Ah, the CCC. Anyone who enjoys our National State and Local Parks owes a great big ‘thank you’ to the CCC. When the US was struggling with the highest unemployment numbers in its history during the Great Depression at 25%, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the new President joined solved two problems at once with the development of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Millions of acres were laying waste and millions were out of work - why not put young men to work working on projects to conserve water, soil, forests and parks? The young men in the program enrolled for a 6-month period during which they would be paid $25 per month, $5 of which would go to them and $25 to their families.
The bill was submitted to Congress on March 21, 1933, passed on March 31, 1933 and by July 1, 1933 there were 1,463 working camps with 250,000 junior enrollees (18–25 years of age), 28,000 veterans, 14,000 American Indians, and 25,000 Locally Enrolled (or Experienced) Men. These Locally Experienced Men were bricklayers, stone masons, contractors, roofers and such who were out of work but who could teach their skills to the enrollees and monitor and supervise their work.
(Can you believe that our Congress could work this fast?)
At the time of entry, 70% of enrollees were malnourished and poorly clothed. Few had work experience beyond occasional odd jobs. 55% of enrollees were from rural communities. Only 11% were high school graduates.
The army was the only organization with the experience at handling this many people at once. Not only that but they had lots of left-over WWI uniforms and tools. And tents. Most of the camps were built with tents to house the young men at first, later they built their own cabins and finally regular barracks were built by contractors. It was organized like the army but there was no military training. In the camps they enjoyed plentiful food, medical care, a chance for schooling, proper clothing, supervision and lots of hard work. For many of them it was the best time of their lives. In the end, they planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, helped construct more than 800 parks nationwide and upgraded most state parks, updated forest fire fighting methods, and built thousands of buildings and miles of roadways in remote areas. My father-in-law worked in reforestation in an Iowa CCC camp. He told us that he learned how to drive here when they assigned him to drive a truck.
In just about every park that we enter, we see the work of the CCC. One of the first parks that we ever camped in was in Backbone State Park in Iowa which had a CCC building. We’ve hiked trails and trod on steps that the CCC built in Chiricahua National Park in Arizona. We’ve hiked along side walls that they built in Grand Canyon National Park. We walked through a cave in which they built steps, railings and pathways in Pinnacles National Park i California. We’ve hiked up to a look-out in Cape Perpetua in Oregon that the CCC built. State Parks, National Parks, local parks - all benefited from the work of the CCC. And - most of what they built is still standing and still of use in these parks. They built to last.
Since one of the goals was employment of as many as possible, hand tools were preferred to machines. Hand saws, not chain saws, shovels not plows, and pick axes and dynamite not heavy equipment. They built roads, bridges, walls and buildings this way. They also built strong bodies and minds and, in the end, our army was much stronger than it would have been if we hadn’t had the CCC.
Here are the tools they had to work with in Deception State Park.
Here’s what they produced.
The first building above was built by the Washington CCC in Deception State Park back in the 1930’s. Recently these ‘young’ men reunited to take this building and to turn it into a museum to honor their service.
Our hike is done and we’re on to bigger and better things - for Gary that means more laundry and for me that means washing the windshield before we leave tomorrow morning.
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