DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Weches CCC Camp. Now, the summer of 1933 was a hard summer across this country — and out here in Houston County, Texas, something was fixin' to change that. On June 19, 1933, the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps established Weches Camp P-58-T.
First of its kind in Houston County. Company 888 moved in, and those men got to work. And when I say work, friend, I mean work.
The camp had barracks, a mess hall, a recreation area, a post office, and a medical infirmary. It was a small city carved out of East Texas timber country. But the real story isn't what they built inside those fences — it's what they built beyond them.
Company 888 helped restore and develop the Davy Crockett National Forest. They turned their hands to the Historic 118-acre San Francisco Mission State Forest too. They planted trees.
They built roads. They developed park facilities. They erected log structures — the kind that still feel right at home in this piney wood country — and they raised fire observation towers that stood watch over all of it.
Think about that. A company of men, planting the very trees that decades later would give shade to strangers who'd never know their names. Then, in November of 1935, Camp P-58-T closed.
Company 888 was gone. But the roads they graded, the forests they tended, the towers they raised — those stayed. Out here in Houston County, the work of those men is still underneath your boots and over your head every time you walk into those woods.
What the marker says
Weches Camp P-58-T was established by the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on June 19, 1933. Manned by Company 888, the Weches camp was the first CCC camp established in Houston County. It contained barracks, a mess hall, recreation area, post office and medical infirmary. Camp enrollees helped restore and develop the Davy Crockett National Forest and the Historic 118-acre San Francisco Mission State Forest. They planted trees, built roads, developed park facilities and erected log structures and fire observation towers. The camp closed in November 1935. (1995)