $30 per month. $25 of which was automatically sent home to the enrollcc’s family in the form of a U.S. Treasury check, leaving him $5 per month spending moncy.’'^ Educa tion and recreation were offered at each camp, although the quality of thc.se activi ties varied considerably from camp to

paid for the original costs of the program several times over. The CCC also contrib uted significantly to the physical health, work habits, and self-esteem of most cnrollces. and played an important role in preparing them for effective military ser vice in World War 11.'“ Tlie CCC brought the idea of conservation to the American people, which had consequences far beyond the work they actually performed.

The CCC, however, did not do all

LA PURISIMA things well. Education ol enrollecs, many of whom quit high school to join, received little emphasis. The inadequate ellort in this area can be traced to Director Fechner’s, President Roosevelt’s, and the

53 Throughout the Depression years enrollmenc in CCC camps fluctuated, but averaged about 300,000 nationally. Regis tration peaked in August, 1935, at 520,000.^ Because of housing and tood ex

terfering with the major goal ot the work projects.“ Fcchner publicly opposed expan sion of the camp educational programs,

penses, the annual cost per cnrollcc was approximately $1.000, considerably higher than other work relief agencies of the New Deal.^'^ The Works Progress Administra tion(WPA)had a yearly cost of $800 for each worker, and at the National Youth

saying that an cnrollcc’s preparation for the ”26 future was an "incidental objective.

Administration (NYA) the cost was be 29 tween $400 and $700 per worker per year.

Wliilc many young men did learn to read and write in their CCC camps, most were from poorer tamilics and were not academi cally oriented. At the CCC camps located within California, this lack ot emphasis on education translated into a lackadaisical

In spice of its relative costliness, the CCC enjoyed a broad base of public support

army’s view that this was not a principal objective. Education, and sometimes even vocational training, were otten seen as in

attitude about formal instruction among the enrollecs, resulting in sporadic atten dance at the optional classes.

throughout its nine-year history and was praised by both parties in Congress. At one point, one out ot every twenty American youths over the age of seventeen entered the CCC.'" All CCC camps were designated by let ters and numbers indicating their classifi-

'fhefirst CCC enrnUces lived in this tent camp set up among the mission ruins. Note circular lavadero at right and the pillars ojthe shops ajid quarters Imilding in baci^ground.

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cation regarding either land ownership or type of work. Numbers were assigned un der each of these classes by states. Each CCC company was also assigned numbers by the state and order oi formation. For example. Company 940 indicated the Ninth Army Corps Area and the fortieth camp formed. Less formally, camps also received names. Most took on the name of a geographic place. The U.S. Forest Ser vice always had the majority of CCC camps across the nation.

The CCC was terminated because of expanding job opportunities during World War II. Despite its tremendous contri butions to the nation’s natural resources, the CCC was viewed by both Congress and the American people as a temporary relief 33 agency, and it never overcame that image.

After December 7. 1941, when the United States entered World War II, the man

burdened with a massive Immigration of unemployed citizens. In 1931, between September 1 and October 30. 70,000 un employed persons came to California in search of work. Approximately eighty per cent were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. After a series of unsuccessful attempts by various individuals to ease California’s surplus labor problems, an ex traordinarily damaging fire season and the rapid influx of migrants prompted the state to adopt a labor corps system in Novem ber, 1931.

Management responsibilities were des ignated to the U.S. Forest Service in coop eration with several state and local agen cies. In exchange for food, clothing, and shelter, state enrollecs were expected to work In the forests and watersheds for six hours per day with fire control as their prin cipal duty. Protective improvements in cluded the felling of snags, roadside clear ing, insect and disease control, and the con

power drain was tremendous as thousands of enrollecs and camp administrators left the CCC to enter military service. Conse quently, as the economy improved and World War II captured the nation’s atten tion and resources, the CCC was dis

struction of firebreaks. By December 1931.

1,500 men were employed in twenty-five camps throughout California, For the most part, labor camps were located on sites pre

mantled without opposition. The legacy the men of the CCC left in the nation’s

viously occupied by construction or log 36 ging work forces.

forests, parks, agricultural areas, and his toric sites is immeasurable. The recon

Recruits for this state program came from welfare lines in large urban areas; their participation was voluntary. Existing state and federal personnel supervised the work force who used equipment acquired from the California State Department of For estry and the U.S, Forest Service. Other items, such as clothing, were purchased with state funds or received as donations.

structed adobe buildings of Mission La Purisima State Historic Park arc a part of that legacy.

The C&iipoismA CjGK CiuDps Prior to the enactment of the Emer gency Conservation Work Act of March 31. 1933, only Region 5 of the Forest Ser vice (comprising the entire State of Cali fornia) had some experience in administer ing work camps and programs of various types. Because of eroding economic con ditions in the late 1920s, California became

Although this state program never reached the level of sophistication of the CCC.state officials considered their accomplishments remarkable. This effort laid the ground work for the Forest Service Regional Of fice staff in San Francisco which was, con sequently, not unprepared when it received

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a wire from die Regional Forester in Wash ington on April 21, 1933, stating that 166 CCC camps had been approved for Cali fornia and that 60 were to be constructed 38

as soon as possible.

During the 1930s, there were eighteen national forests in California which com prised Region 5 of the Forest Service.

Within Region 5, CCC enrollee distribu tion and camp administration was directed

by Army Corps Area 9. Headquarters for this corps area was at the San Francisco Presidio. Centers in the southern part of this region included subsidiary facilities at Fort MacArthur near Los Angeles, March Field near Riverside, and Fort Rosecrans near San Diego. On April 22, 1933, Act ing Adjutant General James F. McKinley announced that Region 5’s CCC enrollee quota would be 31,500 men. The U.S. La bor Department designated California’s Department of Social Welfare to carry out the enrollment. Even this number, how ever, was small for the amount of work planned in the state, so recruits from out side the region were eventually transported 39 into California project areas.

ODbe CDvssion Mision La Purisima Concepcion dc Maria Santisima(Mission of the Immacu late Conception of Most Holy Mary)was founded by Padre Presidente Fermin de Lasuen on December 8, 1787, and was the eleventh of twenty-one Franciscan mis sions established in Alta California. Dur ing the early years of its existence, the mission community prospered. A number of permanent adobe buildings were con structed. a water system built, crops planted, large livestock herds developed.

Several thousand Chumash were baptized into the Catholic Church.

The year 1812 in California was known as "El Ano dc los Tcmblores"(The Year of the Earthquakes). A major quake struck the South Coast on December 21.1812. which destroyed many of the buildings at La Purisima. Aftershocks and drenching rains finished the job begun by the earthquake, damaging the mission beyond repair. Pa dre Mariano Paycras. in charge of the mis sion. ordered La Purisima rebuilt four miles

‘The mission was in ruins when the CCC began reconstruction. Deteriorating roojs exposed adobe ivalLs to the dements. This photograph datesfrom the early i goos. Collection ojthe Santa Barbara Historical Society.

56 to the northwest in La Canada dc los Berros (The Canyon of the Watercress). The new sice had a more reliable water supply, a bet ter inicro-climacc. and better access to El Caniino Real. California’s primary road.

The mission community rebounded from the 1812 disaster and soon num bered some one thousand Chumash neo phytes. The mission was at the center of a vast ranching enterprise. Over 20,000 cattle and sheep roamed the nearby hills in addition to hundreds ol horses, mules, burros, and ocher live stock. The mission community con tained shops for weaving, pottery, leacherwork, and ocher crafts.

In 1834, the Mexican government’s earlier order to secularize the missions ol Alta California began co be enforced. The assets of La Purisima came under a civil administration, landholdings were divided among the inhabitants, and the neophytes were released from all supervision and sup port. In 1845, Juan Temple, from Los An geles, purchased Mission La Purisima for one thousand dollars. In ensuing decades the mission changed hands a number of times as the buildings slowly fell into a state of disrepair due co neglect and weather. In 1933 when the property was given to pub lic ownership by Union Oil Company, Mis sion La Purisima was a complete ruin.

As Californians prospered in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the cwenciech century, they turned co the mission era lor images of gen tility which the Gold Rush and frontier days had left unsatisfied. An initial alien ation from Spanish-Mexican and Native American cultures was transformed into nostalgia as the Spanish Franciscan mis sions cook on a romantic significance among California’s earliest heritage pro moters. The best of these early cultural advocates included Charles Lummis, pub¬

NOTICIAS lisher ol Out West magazine, and Helen Hunt Jackson, author ol the very popular novel, Ramona. Their writings helped to spark an interest among the general public lor the restoration ol Calitornia’s missions.

(Dission I3a 35ui2isum C(CjC( eVop ^eQvns co Ifunccion The CCC operated within the U.S. Forest Service and California State Park lands beginning in 1933, but not at the Mission La Purisima site until 1934. An unusual conjunction of events occurred al lowing the resurrection of La Purisima.

While driving south along the California coast in April, 1934, CCC Camp Inspec tor Phillip T Pimm came upon the mission ruins by following an auto club road sign ■10 as he was leaving the town of Lompoc.

He suggested to the staff at the National Park Service Regional Office in San Fran cisco that the site would be an appropriate choice for a CCC camp. Priinm began working with L. Deming Tilton, chief plan ner of Santa Barbara County, to examine the possibility of Santa Barbara County obtaining the property from Union Oil Company in order to begin work on the mission, National Park Service Staff Architect Frederick C. Hageman described the next steps taken to develop the reconstruction project; A certain number of CCC camps were allotted to the National Par/^ Service to cievebp national, state, county, and mioiicipal parks in 1934, when it became evident that one of these camps could be stationed in Santa Barbara County, the possibility ofrestoring La Purisima brought immediate action to provide sujjiciently Lirge acreage.

By deed ofgift, titles to the mission ruins were transferred to Santa Barbara County Iry the Catholic Churchandthe Union Oil Company. 'Ihe Cminty and Statejointly pnirchased additional Lind,f>ra total of ^oy acres. 'IhLs

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was then deeded in its entirety to the State oj

later become the La Purisima Advisory Com-

California, Divunon oJ State Parks, and was named La Purisima State tlistoric Manu-

miccee, Tlicy decided chat the Hrsc seep should be an archaeological survey ol the sice under

ment. The State Park Commission requested the National ParkService to establish a CCC

the supervision of a trained architect. In Sep tember, members of the State Park Commis

Camp at the site and to undertake restoration ofthe mission buildings, in cooperatio7i with 42 the State Division oj Parks.

CCC Company 1951, called the Santa Rosa Camp, was first organized at La Purisima by regular army Captain Ben O. Badgley on July 23, 1934. with a cadre oi seventeen men taken from Camp Bates

sion, led by chairman and Oakland Iribune editor. Joseph Knowland. met with County

Canyon and Camp Cuyama elsewhere in Southern California.'’'' No buildings had been constructed, so the camp was set up in five army tents, eight men to a tent, lo cated around an old pepper tree which stood near the ruins of the padre’s residence build ing. On August 1, the camp was formally occupied by the main body of CCC cnrollces. thirty-five more tents were set up, and 44 field work began on August 2.

On August 8. Dr. Owen C. Coy of the State Historical Commission led a meet ing at the mission site to plan the work program for at least six months.'’’' Most of the people at this first meeting would

Planning Director Deming Tilton and other officials of Santa Barbara Ccutnty to make some quick decisions. Since CCC projects could only operate on scatc-owmed land, the Commission agreed unanimously to put up half the funds needed to purchase five hun dred acres.With the state’s acquisition of the property, the CCC work project was guaranteed.

I3a PuRisuDA’s(XG dmsolLees When the first CCC cnrollees began to work at La Purisima, they encountered many hardships, especially lack of water.

There were no wells, no cleared springs, and no water systems near the camp, so all water had to be transported in an old tank hauled by an Army truck. No mess hall had been constructed as yet, and the food had to be prepared in one ol the tents

Camps were orgajiized along military lines ayid the men slept in biDTUcks. H^eille xvas at 6 am and lights nut was at lo /wr. Ihe workday generally lastedfrom 8 uju until 4 pm.

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NOTICIAS

or over open fires. The CCC cnrollccs used porcablc army mess kies and sac around the grounds while eating their food.'*^ They had to be admonished to scop carving their ini tials on the mission ruins.

A short time later, four wooden build ings were constructed or moved in from other locations. One of the constructed buildings served as offices for both the army and the Technical Services personnel from the Na tional Park Service, as well as living quarters for members of the staff. A large mess hall was then erected in front of the ruin of the padres’ residence building, These CCC buildings were later moved to the hill over looking the mission sice.

Most of the men who rebuilt Mission La Purisima came from Southern Califor nia, with some from out-of-state, Tlirouaho out the duration of the project, the largest cnrollee demographic group came from Los Angeles. Many were cough street boys of Mexican-American background who had seen the worst of Depression-era ur ban poverty before coming to the regular meals and discipline of the CCC work ex perience. From the earliest days of the cent camp,one of the army sergeants kept a boxing ring sec up. Whenever there was a squabble among the men, the disputing parties were placed in the ring to settle it after the work day ended. This and other features of the CCC experience changed the young men’s lives in very significant ways.

Away from home for the first time, expe riencing the unsettling life of an army camp, the new Camp 1951 cnrollccs found an adventure they would never forget at La Purisima, Not all cnrollces sought CCC employ ment because they were desperate for work.

Some needed to escape an unhappy home at a tender age, or wanted to get away from unfulfilling scholastic pursuits in high school. Many cnrollces who looked older

than the minimum age requirement of sev enteen years lied to get into the CCC to find adventure and a new home,

eSeJet CWop Ibob Anb C(oor>nr)unio^ 'Siel^zions In CCC camps across the country, the most important factor determining com pany morale was the food served to enrollees. The combination of wholesome food, hard work, and fresh air caused an average weight gain of ten pounds among the usu ally undernourished young men. Some of the more isolated camps across the nation had to serve canned meats, canned veg etables, and canned milk more frequently, which created grumbling among the enrollees and letters from distressed mothers to Director Fcchner in Washington. Most enrollccs, though, enjoyed the food served in the mess halls; some even called it the best food they had ever eaten.

The La Purisima Camp was fortunate to be located in the agriculturally rich Lompoc Valley, and the army supply ser geants could easily acquire fresh meats, vegetables, and dairy products for the men.

It boasted the biggest kitchen and mess hall in the Los Angeles CCC District with a capacity of 410 men for any meal.^' In August 1936 the camp enjoyed the ethnic food produced by a Chinese cook, Yee Look, whose chop suey received rave reviews in the CCC Tsleivs-Courier. Tlie baked goods were produced in the camp kitchen by nightshift 52 enrollccs apprenticing as bakers.

When the men arrived in the mess hall, the tabic was already set with platters of food and dinner plates were turned over to keep off the ever-present dust. The enrollcc who emptied any platter as the food was consumed had to walk it to the kitchen counter for refills from the cnrollee cooks.

Second or third helpings were readily of fered—a rare occurrence at most Depres-

LA PURISIMA sion-era meals.-^^ Those who remained in camp during the Tlianksgiving and Christ mas holidays "ace like kings.”

The agricultural community of Lompoc generally welcomed chc CCC Camp mem-

59 chc cwo miles into Lompoc from the mis sion sice usually went to drink liquor which was forbidden in camp, or to see a movie, or CO go CO a high school basketball game, or CO church. Most of the boys were coo

, aVllAN CONS LA PURISr

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Left to right:project horiicidturalist Edwin D.Epue,crat.’supervEorEd Negus,project superintendent 11. V. Smith, and project architect Fred 1 laganan discuss upcommg plans. Collection of the Santa Barbara I listorical Society.

bers. Young local men did not appreciate competition for the young women of chc community, causing occasional scuffles at the cavern on H Street, but most of chc enrollccs behaved themselves. One cnrollcc recalled that, "The local boys didn’t stand a chance because we outnumbered them.”.34 If any parent came to camp to complain.

"Please keep your boys away from our girls,” the army commander's standard re ply was."Please keep your girls away from ’.35 our boys.

Dating of local Lompoc girls by La Purisima Camp CCC men was rare because they had been told by their parents to be wary of those fast city boys. Most of chc CCC men had girlfriends back home and went to visit them in Los Angeles on week ends by hitching rides. Tliosc who did walk

young to purchase liquor, so they chose chc oldest looking man to purchase a bottle 36 which they would share.

C^QCf Gpnscpuccion C&ew Tfopeorw While waiting lor chc La Purisima Mis sion archaeological excavations to be com pleted and chc plans and specifications for the adobe reconstruction to be prepared in 1934 and 1935, the CCC cnrollccs cleared chc Santa Ynez River bottom between Bucllcon and Surf. They also cleared and prepared cwo sites for county parks at Nojoqui Falls and Santa Rosa. The origi nal name of chc La Purisima CCC camp was chc Santa Rosa Company because of this initial phase of their work project.

Lompoc construction contractor Ed Negus

60 was liircd co supervise the work crew at the Santa Rosa Park site where a large rock wall was to be built. At age twenty-six, Negus was the youngest foreman work ing lor the CCC contingent of the National Park Service at that time and was only eight years older than most ol the enrollees he was directing.’'''^ Negus was born and raised in Lompoc, He grew up in a construction contracting familv, went to work for his father’s business alter high school, and was acting as foreman at job sices within three years be cause he had become an expert in both car pentry and handling concrete. In 1929, he built a concrete dance lloor at the Miguclito County Park near Lompoc and became ac quainted with county building officials during this project. Tlic La Purisima Project Superintendent, Harvey Johnson, held the CCC crew supervisor job open for Negus until he could complete other jobs and be gin working lor the National Park Ser vice.■>9 Negus and the ocher crew supervi sors were what the CCC administration in

NOTICIAS enrollee work assignments which included surveying, archaeological excavation, driv ing and hauling, adobe brick making, cook ing and baking, carpentry, masonry, fire suppression, and clerical work in the army and NPS ollices. Negus made an ellort to teach the enrollccs construction techniques and not just tell them what to do. He also saw to it that their daily assignments were rotated so that no enrollee spent all his time making mud bricks or hauling rocks in a wheelbarrow.^' He described the complex ity of his work; 1 had a crew offorty tofifty boys ivorfing with everybody doing something. To see that they are doing it the way you ivant it done, 1 had to be buck,and forth. Some were laying bricks, sofne ivere tying up the steel reinforC' ing rods,some bidldingscaffolding,putting up ceilingfoists, pounng concrete, and cleaning up. I was all over all the time. 1 walked my 62

legs off!

the supervision ol government agents who were usually from the U.S. Forest Service or the National Park Service.

Teaching the CCC men how to work was Negus's biggest challenge. He worked right beside them, showing them what to do, and he lelt that made a big difference in the way he got along with the enrollccs.

"I never asked them co do any work I wouldn't do right beside them.” If an enrollee did not apply himself co the job, Negus would ask chat boy co "help” him personally. After a few hours, the reluc tant worker usually pcrlormed better on

When Negus and his CCC construc tion crew came to the Mission La Purisima

his own co avoid being asked co "help” Negus again. Wlien the members of a crew

site to begin rebuilding the adobe structures.

County Supervisor Ronald Adam saw to

were all getting along well, Negus liked co let them decide for themselves who would

it chat all the raw materials were supplied.

When Negus needed scaffolding. Adam had county purchasing officials put in an extra large order ol lumber for bridge tim bers and some ol that lumber ended up in the mission’s scaffolding. Negus had the largest work crews co supervise since the construction ellort consumed most of the

be best at specific assignments. He said the enrollccs teamed up lor specific projects and 63 cook an interest in what they were doing.

'Ihe boys took pride in their work- Practi cally all the boys werefrom Los Angeles and the work was so differentfrom anything they had ever been around before. I alivays had a job ready for newcomers—soynething they

Washington called Local Experienced Men or LEMs. The LEMs were hired at each CCC worksite across the nation and many were veterans of World War I. They man aged and trained crews of enrollees under

LA PURISIMA

61

ivould be very busy at—and Td stay pretty close to that bunchjor two or three days and work,with them. When they saw all the other

Chair of chc Santa Barbara County Road side Committee.

kids working,thereivas usually not much ar 64 gument about it.

the Santa Barbara Ecological Research Sta tion for the Carnegie Institution ol Wash ington and consultant to the National Park Service.

CCCjReconscpuccion pROjecc COAnAQenaenc

By March 1935 the State Park Com mission had adopted a piecemeal ap proach to the Mission La Purisima

● Dr. Frederic E. Clements, director of

● C. Kelley Hardenbrook, Deputy Dis trict Attorney for Santa Barbara County, Lompoc District. ● Marion Parks, historian for the Santa

project and only approved reconstruction of the padres’ residence building among the mission complex of thirteen build6.-) mgs. It was obvious that an enormous amount of painstaking research had to be done before further approvals would be issued.

The reconstruction of Mission La

Barbara Parlor of the Native Daughters of the Golden West.

Purisima also had to have a plan and a restoration policy to drive the work

and prominent Spanish Colonial Revivalstyle architect in Santa Barbara and Los

project of the CCC. The California State Park Commission asked a group of seven Santa Barbara County residents to form the La Purisima Advisory Committee.

After a thorough study, this group re leased a comprehensive restoration report on September 24, 1935. This report was accepted by both the state and National Park Service and became the master plan for the mission reconstruction project. It

Angeles.

Ex-officio Advisory Committee mem bers were: ● Ronald M. Adam. Santa Barbara

required that every effort must be made to authenticate the features of the archi tectural design by using documentary, photographic, or archaeological evidence, and that a minimum of conjecture would appear in the reproduced buildings. In January 1935 the first members of the La Purisima Advisory Committee were: * Wallace C. Penfield, engineer and sec retary of Santa Barbara County Planning Commission. ● Pearl Chase, Chair of the Plans and Planting Committee of the Community Arts Association of Santa Barbara, and

● L. Deming Tilton, director of the State Planning Commission and director of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commis sion. ● Carleton Monroe Winslow, vice-chair of the State Historic Buildings Committee

County Supervisor. Lompoc District, and editor of the Lompoc R,ecord. ● Frank Dunne. Santa Barbara County forester and County Park Superintendent. ● -W Wliitsett, National Park Service architect and project superintendent at the La Purisima CCC Camp. ● Frederick C. Hageman, National Park Service staff architect for the La Purisima reconstruction project.

Others later included as Advisory Com mittee members during the CCC years were: ● Dr. William H. Ellison, History Department. Santa Barbara State College. ● Fr. Patrick Roddy, O.F.M.. of Mis sion Santa Barbara. ● Harvey Johnson, former project su perintendent of the Santa Rosa CCC

Camp.

NOTICIAS

62 ● H.V Smith, subsequent project super 67 intendent of the La Purisima CCC Camp.

These people worked closely with of ficials from the State Park Commission, the National Park Service, Santa Barbara County politicians and staff, as well as local public interest activists to ensure that the rebuilding ot La Purisima by the CCC was a project that would inspire pride in California’s heritage. In the depths of the Great Depression, these Santa Barbara County residents told the federal government how to spend its re sources on Spanish adobe ruins located on state-owned land.

Their report stressed the educational aspects of the site with "the preservation of the atmo.sphere of an authentic mission community in its natural setting.” They proposed that the National Park Service reconstruct every building that could be reproduced authentically from the evidence available. At its meeting on November 14.

1936, the State Park Commission unani¬

mously supported the Advisory Committee's recommendation that all known mission buildings be reconstructed.

They continued to grant reconstruction approvals until La Purisima building plans ceased to be made for the CCC at the on set of World War II.

OPbe Sup€T2vism<7 Bi^cbicecc Becau-se so little historic data was avail able on Mission La Purisima’s architecture, painstaking research had to be conducted to discover its original appearance. Fortu nately. the task of conducting this research was assumed by Fred Hageman when the Mission La Purisima Advisory Commit tee recommended his appointment as Su pervising Architect in May. 1935.^^ A driven man. Hageman was only twentyeight when he began working at La Purisima in 1934, yet he was the energetic force behind the authenticity of the recon struction project. It was his thorough con-

Project architect Fred Hageman was the primaryforce behind the historical accuracy ofthe reconstruc tion ofLa Purisima.Fora time he had worked with thefirm,Fdwards and Plunkett,aidingjoseph Plunkett in tite design ojSanta Barbara s Arlington 'Iheatre.

'j

4 I

LA PURISIMA

63

sideration with historical and archaeologi cal evidence that made the restoration 70

project such a success.

Hageman searched out original records and documents of Mission La Purisima, correspondence of the padres, and private photographic collections. He interviewed early settlers about the mission, and vis ited other missions to study their features.

He also niadc use of architectural drawings of other California missions provided by the Historic American Buildings Survey, another New Deal program begun in November 1933. Construction Manager Ed Negus rcmembered that Hageman used Southern Pa cific Railroad photos from the 1890s to cal culate the former locations of doors and win dows in the mission ruins from the point of view of the photographer.^' Hageman was born in Los Angeles, and attended Los Angeles High School and the University of Southern California, from which he received a Bachelor of Science de gree in architectural engineering in 1928.^^ Alter his sophomore year at use. he got a job on a boat and went to Europe for the summer. He bicycled around Paris to study the city’s archi tecture and created a large sketchbook after spending almost a year there.

Hageman then attended the University of California at Los Angeles for one year, studying advanced architectural design and earning membership in scholarly and pro fessional architectural fraternities. After college, he apprenticed with a Los Angeles architect. A.B. Sturges. to earn the twoyear work experience the State of Califor nia required before he could take his state exam and become licensed.’^ The restless Hageman left his apprenticeship before his two years were completed, and became an orchard and ranch supervisor with extra 74 work in real estate management.

Hageman arrived in Santa Barbara in

1929 and attiliaccd with the noted archi tects William Edwards and Joseph Plunkett/' It was here that he became chid draftsman and acquired valuable experience as a designer and specification writer. He also helped design the fantasy Spanish bal conies and stairs on the interior of the FoxArlingcon Theatre which is one of archi 76 tect Plunkett’s most noted buildings.

Hageman freelanced for some time until the Great Depression began to affect the num ber of jobs available in Santa Barbara. He then took positions in the local adminis trative offices of the Civil Works Admin istration and the State Emergency Relief Administration.^^ Santa Barbara County Planning Com mission Engineer Wallace Penfield got to know Hageman during this time, and when the state acquired title to the Mission La Purisima site from Union Oil Company, Penfield would consider only Hageman for the job ol architect at the preservation project. When he came to the Santa Rosa CCC Camp in August, 1934. Hageman was hired as a senior foreman—not as a project architect—by the National Park Service because he still did not have his state architectural license. He did not became state certified and listed in the California Dircctoryof Architects until 1940 because Hageman’s next few years were consumed with the reconstruction of Mission La Purisima,

CDbe ippeseisve oi2 I^eButLb CiLemcm In 1934, Fred Hageman faced a dilemma at Mission La Purisima which is inherent in any historic preservation project. Exca vations around the mission ruins revealed ftiat the walls were unstable after the mounds ol eroded adobe bricks were re moved. After excavation was completed, the Advisory Committee decided to pre-

NOTICIAS

64 serve the original walls and incorporate them in the new construction of the pa dres’ residence. Hageman wrote: Ilad the old walls been tom doivn and cleared away,and construction started entirely neiv from thefoundations, the size and a(Jl?earance oj the individual adobe bricks, Jloor tiles, and other structural elements wotdd have had to be only relatively exact as there zvoidd have been no basisfor com parisoyi. But since the new and the old had to be jitted in together without any appar ent break, it ivas very essential that repro duction oj the original elements shoidd be 80 as exact as possible.

On July 7, 1937, UC Berkeley historian Dr, Herbert E, Bolton, a member ol the National Park Service Advisory board, de clared that the educational value of the mis sion site would be lost if the remaining ru-

ins were to be only stabilized and studied.

After a survey of the site, he advocated to the National Park Service a complete reconstruction ot all known buildings at Mis sion La Purisima.'^’ The National Park Scrvice provided two consultants to the La Purisima Advisory Committee lor the re construction project: Dr. Mark R. Harrington, curator of the Southwest Mu seum in Los Angeles, and Dr. Arthur A. Woodward,director of history and anthro pology at the Los Angeles County Museum.82 Thcy both wrote reports advocating a complete reconstruction ot the mis sion ruins lor their value as educational structures. Both contended that mere pre served partial walls were less valuable edu cationally.

All of Hageman's architectural designs and supporting data were reviewed by the

7hefirst new adobe brick is laid at La Purisvna,Jidy then began on the padres'residence.

1935. Construction

I'm

V. . '

LA PURISIMA regional historian and technicians at the San Francisco Regional Office of the National Park Service, and by more historians at the Washington. DC office to ensure authen ticity in his plans. All the historical con

65 of thirteen buildings were located, includ ing a 554-toot-long multi-family housing building for the Christianized Chumash who lived at the mission. TIic cnrollees also excavated the extensive water system of 87

sulting and double checking paid off in the form of a coherent policy resolution ren dered a little over a year after La Purisima's CCC camp was established.

On September 24. 1935, the La Purisima Advisory Committee presented its preliminary report to the State Park Commission, The report stressed the edu cational aspects ot the site with "the pres ervation of the atmosphere of an authentic mission community in its natural setting.

They proposed that the National Park Ser vice reconstruct every building that could be reproduced authentically from the evi dence available. At its meeting on Novem ber 14, 1936. the State Park Commission unanimously backed the Advisory Committee's recommendation that all known mission buildings be restored,'^'’ and continued to grant reconstruction approv als until building plans ceased to be made at the onset of World War 11.

OCjC(:Reconscpuccion In November 1934 the entire State Park Commission visited Mission La Purisima to inspect the ruins and the excavation work.'^*’ Supervising Architect Fred Hagcman and CCC Camp Superintendent Harvey Johnson give them a tour of the project where they observed crews of CCC enrollees removing thousands of cubic yards of wind-deposited soil from around the adobe ruins. The eroded adobe earth

tile pipelines, aqueducts, and fountains.

The mud pics tor adobe mortar mixing were begun on June 3, and the first adobe brick was laid in the reconstruction of the padres' residence building on July 7. 1935.

Phil Primm, the man who first conceived of the reconstruction ot Mission La Purisima as a CCC project, was given the honor of laying the first brick. Large crews of CCC cnrollees began the seemingly end less cask ot manufacturing hundreds of thousands ot adobe bricks and fired clay tiles. Others were engaged in gathering and preparing ocher structural materials, while still others were repairing the old. original scone foundations in preparation for cap ping them with concrete in readiness to 8H begin laying the new adobe walls.

Architect Hageman had little historical documentation to work with to direct the reconstruction efforts of the CCC men.

The original mission padres only left him a few lines of description for the padres’ residence building, so much of his design for the rebuilding program rested on the authenticity of his archaeological and pho tographic research. In reporting the dimen sions of the residence building to the Mis sion La Purisima Advisory Committee and the National Park Service, he wrote an elo quent description of the corridor columns: 7/ic tiled wofwhich covers the tileJloored cast coiTidor is supported lyy eighteen stately, plastered tile colwmis,nine ofwhich arc origi naland nine reconstructed. Ihese columns are

was carefully saved and later recast into new bricks. The CCC cnrollees watched

both chamfered andfluted at the corners,and with theirwhite plastered sides ayid redfluted

diligently for any artifacts chat might be unearthed, and many were found which provided valuable information. The ruins

comers are exceedingly gracefid in appear ance. 'Ihey are constructed ofrectangular, fluted tiles u'hich are laid at right angles to

NOTICIAS

66 each other at the comers. By reversing each course, the entire shaft requires a single mold oftile.La Purisima is the only Calijomia mL89 sion where colwnns oj this design appear.

The CCC molded and laid 110,000

it took two days to empty one pit to sup ply the mortar when they were laying brick. It took three weeks to get the bro ken pieces of bricks soaked up so that the mud could be stirred, so the CCC enrollces

adobe bricks in the residence building walls in addition to the portions of the original walls which were preserved.^ Each adobe brick measured twentyTour inches long by twelve inches wide by four inches thick and

worked from two pits while the other two were soaking. The mud could not be soupy but had to be very thick. They laid one section of adobe brick wall at a time in three

weighed sixty-five pounds after drying.®^ Nearly 37.000 tired clay tiles were required to cover the roof, and 15,000 fired tiles measuring ten inches wide by ten inches long by two inches thick were required tor the floors.

CD^Jema Anb I3xyin<7 Ba. ]5upisimA’s J3bol3e Spicks Construction crew supervisor Ed Negus described the complexity of the scene when the CCC enrollces were reconstructing the padres’ residence building in the summer of 1935.

For every hoy you had laying brick, had a boy that was helping him by shoveling mud mortar to him.%u had a mud box there, and then you had a boy wheelingmud upfrom the soaking pit down there where they were mixing the miid up.%u had a couple ofboys mixing mud and you had a boy wheeling it to one boy and another boy wheeling bricks to the brick layer to keep himfrom running and get ting his oivn bricks. Sofor every boy laying bricks, you hadfour orfive helping him. And if you hadfour orfive laying, you had to keep 9.? them all straightened mit.

Engineering Mechanic Ralph Ames had to make many more bricks than were used because there was considerable loss during drying and handling them. The broken pieces were cast back into the mud pits and reused as adobe mortar. The CCC estab lished four mud pits to keep the supply going for the padres’ residence building and

layers about a foot thick, and then waited a week for that section ol wall to dry out.

They discovered that if they built the wall too quickly without sufficient drying, it 94 began to sag and push out of alignment, When the adobe brick walls reached lour or five feet in height, scalfolding be came necessary. Negus said; On the main wall, the hoys laid three lay ers ofadobe bricks at a time. As they traveled along, they went about afoot high at a time, and when they came all the way around a given area, ive had a scaffold. We had to raise the scaffold as we ivent around, and raise it again on the other side of the build ing. As we went around an area, it was al most a iveeh before we got bach,to where we started to put the second layer on. During that time, the adobe would pretty well 95 evaporate and dry out.

Mixing and molding adobe from lour mud pits was not resulting in last enough production of bricks to suit Architect Hagcman. Ralph Ames devised a pugmill to speed up the adobe brick making pro cess to keep pace with the CCC enrollees building the walls. The pugmill was a long trough with twisting blades inside which had been obtained Irom a Lompoc area farmer. When hooked up at a right angle to the axle of a National Park Service Chevrolet truck, the blades turned and mixed and pushed the adobe mud and straw into a wheelbarrow. Tlic mixer held almost 300 gallons of mud and sat on the bed of the truck as it propelled the lour paddle

Ji

67

LA PURISIMA arms inside chc trough. The mixer also

chc mission ruins were excavated. The kiln

separated out rock particles, which caused chc bricks to crack, and released them

at JohnS'Manvillc Company,

through a crap door. Then chc wheelbar row contents of pugmill mud were emp tied into brick molds tor drying. Ames re vised this process until he got it right. II the mixture was too rich, the bricks would

a quarry

ing enterprise in the Lompoc Valley was used until 1938 when chc cnrollccs at La Purisima built their own kiln to fire the molded and dried clay^*^ Enrollccs con structed the mission's kiln out of red bricks

crack when they dried. Ames used a field half a mile from the mission reconstruc

at the site of the present-day parking lot near Purisima Road. The kiln used crude oil trucked in once a month from oil cank

tion site to obtain chc proper adobe-mak

ers docked at Avila in San Luis Obispo

96

ing soil bearing chc right amount of clay.

TfiTOQ I3a'Rwisico^s

TtLes

After drying in the sun, clay tiles des tined for chc roofs, floors, and water sys tem were burned in a kiln by CCC cnrollces. The tile shop workers made more root tiles chan floor tiles because they could re use many of the original floor tiles after

County CO reach chc high temperatures re quired.®^ Construction foreman Ed Negus insisted chc aqueduct tiles made by the Chumash and Franciscan padres were su perior and chat chc CCC men were never 100 able CO duplicate their quality.

As any ceramic worker knows, tiring clay is an arc as well as a skill. One cnrollce became so skilled at the La Purisima kiln chat the rules were broken to extend

Wof^proceeds on die[xidres’quarters. Crews produced 110,000 udobe bricks,euchweighing for this building. gy,ooo roof tiles and i5,oon//oor tiles were abo made.

pounds,

68

NOTICIAS

Lonatniction could be a messy business. Here a crew member scores an adobe ivall in preparation for plastering.'Ihe latter was one ofthe laist desirable assignments at the camp.

his cnrollmenc period because no one could

Ellis also remembered that "It took about

replace him. Raymond Ellis spent two years as a tile burner at the mission recon

a week tor the clay tiles to dry out enough before we burned them. After it was

struction project and earned the nickname

burned, one roof tile weighed about sixteen pounds.” He was made crew leader in the

of "Firebug” from his CCC peers. When he first arrived at La Purisima in 1938. he was seventeen and was assigned to handrub the tile in the tile-making shed.

We pressed out the tile [on wooden forms], then we ivould hand-nih it on both sides while it was still wet. One wet tile weighed about thirty-five pounds. We had a bucket to dip our hands in to ndo it smooth.

'Ihe idea ivas to make it like the original, not toi like modem manufactured roofing tile.

He recalled that a quarry near Orcutt produced better clay and the adobe earth quarry near the mission was abandoned.

tile shed because it took thirty-six liours to burn the tile in the kiln while the color was watched constantly. Ellis said hc: ... neverJell asleep and never lost any tile. BeJore me, we had a man operating the kiln and he let the clay get too hot and it melted in there.

When you melt it, it’s a heckuvajob to chip it out ofthe oven. We coidd tell by the color of the tile itselj how close it was to the melt' ing point. 'Ihe cook would send me ham sandwiches when I worked all night. Boy, I can still taste those ham sandwiches, they 102 zvere so good!

LA PURISIMA Ellis and the other CCC enrollees work ing in the tile shop loaded the kiln using bro ken tile pieces to space out the unlired clay for optimal heat circulation. The roofing tile was narrow at one end and wide at the other so they reversed the tile when they stacked it to create an air space betv^^een and allow heat to reach both sides of the tile. About ten percent of the tile was lost during each firing due to breakage.

iSceeL :R,einfo\iceb GpncRece just as the Franciscan padres reinforced their design of the second Mission La Purisima with sandstone buttresses and

69 cacion), Hagcman conscrucccd modern altcracions deviating from historic authen ticity to ensure seismically safe buildings.

He designed a steel reinforced concrete skel eton for the reconstructed mission build104 mgs. Thc adobe walls were built with internal .square holes in which the reinforc ing steel and concrete beams were placed.

The beams were set into all the outside and center walls of the buildings, with the ceil ing joists designed to take the lateral weight. Hageman reported to the Advi sory Committee why and how he broke from the authenticity rule on this feature by stating that he gave supreme impor tance to the strength and permanence of

four-foot-thick adobe walls(instead of the two-foot-thick walls chat had not with

the buildings when working out the struc tural details. He chose to diverge from the

stood the 1812 earthquake at their first lo-

original construction methods to use rein-

I listnric authenticity ivas sacrificed jar seismic safety icitli the xise ofconcrete and steel rebar hidden ivithin the adobe ivalls.

70

NOTICIAS

forced concrete columns, girders, beams, trusses, and subroofs, and ensured that these devices were concealed within the adobe walls or above the ceilings of the rooms. Because they are not visible, the changes did not effect the historic appear 106 ance of the buildings.

Negus described the hands-on experi ence with the beams: 'Ihe steel reinforcing ivas inside concrete poured at the mission. Vie steel had to befab' ricated and tied at the mission. Every beam was numbered and listed with each different lengths and measurements. It was like afivering circus going on out there handlingfortyfive to sixty-five CCC boys. Some werefab ricating steel,some were building scaffolding.

Hageman had drawn it all out(m blueprints, 107 and I had to teach the boys how to do it.

T'be 0>x7in CtCG GAnops In August 1935 reserve army First Lieu tenant Claus A. Tornell of the Quartermas ter Corps was assigned as construction of ficer charged with the building of a new CCC camp on the hill overlooking the mis sion. Four wooden buildings which had been built in Iront of the mission ruins were moved up the hill and set into place. Other wooden buildings were erected to house Company 1951, La Purisima Camp,which maintained an average strength of 170 men throughout the reconstruction project. Two adobe buildings were also built in the CCC

similar projects in the agricultural Lompoc Vhllcy. Tlie men were transported from the Fort MacArthur CCC processing center in San Pedro to their new camp at La Purisima. The combined CCC camps were like Iratcrnal twins on top of the mesa be hind the mission ruins, doing separate work projects with completely different super vision agencies, but sharing certain army personnel and some facilities. They were 109 referred to as the Twin Camps.

Each day, the men of the Twin Camps came together lor events orchestrated by the army. Reveille was at 6:00 am. with the voice of a staff sergeant on the Twin Camps loudspeaker crying , "Rise and face the glories of the newborn day," causing many groans inside the barracks. Break fast was served at 7:00 am, and everyone who was not ill was expected to attend as sembly and the Hag salute on the Twin Camps parade ground at 8:00 am. At this time, the company commander made vari ous announcements and then dismissed the men to their work assignments. Company 2950 climbed into Department of Agricul ture trucks to be transported to whatever worksite they were assigned that day.

Company 1951 walked down the hill to the mission site.'^*^ The Twin Camps kitchen staff served hot lunches at noon, and work resumed at 1:00 pm. At 4:00 pm, the supervisors called a halt to work for the day, the men returned to camp for showers, and as

camp as residences for the company com mander and staff.

sembled on the parade ground for retreat at 5:00. Supper was served at 6:00. Eve

Placed on the hilltop beside the La Purisima Camp was CCC Company 2950. called Lompoc Camp, which was formed April 11, 1936. under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture’s Soil Con servation Service. Their assignment was to build check dams, water Humes, baffle

nings were the time when the CCC boys could visit each other in the barracks,

plates, irrigation and contour ditches, and

play illcgal-but-tolcrated poker games, take classes, read, walk into Lompoc for a movie. listen to the radio, play billiards in the recreation hall, and write letters.

Most were too tired Irom the day's work assignment to do anything strenuous.

LA PURISIMA

71

A more permanent camp ofivooden barracks ivas built on the mesa behind the mission site one year after the project began.By the spring oj1936 there were two CCC companies housed there,La Purisima and Lompoc.

Taps was sounded at 10;00 pm, and all lights were expected to be otf and bar racks leaders conducted bed checks to see ill

it anyone was missing.

La Purisima CCC enrollee Frank Hines had a distinct memory of the Twin Camps barracks; Vie camp was dusty because the coni' pany streets werejust dirt roads and it was windy on top ojthat hill.'Die barracks,mess hall, and other buildings had to be oiled to keep the ditst down. 'The oil stunk like hell but it was better than breathing the dust.

Every tivo weeks, we took the blankets of] our beds and hung them out and beat the 112 dust out ojthem.

CjC(C( C&uDp I3ipe Many men went home tor the week ends, but for those who remained in camp, Saturdays were spent cleaning the camp area, doing laundry, and maintaining the company’s equipment. Sundays were days of leisure with group sporting events such as boxing and baseball. Monday morning’s reveille caused the whole routine to begin

again as the mission slowly began to reap pear out ot its own rubble.

Each week a list of those eligible tor weekend leave was posted in camp. A cer tain number ot cnrollecs always had to re main in camp for tire suppression duty, and some were restricted from leave for break ing camp rules. Approximately half the camp got leave passes on Fridays and went home for the weekend. Any enrollee who missed bed check on Sunday night was considered Absent Without Leave, but no one came looking tor any missing men.

Three AWOL charges could be grounds for dishonorable discharge from the CCC. Enrollees at La Purisima did not recall many deserters, probably because such men quickly grew discouraged by the work and camp lite and left shortly after arrival.113 The consensus opinion was that those men were "Mama’s boys who didn’t want to get up every morn ing and make their beds.

All CCC camps nationwide paid enrollees their $5 once a month in cash, less anv charges tor cigarettes, candy bars, or ra zor blades at the camp’s tax-free store.

72

NOTICIAS

An enroileeensiirespropa'alignmcntofaivall. Carefulmcasuremaitshodtobemadesathat con struction adhered to architect Haganan s designs.Some airollees gained enough experiaice to go on to careers in construction and surveying.

Enrollees who had been raced as Leaders earned $35 each month and got to keep the extra cash. Men in debt from barracks poker games simply surrendered their earn ings to their debtors and went without spending money lor the month. On pay day. the men were lined up before the Army paymaster in the recreation hall in the evening alter supper. Except for gambling, there was not much in camp on which to spend money and many enrollees saved ic for weekend leaves.116 The barracks poker game was one of those things chat they weren’t supposed to do. but everyone did anyway. Almost ev ery barracks had its own game, and often

the barracks leaders would join in. Poker was one of the mainscays of recreation in the camp, even chough ic docs not appear in any official records. The CCC men played for small stakes with the $5 they received each month on payday. Alcoholic beverages were forbidden and chat rule was enforced. Tliosc who felt like having a beer 116 walked to Lompoc.

Good natured harassment of new men was a common practice in all CCC camps.

Enrollees at La Purisima usually did not per secute newcomers much after the first week of short-sheeting, sand in the blankets, and moving a sleeping man’s cot outside. Still, everyone was subject at times to the bucket

LA PURISIMA of water propped up on a partially open door. Enrollccs looked upon these forms of hazing as a way of singling out men who would not endure camp life, "the ones who couldn’t take it." Playful wres tling in the barracks was common. All newcomers got the worst jobs at the work site during their first week, usu 117 ally in the mudpits or plastering.

Santa Barbara County Supervisor and La Purisima Advisory Committee ex otficio member Ronald Adam was also the editor of the Lompoc I^cord. He assisted the Twin Camps’education advisers to set up a jour nalism class one evening each week. Out of this class grew a bi-w'cekly new^spaper pub lished sporadically beginning in November, 1935. The cnrollec reporters, editors, and typists asked for the patience of their read ers because their only dictionary was a 1913 edition."'^ Tlie Twin Camps newspaper was discontinued a year later in favor of sending camp news stories to the TLeivs-Couricr. the newspaper published twice each month f rom the Los Angeles District CCC Office in Vhn Nuys. Tlic TVaus-Cmin’er printed informa tion which had been sent in by cnrollec re

73

Roof Qonscpuccion The original beams for roof of the La Purisima padres’ residence building were hewn from wood in pine forests on nearby Figueroa Mountain. For the reconstruction, Hageman decided to make use of redwood logs from the Stephens Grove CCC Camp in Humboldt County, California. Hageman knew the Franciscan padres had been able to make use of some redwood in the roof construction because he had the remains of the original beams authenticated in the biological laboratory of the College of Ag riculture at the University of California, Berkeley. To obtain the redwood for fash ioning the new ceiling beams, the floor planks and the material lor the doors and shutters, five NPS trucks were dispatched three times during 1936 to Camp Stephens Grove at Dyerville in Humboldt Redwotxls State Park where CCC enrollees had labored for months to harvest massive redwocxl trees and split the logs into sections. They supplied redwood fence posts for many 121 parks from this location.

porters froni all twenty-four camps in the District.119

Upon arrival at La Purisima. the beams and planks were marked out and enrollees,

La Purisima Camp stories in the Ativs-

using only axes, broad axes, and adzes, hewed them to size, dressed them down,

Courier included a detailed description of cnrollec Louis B. Slusscr winning $8750 at the Lompoc Tlicatcr Bank Night. In 1936, the Neivs-Coiiricr reported the presence of cameraman Roger Barlow at La Purisima.

Barlow was funded by another New Deal agency, the Federal Theater Project, and shot 1,600 feet of sixcccn-millimctcr film of the reconstruction activities, as well as of the CCC boys in their camp on the hill behind the mission. The La Purisima Camp was one of the first chosen to be filmed by the Federal Theater Project because of the unique quality of the project and because of its significance in California history.'^'^

and installed them in the building. The handsome corbels on which the ceiling beams rest were carved by hand, using wood chisels, gouging tools, and mallets.

The beams were adzed to make them look old and it any of the enrollees smoothed them too much. Hageman instructed them to create more adze marks.

From the early photographs of the pa dres’ residence building. Flageman deter mined that the root sheathing on which the tiles were placed consisted of a variety of cane which appeared similar to bamboo.

A large amount of the cane was located

74

NOTICIAS

growing in chc Santa Clara River bed near Fillmore. The La Puri,sima horticulturist hired by the National Park Service. Ed Rowe, identified it as Anmdodonax. and found that it was originally brought to Mexico from Spain by the early mission padres. A small crew of enrollccs went to the river bed to cut several truckloads of chc cane which they brought back to La Purisima and used where the underside of the roof was exposed beneath the eaves.

Several cowhides were purchased from nearby cattle ranchers and chc cane was lashed together and to chc rafters with raw hide as shown in the early photos of chc original buildings. On January 31,1936. chc first rool tiles were placed on chc north half 123

of chc padres’ residence building.

HlAScepinp cbe COOlLs Obtaining an authentic look in the plas ter covering chc adobe brick walls presented a special problem for Hagcman. On chc exterior walls exposed to southeastern storms, and on interior walls, chc original plaster was composed of lime and sand. It was bonded to the adobe walls by means ot rejiidos, or broken bits ot tile pressed into fresh plaster which filled grooves cut diagonally across the adobe. The same methods were followed in chc reconstruc tion, but modern plastering cools failed to create chc original surface texture.

Hageman designed a special trowel by re shaping a cement edger chat created chc dc-

Crews plastering adobe walls used a specially designed trowel to replicate die look u/ the original mission. Ihis design was based upon an original stone trowelfound among the debris at the mission site.

LA PURISIMA sired effect. His model was an original stone trowel found in the ruins with bits of plas ter still adhered to its edges. CCC enrollce Frank Hines recalled chat if the plas ter-filled grid was not cut into the adobe walls before the plaster coating was smoothed on, ...the whole thing would slip off. Every wallin that mission complex isgridded to hold that plaster. Everyone had to learn how to do this so the crews could be rotated. Ihey didn’t want one crew having to do one thing all the time. Plastering was the stinkingest, dirtiest job in the camp, working on that wall in the hot sun with a hand axe, chopping away at the adobe. It would benmee back in yourface, and ofcourse you were covered with sweat 125 and it would stick to you.

COoobwoRlc Anb I^bWApe The massive carved doors, the shutters, the stairs and stair rails, the chancel rails, choir rails, and ocher woodwork were all fashioned by hand and fastened together by wedged dove-tail or morcise-and-cenon joints, wooden dowels, or handmade iron nails. The patterns for the joints were de termined by carefully taking apart sections of some of the original woodwork un earthed in the ruins of the buildings. CCC enrollee Gilbert Loya was regarded as the genius of the La Purisima woodshop be cause his reproduction of mission wood work was so accurate. He later found em ployment as a woodworker at Mission San Fernando.

As work on the padres’ residence build ing progressed, the La Purisima Advisory Committee felt that the addition of some articles of furniture in the various rooms would add to their character and interest.

Accordingly, measured drawings and pho tographs were made of original benches, chairs, cables, and chests chat still existed

75 in ocher missions from San Carlos to San Luis Rcy. A small, select group oi enroll127 CCS began making reproductions.

Hageman described the backbreaking work involved in making the pieces authentic: Ihe materialfor making thefurniture was obtained from trees Jelled in the nearby pine forests by the enrollees. Ihe logs were trans ported to camp, placed over a saw-pit, and whipsawed into crude planks, one at a time.

Only by this method could the characterofthe 128 old articles he reproduced.

All the Mission La Purisima ironwork, including the cumbersome locks and keys, the heavy hinges, hasps, and latches, the iron and brass lighting fixtures, and all the exposed iron nails, were hand-forged by Valentine Goelz of Hessen, Germany, an exceptionally skilled metal worker espe cially employed for that purpose by the National Park Service. He was assisted in the blacksmith shop by CCC cnrollce Ri chard Barrios whom he trained so thor oughly chat Barrios was later able to suc cessfully cake over the cask of making much of the ironwork for the subsequently reconstructed buildings.*^ Barrios spent his later life as an ornamental iron worker.

ScAce ^EAPk Openeb On Labor Day, September 6, 1937.

1.500 Santa Barbara County residents at tended a ceremony to dedicate the La Purisima padres’ residence building and of ficially open the state park to the public.

The National Park Service and the CCC enrollees had taken approximately two years to reconstruct the building, which was about the same amount of time as it had taken the Franciscans and Chumash beginning in 1813. Lompoc school teacher Clarence "Pop” Ruth was gratified by the large crowd in attendance at the dedica tion and proposed an annual fiesta at the

76 mission every Labor Day.’-^° Hageman and Camp Superintendent H.V Smith con ducted tours of the grounds, and Hageman received a personal thank-you note signed

by Advisory Committee members Wallace Penfield. Pearl Chase. Phil Primm, and Carleton Winslow.'^' To add historical and educational inter est at the restored mission, a plot of about four acres was planted as a garden. The garden location included the three fountains directly in front of the mission ruins, and was not intended as a restoration, but as an exhibit of plants introduced to Califor nia by the padres and early colonists. Over 250 native plants and shrubs were added to the garden because they were used me dicinally by the Spanish, Mexicans, and Chumash.'^^ Forty-eight-year-old olive trees were transplanted from Los Olivos, thirty-five miles from the mission, by the CCC with their root systems enclosed in four-foot boxes. A special tackle had to be devised by the CCC men to load the heavy trees onto the NPS trucks. Palm trees were moved to La Purisima from the highway right-of-way near La Patera Road in Goleta. The mission’s British horticultur ist, Edwin Denys Rowe,selected those par ticular trees for their aged appearance be cause he felt they added to the atmosphere 133 of quiet serenity in the garden.

Ed Rowe developed a large nursery of native plants for the mission grounds and also grafted from fruit trees that dated from the mission period to bring back the old pear and apple orchards. By 1937, he em ployed sixteen enrollees as tree foremen, thirteen as tree trimmers, seven as garden ers, one nurseryman, forty-one laborers, and forty-eight equipment operators for a total of 126 landscape workers. Enroll ees recalled that he was ’’tall and distin guished,” and was the only foreman at the 135 project who never got dirty.

NOTICIAS

JReconscpuccion op Ocbep CDission ^uilbinos The CCC enrollees and their National Park Service supervisors began work on the mission church and cemetery in the spring of 1937 Hageman had only two sentences of description from the padres in 1818 for this site so he solved his need for recon struction authenticity by using the "point of view” perspective of the photographer.

Using a photo dated circa 1880 showing these structures still standing, he created an enlargement and located the camera’s position at the time the shot was taken.

From that, he was able to accurately cal culate the dimensions of the building, the roof slope, and the heights of the doors and windows.

During the excavation of the sanctu ary in the church, the grave of Padre Presidente Mariano Payeras was carefully uncovered and the skeleton was measured and photographed. A masonry vault, capped with a concrete slab, was then built around it and the grave again covered over with earth. The position of this grave fur nished the only clue to the location of the pulpit because no information could be gathered from the ruined walls or floor.

Hageman also had no data regarding the wall height, wall capping, and door open ings at the cemetery He copied those de tails from old photographs of the original walls at Mission San Antonio de Padua.

The height and decorative details of the top of the bell tower, or campanario, was unrecorded in the padres’ documents and no old paintings or photos furnished an image of the original. Evidence of the hori zontal measurements and the structural materials was furnished during the CCC archaeological investigations. Hageman used the design of the original bell tower at Mission Santa Ines, The pink color of

77

LA PURISIMA

All the ironwork jor the was reconstruction hand'Jorgcd on site by CCC enrollees. Collection oj the Santa Bar bara Historical Society.

chc plaster on the campanario and the cem etery walls was reproduced Ironi original fragments. One ot La Purisima’s original bells had been forged in Lima, Peru in 1817 and hung in the belfry ot the Roman Catholic church in Guadalupe in northern Santa Barbara County. CCC Camp Super intendent H.V Smith brought it back to La Purisima with the Church's permission.

Smith wrote to Hageman. ”1 think one of the most thrilling experiences of my var ied career was that ol climbing up into the ■138

Guadalupe tower and lowering that bell Reconstruction of La Purisima’s shops and quarters building began on April 11, 1938. This building had suffered more de terioration than the residence or the church and the padres had provided a two-sentence 139 description of the structure in 1816.

Hageman explained to the Advisory Com mittee how he drew plans for this recon struction; Vicre tvas no other data available, other than what coidd be gathered frenn the ongB nalfoundations and the debris covermg them.

Viegeneral design ofthe elevations and struc tural details...are a composite resultingfrom

studies of photographs oj similar buildings, notably those ofMissions San Fernando, San Antonio, and San Juan Bautista, and J'rom the adjoining bidldings at La Purisima.

HO

Wliile the Civilian Conservation Corps provided jobs for unskilled working men, another New Deal program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). func tioned similarly for trained professionals.

Teachers, nurses, actors, artists, and musi cians were also out of work during the Great Depression, During November and December 1940, artists from the Index of American Design came to La Purisima to decorate the interior of the reconstructed church. Unemployed painter Harry Hclmle was paid $25 per month plus expenses through WPA funds. He was supervised

by Mr. Dana Bartlett of the Index's oflice in Los Angeles. Bartlett’s department worked out most of the original La Purisima decorations from the old plaster fragments and historic files, Helmle painted the walls of the church, the altar dccora-

78

NOTICIAS

Project superintendent ll.V.Smith.Smithivas responsiblefor the return of(me ofthe original La Purisima bells

'

from a church in nearby Quadalupe, a success ^ ~ he called "one of the .. ● most thrilling experi ences oj my varied ca reer."

cions, and the pulpic with the assistance of

buildings and garden. Santa Barbara

cwo CCC cnrollees. Tiic Federal Arc Project ot Southern California sent artists to deco

County officials planned a special celebra tion with Old Mission Days, December 47, 1941. The four-day program included receptions, exhibits, religious ceremonies, illustrated talks, tours, sacred concerts,din ners, and fiestas to be held at both Mission Santa Barbara and Mission La Purisima.

The culmination was a celebration at La

rate the pulpit and chancel rail in the chapel of the padres’ residence building under the supervision of artist Douglass Parshall of Santa Barbara.'^'

OLb CDission 0avs After the State Park Commission ac quired more land for the mission site in 1941, park employees’ living quarters and support structures were prepared, as the state began to take over the full-time main tenance of the La Purisima complex of

Purisima where the CCC boys dressed as Chumash demonstrated adobe brick mak ing. Santa Barbara’s Franciscan seminary, St. Anthony’s, provided a choir to sing authentic mission music, and La Purisima’s bells rang from their campanario for the Hrst time since 1836. Several hundred

LA PURISIMA

ABOVE:7hc chiipd in the padres’quarters, ca. iSgos. Collection oj the Santa Barbara iUstorical Society.

BELOWIhe chapel in the padres'quarters after CCCrestomtion. CollectmioftheSantaBarbara Historical Society.

r

NOTICIAS

80 people acccnded and as they departed

within La Purisima Mission State His

learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on their automobile radios.

toric Park, an area of 1,928 acres—a small

After the Japanese attack and the start of World War 11, National Park Service offi cials were directed to dismantle the Twin Camps and relocated the buildings at the new army installation at Camp Cooke on the other side of Lompoc from La Purisima.

Fred Hagcman produced a lengthy illustrated report on the architectural reconstruction of the mission. During the war years, he worked for the U.S. Navy in Georgia designing boats, and after the war he entered into partnership with a Glendale, California, builder, Frank W Green. Tliey designed and built a shop ping center and a Ford dealership in Glen dale, but were t(X> lar ahead of their time with the shopping center concept. It lailed and Hagcman lost everything. He began drink ing and cook his own lilc in April 1948 at the age of forty-three.''^-’^ His legacy is the en thusiasm and architectural skills he brought CO La Purisima to restore it to lite for the en joyment and education of future generations.

Today the mission buildings arc

yet significant portion of the original 300,000-acrc mission property. Ten of the original buildings have been fully re stored and authentically furnished and the historic water system has also been restored. A five-acre garden contains native and domestic plants typical of a Franciscan mission garden. Animal breeds authentic to the mission era, such as burros, horses, longhorn cattle, sheep, and goats, arc displayed in a corral lo cated in the main mission compound. In addition to the historic buildings there is a picnic area and approximately twenty-live miles of hiking trails.

In 1939, Hagcman wrote an appropri ate conclusion to La Purisima s reconstruc

tion by the CCC: Should we wonder that wefind this line written in the Visitors’ Register by a descendant ofa Spanish pioneer? "Qracias a Dios.

La memoria vivird.”'dhayiks he to Qod. Its memory will live.

-

.T».-

■ 1

'4--

-.j

...A . jf

-MV - X|

y.

Mission La Purisima reborn. Collection ojthe Santa Barbara Historical Society.

LA PURISIMA

81

Hoces 1

Frank Price. History ofthe Civilian Con servation Corps Program in the Calijornia legion, 2933-1943(San Francisco: USDA Forest Service, Regional Office.

San Francisco. October, 1948), 1. ^ Ibid.

■*

^ ^

’ 8

^ 10

n

12

13 14 15 16

17 18

19

John A- Salmond, 'fhe Civilian Conser vation Corps, igT,yig^2: AHew Deal Case Study{Durlianv. Duke University Press. 1967), 6.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Ad U.S. Government dress, March 4, Printing Office, General Services Ad ministration (Washington. D.C. . 1933).

Price. 1.

L.H. LaFaver, "EnaineerinsandtheDeprcssion—Engincering in t le Forest Ser vice," Forest History, No. 14 (January, 1971), 15.

Salmond. 31. 217 Michael W Sherraden. "The Civilian Conservation Corps: Effectiveness ot the Camps" (Ph.D. diss. . University of Michigan. 1979), 2.

Salmond, 31; Price. 1.

Robert W Dubby. "The Civilian Con servation Corps: A Study of Opposi tion. 1933-1935," Southern Qiuirterly. 6 (April. 1968): 350.

Leslie Alexander Lacy, Vie Soil Soldiers (Radnor. Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Company, 1976), 17 Alison T Otis, William D. Honey. Tliomas C. Hogg, and Kimberly K. Lakin, Vie Forest Service and the Civilian Con servation Corps: ig^yg.2 (Washington.

D.C.: U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. 1986). 74.

Lacy. 17 Sherraden, 4.

Ibid.

John C. Paigc . Vie Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park, Service, I933-2 942.-An Administrative Flistory (Washington, DC. : National Park Ser vice. Department of the Interior, 1985), 15.

Paige. 16.

Forest Service Wives Club. Samplerof the Farly Jears, (Washington, D.C..

1980).

Sherraden, 4.

20 21

22

23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30

32 33 34

36 37 38 39 40

41 42

Ibid.

Salmond, 31; In Beyond Suffrage: Women in the Neiv Deal (Cambriclgc: Harvard University Press, 1981), Susan Ware described an unsuccessful attempt to establish and administer camps for un employed women by two other New Deal agencies, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and later the National Youth Administra tion (NYA).

Kenneth Holland and Frank Ernest Hill. %uth in the CCC (Washington. D.C.: American Council on Education. 1942), 58.

Paige, 184.

Sherraden. 5.

Ibid.

Sherraden, 7 Nancy MysterOuderkirk, "The Civil ian Conservation Corps: Roosevelt’s Robin Hoods," Northern Logger and limber Processor 23 (May 1975): 23.

Sherraden, 7 Salmond. 128.

Ibid.

United States Department of Labor, Anmuil Pleport ofthe Secretary ofLabor, Fis cal Year F.nded June 1,0, i938(Washington, D C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, General Services Administra tion. 1938).

Otis, et al. , 8-9.

Salmond, 218-219.

Sherraden. 8; Stan Cohen, Vie 'IreeArmy: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Con servation Corps, 1933-1942 (Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1980), 145, Price. 2.

Otis, et al. . 5.

Ibid.

Price. 2.

Otis, et al. . 41.

Charles B. Hosmer. Jr. . Preseiuation Comes of Age. Vbl, II. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981). 428.

Hosmer, 528.

Frederick C. Hageman and Olaf T. Mission La Purisima Hagen.

Concepcion—A Qlance Virough its I listoi~y and the Story ofits l^storation (Na-

82

43

44 4.^

46

47 48

49 50

51

.52

53

54

.15 56 57 58

.59 60 6t 62 63 64

66 67

NOTICIAS

cional Park Service, Deparement of the Interior, n.d.). 14. in the Mission La Purisima Archive. Lompoc, CA, Civilian Conservation Corps. Los An geles District, Ninth Corps Area, 0//idalAnnual,{^an Nuys,CA.. 1938). 76.

Lompoc Record, 10. August 1934.

Minutes of the La Purisima Advisory Committee,8 August 1934, in the Mis sion La Purisima Archive, Lompoc, CA. Santa Barbara County Resolution No. 1421, 24 September 1934, in the corre spondence Hies, Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc, CA. Annual. 76.

Letter, Lawrence C. Merriam to H.V Johnson, 22 August 1934, in the corre spondence files. Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc, CA. Annual, 77 La Purisima CCC Camp Inspection Re ports, 1934-1941,” Box 37, Record Group 35, National Archives and Records Service.

News'Courier, Civilian Conservation Corps, Los Angeles District(Van Nuys, CA), 15 April 1937 La Purisima enrollee M. Gilbert Ballesterose, interview with author, Bucllton, CA,26 July 1989.

La Purisima enrollee Franklin E. Hines, interview with author, Los Angeles, CA, 21 July 1989.

La Purisima enrollee Robert Zaragosa, interview with author, Los Angeles, CA. 24 July 24 1989, Hines interview.

Hines interview.

Annual. 77.

La Purisima CCC Foreman Edward Negus,interview with author, Lompoc, CA. 19 July 1989.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Letter, William E. Colby to Colonel Charles B, Wing, 11 October 1935, in the correspondence files, Mission La Purisima Archive. Lompoc, CA Hageman and Hagen, 15.

Minutes of the Advisory Committee,

68 69

70 71 72

27 March 1936.

Ibid.

Minutes of the Advisory Committee,8 May 1935, Negus interview.

Hageman and Hagen. 16.

Russell Holmes Fletcher,ed., Who’s Wlw in California, 19^2-43, Vol. i (Los An geles; Wlio’sWno Publications, 1943), 367

7.3

74 75 76 77

78 79 80 81

82 83 84

85

86

87 88 89 90 91

92 93 94

Voice of the Twin Camps, La Purisima CCC Camp, Lompoc, CA, 6 Decem ber 1935, in the Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc, CA. Negus interview.

Fletcher. 367 Negus interview.

Voice ofthe Twin Camps, 6 December 1935.

Ibid.

Negus interview.

Hageman and Hagen. 17-18.

Letter, Herbert E. Bolton to Arthur E. Demaray. 1 July 1937, in the correspon dence iiles. Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc. CA. Hageman and Hagen, 16.

Ibid.

La Purisima Advisory Committee Re port, 24 September 1935, in the corre spondence files. Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc, CA. Minutes of the California State Park Commission, 14 November 1936, in the correspondence files. Mission La Purisima Archive, Lompoc. CA. Letter, Wallace C. Penfield to Pearl Chase, 2 November 1934 in the corre spondence files. Mission La Purisima Archive. Lompoc, CA. Hageman and Hagen, 17 Hageman and Hagen, 19.

Hageman and Hagen. 16.

Ibid.

Richard S. Whitehead,ed., AnArchaeO' logical and Restoration Study ofTdission La Purisima Concepcion—Reports WrittenJor the Tdational Parli Service Fred C. Hageman and Rj.issell C. Ewing (Santa Barbara; Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, 1980), 85.

Hageman and Hagen, 16.

Negus interview.

Ibid

LA PURISIMA 95 96

Ibid.

Ibid.; Voiceofthe^RvinCamps, 6December 1935.

97

Voiceofdie Ruin Camps, 21 January 1936.

News-Courier, 15 January 1938.

99 La Purisima enrollcc Raymond E. Ellis, Sr., interview with author, Santa Bar bara, CA, 27 July 1989.

100 Negus interview.

101 Ellis interview.

102 Ibid.

103 Ibid.

9S

83 123

Hagcman and Hagen, 23; NewS'CoU' rkr. 1 February 1936.

Hagcman and Hagen, 22.

12.5 Hines interview.

126 Ibid.

127

Hagcman and Hagen, 23.

Hagcman and Hagen, 27 129 NeivS'Couricr, 1 October 1936.

130 Santa Barbara News-Press. 7 Scpcember 1937 131

104

Hageman and Hagen, 18.

Negus interview, 106 Hageman and Hagen, 18 107 Negus interview.

I OK Annual, 77 Ibid. no Hines interview.

111 Ibid.

112 Ibid.

Civilian Conservation Corps., CCClnstructions, Ninth Corps. Area, 1938 (U.S. Army: San Francisco, 1938).

114 Zaragosa interview, 115 Ellis. Ballesterose. and Zaragosa inter views.

116 Ibid.

117 Ibid.

105

IIK

Voice ofthe Rvin Camps,n.d..

News-Courier, 15 August 1936.

120 News-Courier. 15 September 1936. The author has not conlirmed chat this film remains stored within the CCC collec tion at the National Archives in Wash

119

121

122

ington, D.C. whitehead. 189: Hagcman and Hagen, 20a.

Negus interview.

Pearl Chase Papers, Special Collections, Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

132

Tdeivs'Courier. 15 July 1936.

News-Courier, 1 April 1938 134 Landscape Maintenance File, 1937, Mis sion La Purisima Archive, Lompoc,CA. Adler interview.

133

136

Hageman and Hagen, 26.

Hagcman and Hagen, 28.

Letter, H.Y Smith to Fred Hageman,4 February 1941.

139 Hageman and Hagen, 28, 140 Hagcman and Hagen, 29.

141 Letters, H.V Smith to Dana Bartlett, November 1940-Scptembcr 1941.

142 Program, Old Mission Days, 4-7 De cember 1941.

137

143

First Strategic Aerospace Division, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Launch; 'Ihe Story ofVandenherg(Lubbock,TX.: Boone Publications, 1970), 17 144 Negus interview.

145 Death certificate of Fred Hagcman, Los Angeles County Coroners Office.

146 Hagcman and Hagen, 31.

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SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES President ● 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President Dr. Jo Beth Van Gcldcrcn Treasurer Gen. F. Michael Rogers, USAF(rct.)

Leslie L. Hovey Lawrence Hammecc . . . .

Jean Smith Goodrich

Secretary

Dr. Glen W Adams Leslie S. Bernstein

Betsy Lewis Thad MacMillan

Frank T Stevens Stclani Taliaferro

Jon S, Bull

Jane Rich Mueller

Elizabeth H. Edwards

Edgar L. Sands Robin Schutce

James Vicanza Diane Waterhouse

George M, Anderjack, Executive Director David S. Bisol. Curator

LIFE MEMBERS The Santa Barbara Historical Society wishes to thank and to acknowledge with pride the following Life Members lor their continuing support.

Mr. Stephen A.Acronico Mr. William B.Azbcll Mr. & Mrs. Jerry W Beaver Elizabeth Booth Mr. Marvin J. Branch Mr. & Mrs. Ashleigh Brilliant Mrs. Virginia Castagnola-Huntcr Mrs. Natalie B. Clark-Harpham Mr. 6i Mrs. Charles Cleek Mrs. Florence Corder-Wittcr Mr. Richard G. Croft. Jr. Mr. Oswald J. Da Ros Marla Daily Mrs. Albert De LArbre Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Fish Mrs. Helen W Foyer Master John Galvin Mr. Michael Galvin

Miss Sally Gane Mr. Richard C. Harpham Mr. Eric P. Hvolb0ll Dr. & Mrs. C. Seybert Kinsell Mr. & Mrs. William F. Luton. Jr. Mrs. Jane Rich Mueller Mr. William W Murfey Mr. David F. Myrick Mr. & Mrs. Godwin J. Pelissero Lord & Lady Ridlcy-Tree Mrs. Alma R. Ritchie Mr. Wade Rubottom Mr. & Mrs. Peter J. Samuelson Mr. & Mrs. J. Terry Schwartz Mr. Walter G. Silva Mr. & Mrs. Burke H.Simpson Mr. Ivano Paolo Vic Mr. John Woodward

The Santa Barbara Historical Society 101

136 E.De la Querra Street, Santa Barbara, California 93

Non-Profic Organizacion U.S. Postage PAID Santa Barbara Calilornia Permit No. 534

NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine of the Santa Barbara Historical Society 136 E. Dc la Guerra Street Santa Barbara, Calilornia 93101

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CONTENTS Pg. 49: Mission La Purisima Reconstruction; The Civilian Conservation Corps Story