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The CCC Camp in Skandia
Written by Elsie Koski Waterman
Another event that affected our lives was the building of the CCC camp near the fire tower on Highway 41. My cousin, Laimi Kantola, was a teenager and soon began dating a CCC man from Iron Mountain, Jerry Palesotti. Horrors, he was Italian and Catholic! Well, they were married eventually, and I wrote a little story about their first date for them in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary a few years ago. That was one thing I always said about my father, as I was growing up--he would have “preferred me to grow up and marry a criminal than a Catholic.” There was such animosity between the Catholics and the Lutherans particularly. However, I learned much later that there were some Finns he didn’t want me to marry either.
Regarding that first date with a CCC man for Laimi, it seemed that I was at my grandmother's house when Laimi and her friend, Lena Ylinen, were waiting for their dates to arrive. They were all dressed up in high heels, and they got so excited when the men drove in the yard that they kicked their high heels off and went running through the house squealing.
Even I felt the presence of the CCC's a bit. My parents would get together with friends to play cards. One of their friends housed a CCC man, who stayed in the area after it closed.
Often I was asked to be a partner of Donald Bowers, the CCC man, so that the number of players would be even in Canasta or whatever else they would play. He would tease me mercilessly. Donald even wrote this little girl from Carlshend as he later went into the service. He was a very nice man who eventually married a girl from the area, and he returned here after the war. My cousin, Charlie Kantola, Laimi’s brother was in the CCC’s.
I’m not sure what the CCC’s did in Skandia Township, but I learned through the years that the CCC’s did a lot of work in the National Parks throughout the country. They built many lodges; in fact, we stayed in one at Glacier National Park.
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