The 683rd CCC Corp, as told and photographed by Chester Harold Finster.
For those unfamiliar with the CCC there are links at the end of the page. I have scanned these photographs at a high enough resolution to make decent 5 x 7 inch prints. For the purposes of this site I have reduced the quality to 72 dpi. Researchers that are interested can contact me for a cd with all the material on it at a better resoulution.
This material will be presented as they were pasted into the pages of his scrap book along with his notes about the pictures and life in the camp. He seemed to love duct tape and some of the pages use that silver tape to keep things together. Relatives said that he even used the stuff on his clothes. I guess that was the engineer in him.
During WWII he served in the Army Engineers and went ashore in Normandy on the third day. I am a little biased, but I think of him as being one of the nicest guys you could meet, and so did most everybody else.
The Company was organized in the early part of June, 1933 at Camp Cluster Company moved up north above the Straits of Mackinaw on U.S. 2 and to the Kinross Railroad Station in the middle part of June 1933 The Company established thèir Camp Grounds on the South side of Kinross Lake. Kinross Lake is 3/4 mile Southeast of Kinross Station. This was called the Kinross Encampment. (Eventually 4.5 Miles S.E. of Kinross for the summer)The Camp remained here from the middle of June 1933 until November 15, 1933. They broke camp on that date in —15 Deg. Below zero. It was hard to keep our tents warm even if the side walls of the tents were banked with bales of hay. The Company then moved into winter quarters in the, old College building of the Dunbar Agriculture College located 12.0 miles South of the Soo on the St. Mary’s River. The exact location was just west of the West Neebish Channel Cut. and just South of the Charlotte River which emptied into the T St. Mary’s River. This was called the Dunbar Encampment. The Company remained here ‘from November 15, 1933 until June 15, 1935. The Summer School for the Juniors and Senoirs of the Forestry Class of Michigan State University then took over for their field work. 1st. Lt. Leonard L. Hilliard was our Company Commander.
