Meet the Bay Area Triple C's of Company 978

Unless otherwise noted, all photos, quotes, and information are from: Civilian Conservation Corps, Official Annual, Ninth Corps Area, Medford District, 1938 (most likely published by Direct Advertising Co., Baton Rouge, Louisiana).

Above (L to R): Ralph Zamacona, Richard K. Heronaka, and William P. Thomas, of CCC Company 978, Mount Shasta Side Camp, California, ca. 1938. Ralph Zamacona was born in 1919 and died in San Francisco in 2012. See his photo and biography, "Ralph Zamacona," Find a Grave (accessed 1-29-2023).

Above: A larger group of CCC enrollees from Company 978, at the main camp, "Camp Sims," near Castella, California, ca. 1938. "Company 978 has been a Bay Area outfit since its formation, over three-quarters of its personnel at all times calling San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding cities home."

Above: A graphic showing the general location of Camp Sims.

Above: Recreation at Camp Sims.

Above: Healthcare at Camp Sims - the infirmary. "Our safety record is outstanding and is jealously guarded by the boys... no enrollee has suffered a major injury on the work project or in camp."

Above: Perhaps the most important people at Camp Sims - the providers of food!

Above: Drivers at Camp Sims, ready to take their fellow CCC men to work sites or forest fires.

Above: Jordan G. Thompson, Senior Leader of Company 978. Normally, CCC enrollees served 6 months to 2 years. Some could serve longer, for example, skilled cooks. Others, like Jordan Thompson, showed "an aptitude [and] were advanced to leaders and assistant leaders at a higher rate of pay, which was $36 [per month] for assistant leaders and $45 for leaders" (Perry H. Merrill, Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942, 1981, p. 11). Thompson served in the CCC from May 1933 to 1938, and perhaps longer.

Above: Among the accomplishments of Company 978 were: "Construction Sacto River steel bridge at Camp Sims, construction Sims lookout and road, construction Bradley lookout and road, Sugar Loaf lookout and road, improvement Toll House road to Trinity County, construction Everett Memorial Highway on Mt. Shasta, fire trail construction Northern Shasta and Eastern Trinity Counties."