As Rugged as the Terrain: CCC “Boys,” Federal Convicts, and World War II Alien Internees Wrestle with a Mountain Wilderness

By Priscilla Wegars with a Foreword by Dick Hendricks
This book explores some intriguing history of Idaho’s wild and scenic Lochsa River. In 1893 this site, at turbulent Canyon Creek, was a footnote in the saga of the ill-fated Carlin hunting party. Next, in 1933, it held nearly 200 tent-dwelling Civilian Conservation Corps recruits, most from New York State. The antics of these “city slickers” provide colorful insights into CCC camps housing young men far from home. In 1935 the site became Federal Prison Camp No. 11, a road-building facility for convicts mostly from the Leavenworth, Kansas, penitentiary. The authorities stressed rehabilitation, rather than punishment, but because the camp was not fenced, a few escapes occurred, some quite thrilling.
The prison camp closed in May 1943, and Japanese detainees at the Kooskia Internment Camp continued road construction for two more years; see Priscilla Wegars’ Imprisoned in Paradise: Japanese Internee Road Workers at the World War II Kooskia Internment Camp (2010).
Several chapters in Rugged continue the Japanese internees’ story, and compare it with the experiences of Italian and German internees in the vicinity.
393 + xxxviii (431) pages, 110 illustrations, plus notes, appendices, bibliography, index.
Pb; if you wish it autographed, please specify recipient.
All author's royalties benefit the AACC.