Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Leo Beane, a CCC veteran, shakes hands with attendees at the 2016 edition of the annual CCC event held at the Warren County Visitors Bureau. The CCC worker statue is one of seven in the state and was dedicated in 2017.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was operational for less than a decade – 1933 to 1942.

But the vestiges of the work of the young men that made up the CCC – three billion trees, 46,854 bridges, over 800 state parks – remains with us today, quite often without our conscious realization.

For the 12th year, the Tionesta Valley Snowmobile Club is hosting a CCC Statue Reunion and Allegheny Picnic.

The event is set for Friday, August 16.

It starts at 10 a.m. at the CCC worker statue at the Warren County Visitors Bureau, according to Ed Atwood, president of the Snowmobile Club.

“CCC historians Dr. Michael Schultz, Martha Smith and Tim Monthomery will talk on the rich legacy of the CCC,” Atwood said.

The group will then head to Chapman State Park for a picnic at pavilion #2. Atwood asked anyone interested to call in an RSVP to 726-2774.

The CCC was one of the most visible and productive programs of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, intended not only to provide employment in the midst of the Great Depression but also enhance and develop the nation’s natural resources.

The statue at the visitors center in Starbrick is one of seven in Pennsylvania. It was dedicated in 2007.

ANF-1 was the second CCC camp of about 4,500 in the nation. It was the first of 16 CCC camps on the Allegheny National Forest, and the first in Pennsylvania.

Warren County’s only camp – located at Bull Hill – was constructed in 1935 and opened in June of that year. Once the camp closed and the CCC shut down, the Bull Hill Camp was used as a POW camp where approximately 200 German prisoners were guarded by 14 military policemen.

Many “CCC Boys” as they are known have attended the event throughout the years – Donald Come, Orren Wood, Charles Varro, Joe Tullio, John Dennis, Nick Stanko, and Leo Beane.

Those numbers dwindled from year to year as those men – well into their 90s – passed away.

The last CCC veteran the event hosted was Leo Beane, a tree planter supervisor at ANF-1. He was the star of the show at the 2016 event. He passed away in March 2017 at the age of 96.