Springfield author traces life of Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont

Judy Edwards loves spending time on Mount Ascutney, and the idea for her latest book came one day when she was on the mountain’s summit, she said.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130701/NEWS02/707019941

Judy Edwards, a Springfield writer, talks about her new book, “At the Top of the Mountain.” Photo: Photo by Len Emery Published July 1, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Springfield author traces life of Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Judy Edwards loves spending time on Mount Ascutney, and the idea for her latest book came one day when she was on the mountain’s summit, she said. Edwards, the author of more than a dozen historical fiction books for young readers, said she wondered about all the man-made stonework on Ascutney, and learned the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that gave out-of-work young men jobs on public works projects in the 1930s, was the source. Edwards, a Springfield writer and therapist, decided then and there on the mountain to write a book — which turned into a trilogy — about a young man whose mountain was transformed in part by the CCC. The final book in Edwards’ CCC trilogy, “At the Top of the Mountain,” recently published by Images From the Past, continues the story of Will Ryan. Will is now 17 years old. The readers first met him in “Invasion on the Mountain,” which was set in 1933 when he was 11 years old, and again with “Trouble on the Mountain,” which was set from 1934 to 1935. Will, although too young to be a member of the corps, takes the reader through the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont, Edwards said during a recent interview. There were more than two dozen CCC camps in Vermont, and the book focuses on Camp 129 at Mount Ascutney. The book incorporates visits to camps at Okemo Mountain and Camp Coolidge in Plymouth, which is now known at Calvin Coolidge State Park. The books also include old photographs of the CCC camps that were scattered all over Vermont. In the photos, workers are doing everything from building massive flood control dams in Waterbury, to creating public campgrounds in Plymouth, to building a road to nearly the summit of Ascutney — elevation 3,130 feet — to building some of the first ski trails in Vermont on Mount Mansfield. Edwards has had a multifaceted career that includes extensive experience as an Actors Equity actress and musical performer. She has also been married twice — to an opera critic and to a Vermont poultry farmer — and is the mother of three grown children, with seven grandchildren. She is an author, a one-time chairwoman of the Springfield School Board, and the owner of a practice that specializes in treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder. She was born in Colorado and grew up in southern California, and moved from California to New York City to study music and seek a career in the performing arts. Marriage and motherhood intervened, and she first moved to Vermont to Cambridge in 1972. Since then, she has taught in Florida and upstate New York, earned two master’s degrees — one in creative writing and another in social work — and returned to Vermont, this time to Springfield, in 2000. “And I almost got a Ph.D. in Scandinavian literature,” she added, laughing. With the publication of the third and final book in the Will Ryan trilogy, Edwards is thinking about writing an adult novel about the CCC in the United States. The camps — except for the stonework — no longer exist, she said, because the Army sold off the wood, and the camps would be dismantled and disappear virtually overnight. “It was like a Western ghost town, it’s like the town didn’t exist,” she said. In many cases, only the massive stone chimneys are still standing. Edwards has also written extensively about the Lewis and Clark trail for young people, with her most successful book, “The Great Expedition of Lewis and Clark” as told by Private Reuben Field, a fictionalized account. Edwards said her knowledge about the CCC and Vermont expanded every time she gave a talk about her first book, and Vermonters were eager to share their personal knowledge — often of a relative — of the corps’ work in Vermont. Many of the photographs in the books came from those Vermonters, and she also singles out two Vermont state foresters, Rick White and Ethan Phelps. According to the Vermont Historical Society, the federal legislation championed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the spring of 1933 originally designed four camps in Vermont in Roosevelt’s effort to fight the Depression. But through the efforts of State Forester Perry Merrill, Vermont eventually ended up with 30 CCC camps by 1937, with a total of 40,868 men working in Vermont’s forests. Of that number, only 11,243 were Vermonters. Edwards said her research showed that many out-of-staters who came to Vermont for the $30 a month job ($25 of that had to be sent home) during the jobless Depression eventually stayed in Vermont, having met young women through the dances held either at the camps or nearby towns. The Civilian Conservation Corps — called Roosevelt’s Forest Army — eventually came to an end because of World War II. And that is one reason why Edwards said she doesn’t plan on following the arc of Will’s life and career. Inevitably, Will will go to war, Edwards said, “and I don’t want to write about war.” Edwards has been speaking at historical societies and other groups to discuss the CCC in the past couple of years. Her next scheduled appearance is at 2 p.m. Aug. 21 at Wilgus State Park in Ascutney.