By June Mathews
On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps, an environmental conservation program created to provide jobs for young men during the Great Depression.
To house this workforce of hundreds of thousands near the CCC’s projects, about 2,900 camps were established across the U.S. In 1942, CCC funding was diverted to the war effort, and the camps were shut down.
Meanwhile, E.A. McBride, superintendent of Talladega County Schools, had long harbored a dream of developing an outstanding summer camp for boys and girls. McBride – Mr. Mac, as kids called him – knew that classroom learning would give youngsters only part of what they needed to know to become successful adults. He also knew that summer camp would be an appealing and effective way of teaching those life lessons.
He found the place to turn that dream into reality in an abandoned CCC Camp tucked into the towering pines of the Talladega National Forest. Thus in 1948, Camp Mac was born.
“In the beginning there was really very little here. No ball field, no lakes, no food, no gym, not even a telephone line. And the only access to camp was an old dirt road,” said the late Bob Gene McBride, son of Camp Mac’s founder, in a 2008 video history of the camp.
There were, however, a few cabins, a dining hall, a recreation building and some general-purpose buildings and storerooms. Mr. Mac figured it was enough to get started and plenty to build on, so he got to work.
Among the first of the many improvements made to the camp was the installation of a swimming pool. In those days, however, the upkeep on a pool was more of an ordeal than it is today.
“There were very few swimming pools in the county at that time, and they didn’t have filter systems, so you had to fill the swimming pool up,” said Bob Gene McBride in his video history. “You chlorinated the water during the week then once a week you had to drain the pool, scrub it out like a bathtub, and fill it back up.”
Because of the need for a dependable source of water to fill the pool every week, Mr. Mac became interested in building a lake at the camp. He wound up building not only the Lower Lake but a couple of years later, the Upper Lake, as well.
Besides swimming, life at camp in the 1940s and ‘50s was filled with activities such as horseback riding, basketball, tennis, volleyball, riflery, archery, arts and crafts, and square dancing in the Rec Hall nearly every night.
During the 1960s, a badminton court and gymnasium were built, and more activities were added, including ping-pong, shuffleboard, water skiing, electronics, cheerleading and party nights with live bands.
Over the years, Camp Mac continued to add activities and programs – and even discontinued a few – to keep up with the times. Nowadays, camp is much like those early days, but there are differences, too.
For example, while skiing, horseback riding, campouts and tetherball continue to be favorites, today’s campers participate in rappelling, pickleball, rock climbing, team roping and mountain biking, too. They also can plunge down a 160-foot-long waterslide and splash around in a water park with inflatables.
But for all the changes, the Camp Mac traditions and philosophy have remained the same as in 1948: Learn Stuff, Do Things, Have Fun, according to the camp’s website. And the number of alumni taking their children and even grandchildren to camp serves as strong testimony to the good memories made and life lessons learned at Camp Mac.
Current owner and Director Allen McBride represents the third generation of the McBride family to run the camp, so when he says he’s been at Camp Mac all his life, he means it.
“And every day has been different while still feeling the same,” he said. “When my grandfather founded the camp, there were not nearly as many campers nor nearly as many things to do. My father and I used to kid about those first campers having nothing more than two sticks and a rock.
“Now, 75 years later, the program has grown, the facility has grown, and the number of campers has grown, but the smiles and the laughter and the life-changing opportunities and experiences are still the same.”
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