Book Talk

Date: Saturday, June 27, 2pm
Location: Village Square Bookstore & Literary Arts Center, Rte 23A, Main St., Village of Hunter, NY
Information: 518 263 2050
Free admission

Margaretville author Diane Galusha's new book, Another Day, Another Dollar: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Catskills (Black Dome Press, 2008), published on the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (the CCC), a Depression-era New Deal program aimed at providing employment for millions of men by hiring them to work in a nationwide "forest army" to combat erosion and reverse decades of environmental abuse, takes a close look at seven camps in the Catskill region, including Camp S-97 in Tannersville.

The men of the Tannersville camp, which lasted for three and a half years from May 1934 to October 1937 and was located on a plateau at the base of Clum Hill overlooking Rip Van Winkle Lake, built the campgrounds at North Lake and Devil's Tombstone, worked on gypsy moth eradication, created miles of fire roads and hiking trails, and planted 800,000 trees. Not a mean accomplishment. And this was just one of 161 CCC camps across NY State and over 4,500 such camps across the nation.

Galusha's book also examines six other CCC camps in the Catskills -- where city boys and their country cousins, under the tutelage of local woodsmen and mechanics, wielded axes, mattocks and shovels to transform the Catskills in subtle and significant ways.