During the summer of 1933, while the United States struggled under the grip of the Great Depression, thousands of young men left their hometowns to embark upon a great adventure. One that would change the very landscape of their country and leave a rich legacy that is still celebrated and enjoyed today.
They arrived at orderly military-style work camps that had suddenly sprung up across the country, primarily located in rural and wilderness areas. For most participants, it was their first taste of the often-overwhelming breadth of natural wonders across America. And it was their job as members of the newly formed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to rebuild, restore, and reclaim a wounded land.
The world was in chaos when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office as the 32nd President in 1933. The stock market crash of 1929 had kicked off one of the worst economic and social crises in American history, one that quickly spread beyond its borders. FDR vowed to use all the tools at his disposal to lead the country out of the morass it was mired in.
His New Deal, a series of domestic programs and laws offering relief, reforms, and legislative changes, saw the federal government take the lead in righting the ship of state. The CCC was rolled out during his first 100 days in office. What it accomplished in only its nine years of existence is breathtaking, and you can still see its fingerprints across America’s parks, forests, shorelines, and wilderness.
"It is my belief that what is being accomplished will conserve our natural resources, create future national wealth and prove of moral and spiritual value not only for those of you who are taking part, but to the rest of the country as well."
The CCC was near and dear to FDR’s heart. From a young age, he had a passion for nature and the environment, something he shared with his cousin Teddy Roosevelt, a man called the conservation president. Shortly after taking office, he devised the idea for the CCC, a program that would put unmarried young men aged 17-24, many from the crowded cities, to work on conservation projects in rural environments. The program would help combat unemployment and restore wilderness areas that had been overforested, overused, and badly needed help.
“It is my belief that what is being accomplished will conserve our natural resources, create future national wealth and prove of moral and spiritual value not only for those of you who are taking part, but to the rest of the country as well.” FDR in 1933 in the pages of Happy Days, the weekly newspaper of the CCC.
The program quickly made an impact. Within three months of its creation, the CCC had enlisted 250,000 men spread across the country in 1463 camps. In all, three million men would join. All had passed a physical fitness test, signed up for an initial six-month term (which could be renewed for up to two total years of service), and agreed to be shipped where necessary. They were paid $30 a month, $25 of which was sent back to their families, plus they would have access to various evening educational programs. Over 40,000 illiterate men learned to read while in the CCC.
Managed by the U.S. Army, the men lived a loosely regimented life revolving around their work. Quickly realizing that homesick boys might try to go home, the CCC shipped them to locations far from the cities where most enrollees came from. This exposure to the outdoors, in such alien environments, has frequently been cited by the three million participants in the program as life-altering.
Working side by side in their CCC uniforms, teams from each camp of 200 men would spend their days working in the regions they were embedded into on various projects. The first place they were pointed towards was reforestation to restore the country’s forests—decades of unabated logging had left a deep scar across the country.
Their efforts in replanting trees earned the CCC the nickname Roosevelt’s Tree Army. Following a battered path left by logging companies, they started planning the saplings and seeds that would eventually grow to over three billion trees across the United States. Shelter belts of trees were planted across the Great Plains to mitigate the effects of dust storms.
They greened the American landscape.
They were busily working to improve forest health when they weren’t planting. Fallen timber was cleared, invasive species cut back, and forest fire prevention systems were created. Over 3,000 fire lookout towers rose across the country on mountaintops and hillsides; many still stand today and are considered national treasures. Many CCC teams also were actively engaged on the front line fighting forest fires.
Under the guidance of the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, the CCC constructed wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries, untold water storage basins, and animal shelters. They built the first ski areas in the country in Vermont. They created 97,000 miles of roads, and much of the access that we enjoy today into the backcountry is due to the hard labor the men on the work crews put in. Every single state and many territories hosted CCC teams.
Perhaps their most lasting impact was during their later years when they turned their full attention toward improving and building new parks. Under their auspices, over 800 state parks were built from the ground up, and eleven states received their first state parks. Every national park in the country saw improvements, from campgrounds, trails, and visitor centers to entire transportation networks. Many of their structures still stand today and are still in use.
FDR loved the CCC and wanted it to remain a full-time component of the government. But unfortunately, World War II got in the way. The young men who would have been joining the CCC were needed for military service, and funding was ended in 1942. But its mark had been made. In nine-short years it helped rescue a lost generation and resorted the nation’s squandered natural wealth.
