Remembering a forgotten history

By Howard E. Cummins

columnist

In the Year of 1932 the Great Depression was at its height throughout the world after the stock market crash. In that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took America’s political helm by its reigns to solve the problems created by the Great Depression. The President wished for the nation to live up to its name of being the greatest country in the world for its citizens in time of need.

The creation of the CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, became one of the most successful program in the New Deal. He created the corp a little over a month into his presidency and implemented the plan as part of his New Deal Program. His deep commitment to environmental conservation is still enjoyed by Americans in the work program that built recreational parks all over America. They created camping and recreational areas, as well as wildlife shelters. Their tasks included building new roads, fighting forest fires, planting trees, and implementing soil erosion controls. The participants were to become a part of an environmental force unlike anything ever created to alleviate poverty.

The CCC was open to young unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 26. Blacks were placed in other camps at the time, long before laws did not allow segregation. The length of time of employment was a minimum of 6 months and were paid $30 per month. Twenty-five dollars was sent home to their families, with five dollars left for their personal use. Educational classes were held for the men, some of whom were illiterate. By the time their duty was over many of these young men went home with a better education than what they would have had prior to service with the CCC. The program continued from 1933 to 1942 and employed over three million young men.
The roads and bridges they helped build are used today. The millions of trees they planted supplemented dome of the large forests we have today.

There was a time in America when the well-built CCC camps were a visible entity throughout the American landscape, and the young men who made it possible to assist their families in an era of the Great Depression were considered heroes. They picked up the shovels and axes to assist in restoring new life for their families in an era when times were hard and poverty rampant. These young men also helped restore human dignity in hard times in America. The contribution of the CCC workers can be seen throughout the present American landscape when we are enjoying the camps built for bringing Americans out their doors and into a world of nature.

The photo’s used in this article were contributed by the Lonesome Pine School and Heritage Center in Big Stone Gap.