Dick Cowen Tells the Lehigh Valley's Own "300" Story

Before Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners met on Wednesday night, I saw an elderly gentleman slowly make his way into the government center. His white mane of hair and large beard made him look a little like a skinny Santa Claus, and he was even carrying a bag and a package. Something about him was familiar, but I could not be sure.

The mystery was solved shortly after the meeting had begun. Instead of Saint Nick, it was Saint Dick - Dick Cowen, one of the best writers ever produced by The Morning Call. He and my dad had been friends of a sort, and I've always been a fan of Cowen's writing. So when he finished speaking and left the room, I slipped out and introduced myself.

"Ohh. Bernie O'Hare. I knew your dad quite well. I once set his car on fire."

Back in those days, reporters and lawyers would often travel together for a local case being tried out of town. My dad and Cowen had gone to Philly for God knows what. I'm certain their trip home took a lot longer than their trip down. Both were undoubtedly very thirsty after a long day in court.

"I remember it quite well. We were driving through Center Valley, and I must have dropped a cigarette. Next thing I knew, the car was in flames. Boy, that was a big one. Thank God for insurance!"

I vaguely recall the aftermath of that incident, as a still smoldering car sat in the driveway. I'm pretty sure my mom claimed my father had concocted another story.

Cowen, who appears to have stopped smoking, appeared before the commissioners to present them with a gift - a little bit of history from a member of the Lehigh Valley Black African Heritage History Project.

After being elected President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt planned a fight against soil erosion and declining timber resources, utilizing the unemployed of large urban areas. The Civilian Conservation Corps was born, and a detachment of three hundred blacks from the ghettos of Philly and Pittsburgh built roads, planted thousands of trees and constructed the nature dam between 1935 and 1939 at the Trexler-Lehigh Game Preserve (now the Lehigh Valley Zoo). This was the only CCC camp in the country with black officers.

One of these young men, a junior high drop out from Philly, provides a glimpse of his own experience. "We were in tents in the beginning. On out first night in camp, the buffalo were all around us when we got up in the morning."

Roosevelt's CCC saved lives while performing worthwhile projects. "Soil soldiers" gained an average of 11.5 pounds in three months. They built roads (125,000 miles), telephone lines (89,000 miles), foot trails (13,100 miles) and state parks (800). They provided erosion control on 40 million acres of farmland. They spent 8 million days fighting fires.

Play time? "The boys used to chase over to Easton to a taproom. Easton seemed to be more friendly than Allentown. Rarely did we go into Allentown for anything."According to Cowen, baseball games involving a team from the CCC Camp challenged teams from various local communities.

Cowen presented each commissioner with a copy of his 1968 story, in which a former camp member called his experience "a very good thing. Some of those boys went on to get some pretty good jobs."

"I'm wondering why we can't initiate the same kind of deal today."

Unfortunately, that some question can still be asked today.