Over 15 years as a campground host on the Allegheny National Forest in Elk County, Michael Schultz ran into many Civilian Conservation Corps alumni returning to visit their one-time homes.

“As a result, I became fully entrenched in researching CCC history for the past 35 years,” he said.

Schultz, who turns 90 this month, will be the keynote speaker at the 14th annual CCC Statue Reunion at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 13, at the Warren County Visitors Center in Starbrick presented by the Tionesta Valley Snowmobile Club and the Warren County Visitors Bureau.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Single men, ages 18 to 25 who enlisted would have a place to stay, three meals a day, and make money while improving the nation’s public lands, forests, and parks.

Schultz worked on the Twin Lakes and Loleta recreational areas in Elk County from 1978 to 1992.

Since then, his interest in the CCC has led him to establish Michael and Marie T. Schultz Collection of CCC Memorabilia at the Hanley Library at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

“The collection is a great place for research on the CCC as it houses over 1,000 pictures, 32 video interviews with CCC vets, 50 books on the CCC, a large holding of CCC memorabilia, CCC camp newspapers (chiefly from PA camps) and countless articles and papers dealing with the CCC,” Schultz said.

He is also the author of two books on the CCC: a novel – In the Shadow of the Trees — and a historical narrative — The CCC in the Allegheny National Forest.