In May 2019, a team of archaeologists and volunteers met in Camp Pine Woods, near the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines. Their mission: survey a trash pile left behind from Camp Pine, a labor and prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Laying exposed on the forest floor was a window into a by-gone era.
A brief history of CCC Camp Des Plaines
Constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934, Camp Des Plaines, also known as Dam No. 2 camp, was situated on the banks of the Des Plaines River. The men assigned to this camp had the job of improving the forest preserve around them, owned and managed by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC). They built parking spaces, shelters, trails, and other facilities, many of the fruits of their labor still visible to this day. By 1942 the CCC permanently abandoned the camp, but it did not remain vacant for long.
The Second World War revitalized an American economy still reeling from the Great Depression. Job opportunities became abundant after the switch to war production. Meeting the labor demand, however, became a challenge of its own. Labor shortages soon gripped the nation as millions of able-bodied men left behind their civilian jobs for the military. Some industries were more impacted than others, to be sure.
Chicago’s wartime labor market was no different than that of other major American cities. The region’s farmers struggled to secure enough farm workers to help with planting and harvesting. In response, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) opened two work camps at opposite ends of Cook County, both former CCC camps and located on forest preserve properties. The workers assigned to the camps comprised of Victory Farm Volunteers (VFVs) and seasonal Jamaican workers.
Servicing the farmers north of Chicago was Camp Des Plaines. It was seasonally occupied by the USDA from July 1943 to early 1945. Ultimately the civilian operations at the camp ceased and the Army moved in, bringing with them German prisoners of war (PoWs). The Army named its installation Camp Pine and remained there until March 1946. Then abandoned once more, the former CCC barracks became reoccupied in 1948 by Girl Scouts.
Today, the site of CCC Camp Des Plaines is but an empty clearing, its buildings long torn down. Visible are its footprints, structural foundations and exposed plumbing. That is when the site is not overgrown with tall grass. In the north-west corner stands a wood pole, its age and purpose uncertain. All throughout the adjacent woods, on the other hand, are fragments from the camp that for decades have remained undisturbed.
Surveying a 1940s refuse in Camp Pine Woods
On 15 May 2019, archaeologists from the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS)- Northern Illinois Field Station, along with several volunteers, myself included, met at the southern end of the parking lot in Camp Pine Woods forest preserve. Our mission was to carry out a field survey of refuse and building debris left from Camp Pine. Of particular interest to us was a midden, a refuse pile, teeming with undocumented artifacts. Leading us to the survey site that day was archaeologist Jim Meierhoff who previously discovered the remnants.
The team set off on a trail that runs parallel to the Des Plaine River. Heading south, we soon came upon a clearing in the woods. Tall-grasses covered the area where the camp’s barracks, administration offices, and service buildings once stood, wedged between a gravel footpath and the Des Plaines River Trail. A narrow depression in the ground delineates the perimeter of the camp, visible in aerial and satellite imaging. Adjacent west of the main camp was a garage, warehouse, and several other infrastructure buildings, their locations now consumed by forest.
Our group ventured off the gravel and entered a dirt footpath in the woods. We pushed through vegetation, careful to avoid the prickly buckthorn, and climbed over fallen trees, following Jim’s lead. Our destination was well-hidden.
Littering the surface of the ground was the midden. Partially buried in the soil lay ceramic shards, glass bottles, and electrical components. The archaeologists determined that the best way to document the site was by a surface survey. First, we designated a perimeter by enclosing an oblong-shaped area with flagging tape wrapped around tree trunks. Then with small flags we marked the location of individual artifacts. The final phase involved mapping, photographing, and the taking of measurements. A report detailing all of this information was later filed at the ISAS office in Elgin.
Not only did we examine the taped off area. At the same time several other members of the survey looked for and recorded other artifacts nearby. A short distance away was a portion of a steel leg from Camp Pine’s water tower. Another discovery was a tin of post-war military C-ration peanut butter, likely left behind by a Girl Scout. Of course, there was also a lot of recent trash to contend with, like empty aluminum beer cans and food wrappers.
Interpretation and preservation
Determining the exact age of the midden in Camp Pine Woods is impossible. Several ceramic shards retained markings from the United States Army Quartermaster Corps, along with a date between 1934 and 1940, placing the midden’s contents within the CCC era. Yet, the Army could have reused the servingware after its takeover of the camp in 1945. There is also the possibility that the old Army camp was cleaned out by the Girl Scouts who arrived after the war.1 Whatever the case may be the presence of the artifacts from Camp Pine provide valuable insight into its history.
The story of Camp Pine is continuously expanding. Like a puzzle, each discovery of artifacts and bits of information are pieces that fill in blank spaces but unlike a puzzle, the final image will never be complete. It is a reality that only until relatively recently has spurred the site’s managers to better preserve their cultural heritage.
In 2014, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the FPDCC developed a master plan for ‘managing our ecosystems and heritage for the next century’. The districts’ some 550 documented archaeological sites received considerable attention, deemed worthy of preservation. Altogether, these sites document the 10,000 years of continuous human inhabitation of the Chicago area beginning with the Paleoindian period. It is a shared history that belongs to all of the region’s residents. Acknowledged in the plan were the preserves’ three Second World War PoW camps.2
Two years before their master plan, the FPDCC enacted an ordinance in 2012 that banned metal detecting on its properties. The use or even possession of a metal detector became punishable by a fine between $75 and $500. Previously before the forest preserves were hotbeds of hobbyist metal detecting. Inevitably the detectorists disturbed archaeological sites of historical significance but despite their absence, the sites continue to face danger.
Workers and associates from ISAS continue to revisit the Camp Pine midden. It appears that more ceramics and bottles have been removed since the 2019 survey. Whether it is good-intentioned cleaning up or relic hunting, the removal of ground-surface objects harms a site’s archaeological record and, in this case, is only permitted by ISAS. In archaeology the context of how material culture is found, artifacts and debris, is just and if not more important than the actual discovery of said object. As archaeologist Paula Bryant of the ISAS office in Elgin stated:3
… with a little digging and interpretation, we can connect a person taking a short walk in the woods into a glimpse of past people who also lived a portion of their lives in the same shared space.
Paula Bryant, staff archaeologist, Illinois State Archaeological Survey
Sources
- ‘Dads Pitch in to Give Daughters a Girl Scout Camp Near Des Plaines’, Chicago Daily Tribune, 13 June 1948, pg.NW1. Retrieved from ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune. https://www.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/177546881 (accessed 27 May 2023).
- Prairie Research Institute, Natural and Cultural Resources Master Plan for the Forest Preserves of Cook County (Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014). Available at: https://fpdcc.com/downloads/plans/FPCC-Natural-Cultural-Resources-Master-Plan-3-9-15-012219.pdf (accessed 31 March 2023).
- Paula Bryant, Preserving What Remains: Fort Sheridan WWII POW Branch Camps in the Cook County Forest Preserved in Illinois, presented at Preserving U.S. Military Heritage: World War II to the Cold War, 4-6 June 2019, in Fredericksburg, TX. Transcription available at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preserving-the-remains-fort-sheridan-wwii-pow-camps.htm (accessed 1 April 2023).