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Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) |
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In its nine years, the CCC employed more than three million men and left an undeniable imprint on the nation's landscape at a time when the nation's unemployment rate was at 24.9%. The CCC restored 3,980 historical structures, built 126,230.5 miles of truck trails or minor roads, 28,087.8 miles of foot and horse trails and 8,304 foot and horse bridges, 46,854 bridges, built 63,246 buildings plus 8,045 wells and pump houses and installed approximately 5,000 miles of water supply. They built 7,622 impounding and large diversion dams. They stocked over one billion fish and spent 4,827,426 man days surveying and mapping millions of acres and hundreds on lakes. They erected 405,037 signs, markers and monuments, 3,116 lookout towers, collected 13,634,415 pounds of hardwood tree seeds and 875,970 bushels of pinecones, planted 3 billion trees, transplanted 45 million trees and shrubs for landscaping, spent 2,094,713 man-days razing undesirable structures, spent 6,111,258.2 man-days in the operation of nurseries, improved thousands of beaches, roads and shorelines, developed 6,966.7 miles of wildlife streams, and created 854 state parks including several here in Indiana. Through the efforts of the CCC soil erosion was ultimately arrested on over 20 million acres. The CCC spent 202,739 man days fighting coal fires which had been burning since earliest history. When the worst floods on record affected the entire Ohio and Mississippi river valleys and other areas in our nation, the CCC was there to help the displaced during and after the floods. Those who served were between the ages of 18 and 25, unmarried and unemployed. They came from families on relief, or veterans needing a job. $25 of their $30 monthly pay was sent back home to their families. They volunteered for a six-month commitment, with the opportunity to re-enlist for another six months for a maximum of two years. They joined the CCC as young, Depression-scarred boys, and through their work they left our nation better off because they were there. Many of these young men went on to serve our country in WWII and all became the "Greatest Generation". Indiana CCC Camp Locations (many of these built state parks and other state or federal projects in Indiana): http://www.cccalumni.org/states/indiana1.html "THE ADMIRATION OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY" Excerpts from a message from the President of the United States to members of the CCC read over NBC network at 7:30 p. m., Friday, April 17, 1936: To the million and a half young men and war veterans who have been, or are today, enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps Camps, I extend greeting on this third anniversary of the establishment of the first CCC Camp. Idle through no fault of your own, you were enrolled from city and rural homes and offered an opportunity to engage in healthful, outdoor work on forest, park and soil conservation projects of definite practical value to all the people of the nation. The promptness with which you seized the opportunity to engage in honest work, the willingness with which you have performed your daily tasks and the fine spirit you have shown in winning the respect of the communities in which your camps have been located, merits the admiration of the entire country. You, and the men who have guided and supervised your efforts, have cause to be proud of the record the CCC has made in the development of sturdy manhood and in the initiation and prosecution of a conservation program of unprecedented proportions. Since the Corps began some 1,150,000 of you have been graduated, improved in health, self-disciplined, alert and eager for the opportunity to make good in any kind of honest employment. Our records show that the results achieved in the protection and improvement of our timbered domain, in the arrest of soil wastage, in the development of needed recreational areas, In wild life conservation and in flood control have been as impressive as the results achieved in the rehabilitation of youth. Through your spirit and industry it has been demonstrated that young men can be put to work In our forests, parks, and fields on projects which benefit both the nation's youth and conservation generally. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States Links to other CCC Museums or other sources of information: http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17447_18595_18602-54443--,00.html http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17451_18670_18793-53515--,00.html http://members.aol.com/famjustin/cccback.html http://www.cccalumni.org/museum.html http://www.dcr.state.va.us/parks/cccmus.htm http://www.floridastateparks.org/highlandshammock/cccdisplay.asp http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/OT/FA01/CCC.html http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm?ID=424254 http://www.msdwc.k12.in.us/quest/fourth04/home.html http://www.nps.gov/bibe/ccc.htm http://www.marist.edu/summerscholars/96/ndccc.htm http://www.riversidestatepark.org/ccc.htm http://newdeal.feri.org/cccmem/index.htm Civilian Conservation Corps - CCC
National Park Service History of the CCC: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ccc/index.htm As of 1938 the CCC had developed more than 3 million acres for park use in 854 state parks. A third of these acres were acquired and developed between September 1936 and September 1937. The CCC had also developed 46 recreational demonstration projects in 62 areas within 24 states. By this time Park Service superintendents believed that CCC work on trails, campgrounds, and picnic areas explained the 25 to 500 percent park visitation increase that the parks were enjoying. In 1938 the national parks and monuments had the best fire suppression record in a decade, an achievement attributed to the improved detection and fire-fighting methods developed during the period of CCC work. By the time the CCC was terminated in 1942 a total of 3 million enrollees had performed work in 4,500 camps run by the US Army, 198 CCC camps in 94 national park and monument areas and 697 camps in 881 state, county, and municipal areas. In a public opinion poll taken shortly after the beginning of World War II, the CCC was ranked as the third greatest accomplishment of the New Deal program. Among the not so celebrated statistics about the CCC: the CCC was referred to as the College in the Woods, the Colossal College of Calluses and the Canvas Covered Convicts, as well as the Woodpecker Warriors, Roosevelt's Tree Army, Soil Soldiers and Peaveys. Nearly 225,000 veterans of WWI got an opportunity to rebuild their lives in the CCC, over 85,000 native Americans worked in the CCC program, thousands of CCC boys learned their life's trade in the CCC, thousands of youths gained high school diplomas in the CCC, and the National Archives has records of CCC work accomplished in each state including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Finally, a report issued at the close of WWII stated that there was a need for 5,000 CCC camps that were never built. The experiences in the CCC, CMTC, WPA, especially along with the GI Bill the American Legion championed for our veterans is largely responsible for establishing the middle class in America. |
| Page last revised 01/06/2007 |