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.

Resources

List of Known CCC Camps in Colorado 

By the mid-1930s, roughly 40 CCC companies operated across Colorado working on parks, forests, soil conservation, and reclamation projects.

National Park & Monument Camps

• Red Rocks / Mount Morrison CCC Camp – explains how CCC labor helped develop park infrastructure and recreation facilities.

• Colorado National Monument CCC History – describes early camps established in 1933 and projects like roads and park facilities.

National Archives

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Enrollee Records,

Located at the regional National Archives in St. Louis, available only by by written request.

Click this link to download the request form and instructions here.

*The Civilian Conservation Corps Individual Records (Enrollees) will be systematically digitized and made available online in the National Archives Catalog. All rolls will be closed starting May 7, 2024 and will have delayed availability during the digitization process. Digital images will be added to the National Archives Catalog on a rolling basis upon completion of digitization. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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