Civilian Conservation Corps

Preserving America's Natural Resources 1933 - 1942

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal program aimed at reducing unemployment among young men by giving them steady work improving the nation's landscape, public lands, and infrastructure. When it was implemented in 1933, the CCC was the largest-ever public works program. Today, the legacy of the corps lives on in the many embankments, campgrounds, irrigation ditches, and other infrastructure projects on public lands across Colorado. CCC crews worked for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, State Parks, and other land management agencies.

CCC enrollees throughout the country were credited with renewing the nation's decimated forests by planting an estimated three billion trees between 1933 and 1942. Today the legacy of the CCC is continued through the effort of thousands of young people who work on the same ground first restored by the men of the CCC.

America was in the grip of the Great Depression when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated in March of 1933. More than twenty-five percent of the population was unemployed, hungry and without hope. The New Deal Programs instituted bold changes in the federal government that energized the economy and created an equilibrium that helped to bolster the needs of citizens.

IMAGE: Camp Roosevelt, George Washington
National Forest- First CCC Camp in
America, April 17, 1933

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Out of the economic chaos emerged the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The goal was two-fold:? conservation of our natural resources and the salvage of our young men.? The CCC is recognized as the single greatest conservation program in American and it served as a catalyst to develop the very tenets of modern conservation.? The work of America?s young men dramatically changed the future and today we still enjoy a legacy of natural resource treasurers that dot the American landscape.??

IMAGE: Camp Roosevelt Entrance Sign - 1937

Source: Civilian Corps Legacy

Source: Colorado Encyclopedia

For many, just the prospect of three meals and a bed were enough to get young men to enroll. As jobs and income were incredibly scarce, the CCC for a lot of these young men was their first job. The men would make $30 a month, $25 of which would be sent straight to their families, while the other five was for the worker to keep. Clothing, meals, and lodging were provided in military camp fashion.

While the CCC program was considered a success by most, giving young men work experience and families much needed money, there were portions of the population who did not receive the full benefits of the program. Women were not included in the program and minority men were included at far lower rates than the legislation allowed. 

CCC workers in front of a building in
Zion National Park
Zion National Park archives

 

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