The Friends of Hamlin Beach State Park (FOHBSP) will host volunteers for New York State’s 3rd annual “I Love My Park Day” at Hamlin Beach State Park’s former Civilian Conservation Corps & World War II Prisoner of War camp located at 968 Moscow Road, Hamlin.
This event is part of more than 75 cleanup, improvement and beautification events happening statewide on Saturday, May 3. Parks & Trails New York, in partnership with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, park and historic site “Friends” groups, and volunteers will celebrate New York’s state park system by cleaning up park lands and beaches, planting trees and gardens, restoring trails and wildlife habitat, removing invasive species, and working on various site improvement projects.
This year the FOHBSP and volunteers will re-establish a vegetable garden that existed during the years the POW camp was in operation, and re-create flower beds that existed during the late 1930s and 1940s, at the adjacent farmhouse and future home of the FOHBSP offices and site museum. Other projects include installation of numbered posts at the site of each of the camp’s former buildings, to be used in the future for self-guided tours; and installation of posts to support a gate which will establish a new vehicle traffic pattern at the site.
The CCC camp and the later WWII POW camp played a notable role in local history, and, on a wider scale, they represent one of the most significant periods in the nation’s history. This facility is being developed to offer the public opportunities to collect information, view photographs and artifacts, and experience this part of shared history. Friends group members and park staff will be on hand to oversee the project and work with volunteers. Those interested in participating in any of these projects can register by visitingwww.ptny.org/ilovemypark or by calling (585) 636-7068.
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