Interview with Arthur Snell

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Arthur Snell:

Well now, did you feel any friction with the community? Did you give any concerts in the community?

No, we didn't. We had very little contact with the community, at least I did. The only contact I had with the community was one time when the Coast Guard picked us up at 10:30 one evening, picked about three or four of us up there that evening. We were walking along the highway, heading back toward camp about 10:30 at night. We had been down to eat dinner that Sunday evening with a man and his wife who had rented a cabin. He was able to–he was one of the inductees, but he was able to bring his wife out there and rent a little cabin down the road from the camp. It was 10:30 at night and we were walking home. We had our flashlights because it was pitch dark. And so, on the way back, the Coast Guard stopped us and picked us up and took us into Waldport. And they interrogated us until about 3:00 in the morning. And then they confiscated our flashlights and kicked us out, said, "You go back to camp now." So we walked the distance between the city of Waldport and Camp Angell.

In the dark.

In the dark. They thought we were giving signals to the enemy offshore. Of course, there was no way we could give signals because between the road and the surf was a patch of undergrowth. So we knew they were harassing us. I think there were about four of us who walked that distance back. So we got back and got to bed, slept a few hours, then got up to go to work. That was really –that probably is the only incident that I can recall where I received any harassment. We got into town occasionally, but there were no confrontations that I recall.

--Taken from Siuslaw National Forest and Portland State University History Department. "Camp 56: An Oral History Project." p224-8.

For more of the interview see <http://www.ccrh.org/oral/co.pdf>