Personally, I've been familiar with the CCC work for many years. While growing up in Southern Illinois, I spent a lot of time at some of the great parks in that area (Visit Ferne Clyffe if you haven't). Just about all of these parks had significant portions created or worked on by the CCC and chances are the parks you've been to have as well. However, something I didn't realize is the vast expanse and impact of the CCC program. Since I started putting this blog together I've been digging further and further into the history of the program and it has really been interesting. Let's take a look at some background and then move on to the impact.
The time was 1933, an interesting time in US history. Even with recent economic problems, the economic issues of the early 1930's are hard to imagine. The official unemployment rate was at 25%. In the preceding years, the stock market had lost 90% of its value. Companies and banks were closing every day and there was very little chance for finding new work. At this time there were no"bailouts" and little government aid.
In the Midwest, destructive farming methods and drought were causing the Dust Bowl. Family farms were essentially blowing away in the wind. Without crops, the family would lose the farm and join the unemployed.
This was the situation Roosevelt came in to when taking the office of president in 1933. You could say he had an uphill battle to contend with. Roosevelt was ready though and immediately after taking office began implementing government programs intended to restore the economy and bring confidence to the American people. In the first month, he proposed the CCC program and a blazing 15 days later the agency was created.
The CCC would use two abundant resources for the betterment of both. The first being unemployed young men and the second the natural resources of the country. Roosevelt had been a conservationist and took a special interest in the environment. He had first hand knowledge of the Dust Bowl style erosion problems and knew that farming and deforestation had to get under control. The young men would work to do just that: improve the environmental resources of the country.
The program initially brought in young men aged 18-23 to live in an Army style camp for six months at a time. The were paid $30 per month on the condition that $25 of those would be sent back home to their families. While at the camps, the men worked and learned. They became disciplined, supported the local economies and boosted spending at home.
The overall impact is somewhat hard to quantify. There were obvious economic boosts at the time, but the lasting impact is probably more important. In the 1933 to 1942 time period in which the program took place more then 3 million men were enrolled. You could say these men were some of the first conservationists. What they learned set standards in many environmental areas and brought awareness of environmental concerns to many.
The CCC built roads, parks, trails and buildings. They fought forest fires, worked on erosion control, planted trees, stocked ponds. The list goes on and on. In my home state of Tennessee alone there were 46 camps, one of which built the first Tennessee State Park (Harrison Bay).
Here are a few CCC statistics:
3 Billion trees planted
4,500 Total camps
125,000 Miles of road built
40,000 Men taught to read and write
800 State parks developed
4,235,000 Man-days of fire fighting
The next time you are out at a park, take a look around. Many times you can notice structures marked with CCC on them. There's a good chance that some part of what you see has been touched by this bit of history.
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| Robert's Camp Finley CCC Patch |
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| Dust storm during the Dust Bowl "Wea01422". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons |
I've barely touched on this interesting time in history. Here are a few resources to learn more:
Resources
American Experience episode on the CCC
A resource oriented blog on the CCC
The CCC Wikipedia Page
A group dedicated to preserving the CCC legacy
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