Remember When?

SANDERS COUNTY C.C.C.

by Fredi Pargeter

and Glenn T. Garrison

Note: The Civilian Conservation Corps was developed as a relief agency during the Great Depression years. President Roosevelt convinced Congress to create the C.C.C. which provided conservation jobs for unemployed men, ages 18 to 25.

Milton Butte

Milton Roy Butte was born behind the store in Belknap on July 21, 1918, the grandson of German settlers Fritz and Mina Butte who purchased 160 acres after settling in 1904. The property is still in the Butte family. His grandfather and father, Ernest, planted apple trees between the property’s stumps and trees, raised a garden with potatoes as a primary crop, and had horses, milk cows, pigs and chickens. His father worked as the Belknap winter watchman on the railroad for 20 years. Slides often closed the tracks. In 1933 the railroad turned the tracks over to the state when the grade was deemed too steep for freight trains to climb. The line ran in the path of present Highway 200.

After graduating from Thompson Falls High School in 1936, Milton tried to find work for a few months, then joined friends at the courthouse and signed up for the CCCs. He and his friends…Dick Daniels, Clarence Moles, Norm Knudson, Everett Barrett, Marcus Pyatt and Paul Shade were sent to Fort Missoula for two weeks and then they were off to Lolo where Milton served for six months before being transferred to the Thompson River camp. He stayed with the CCCs until March of 1939.

At Thompson River, he was assigned to the survey crew working on the road up theThompson River. He believes that work on the road began in 1937. The training led to permanent employment with the Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation after discharge from the Corps.

The group worked for the Forest Service from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and then they were under the supervision of the Army. Immediately after returning from the work day, the men changed from jeans and shirts to the dress uniform including a black tie. It was mandatory to wear a black tie to dinner. No tie, no food. The early uniform of the CCC was blue denim, but by the early 1940s army fatigues were also in service. These were serviceable in hot weather and with the addition of a wool liner, accommodating in cold weather. According to a website maintained by the Northwest Military History Group with displays housed at the Montana Army National Guard Armory in Missoula, these uniforms inspired the Levi jeans jacket.

Milton often went to the commissary after dinner to read or attend class. He received an engineering certificate from classes taken at the camp. All of the enrollees during his tenure were Montana youth. While serving here, he fought several fires including the Swamp Creek Fire. After walking in 11 miles, the crew spent 11 days where he worked in the commissary dispensing bedding. Mules were brought in from the Ranger Station at Trout Creek to carry supplies.

As with other young men, Milton sent $25 monthly home to his family, and retained $5 that he spent mostly on Bull Durham. Each Friday night he returned home with his dirty clothes and returned to Thompson Falls Sunday nights to attend a movie, then returned to camp in the “bus.” Often there were dances in the mess hall.

He met a White Pine teacher, Shirley Wilson, while in the CCCs. They were married five months after he left the CCC program, and the North Dakota girl quit teaching after that. They purchased the Little Beaver Creek 160-acre Butte ranch in 1947, and it was here that they raised their four children: Bonnie (McKenzie); twins Jay (Buckingham) and Judy (Hendrick); and Roy. His home was built from lumber sawed by Frank Tinker who owned a portable mill, and timber purchased from the Forest Service. Besides farming, he contracted with the school district to drive bus.

Milton smiles as he remembers the CCC prankster. Often when enrollees went to town, they’d come back to camp to find their shoes nailed to the floor or their bed in the rafters.