CCC

﻿ The CCC, The Civilian Conservation Corps, was known as Roosevelt's Tree Army. The CCC was credited with enewing the nation's decimated forests by planting an estimated three billion trees from 1933 to 1942. This was very helpful to the states effected by the Dust Bowl, reforestation was needed to break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil in place. The CCC did so much reforestation that it is responsible for over half of the nation's reforestation, public and private, in the nation's history.  The CCC allowed unmarried unemployed healthy men between ages 18 and 26 work for money. At the time it opened up many jobs for the people in need of financial aid. Many men flocked to join.

T he CCC's work is still evident today. Some of the achievements are: 
 * more than 3,470 fire towers erected;
 * 97,000 miles of fire roads built;
 * 4,235,000 man-days devoted to fighting fires;
 * more than 3 billion trees planted;
 * 7,153,000 man days expended on protecting the natural habitats of wildlife; 83 camps in 15 Western states assigned 45 projects of that nature;
 * 46 camps assigned to work under the direction of the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture Engineering;
 * more than 84,400,000 acres of good agricultural land receive manmade drainage systems; Indian enrollees do much of that work;
 * 1,240,000 man-days of emergency work completed during floods of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 5px;">disease and insect control;forest improvement — timber stand inventories, surveying, and reforestation;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 5px;">forest recreation development — campgrounds built, complete with picnic shelters, swimming pools, fireplaces, and restrooms.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Technical agencies supervised and planned the specific work projects in the camps. The U.S. Forest Service employed CCC men to protect timbered areas from fire, insects, and disease. The Soil Conservation Service established areas of soil erosion control by employing practices such as strip cropping, artificial reseeding, contour cultivation, terracing, furrowing, corrugation, and pasture management. The stabilization of irrigation systems and the construction of gulley plugs, diversion dams, and diversion ditches were also emphasized under the SCS. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 5px;">The U.S. Division of Grazing instituted projects which stopped injury to the public grazing lands through erosion and mismanagement. This work included the development and conservation of water through the construction of tanks and stock reservoirs; the digging of wells; dam construction; revegetation; eradication of poisonous weeds; rodent control; flood control; waterhole development; and the building of bridges, fences, truck trails, driveways, and range corrals. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 5px;">The Bureau of Reclamation supervised the rehabilitation of existing storage and irrigation systems; the development and construction of supplemental storage facilities for areas affected by drought; and the construction of recreational facilities at irrigation reservoirs. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 10px 5px;">Work for the National Parks and Monuments and State Parks included building or enlargening campgrounds and picnic areas, extending nature trails, constructing parking areas, and opening new park sections. This work was aimed at the protection and conservation of the scenic, historic, archaeological, and geological resources of the National Parks and Monuments. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The CCC had a large impact in multiple places round the United States. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">In Colorado: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">At the national level, the CCC was divided into nine major organizational areas which corresponded to Army Corps of Engineers districts. Colorado was in the 8th regional area with headquarters at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. Within this Colorado-Wyoming region 30-35 companies were formed. More than 40 would be established by the time Congress eliminated the CCC program on June 30, 1942. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">In 1935 the Colorado CCC was divided into two districts with headquarters at Grand Junction for Western Slope camps and Fort Logan for camps east of the Continental Divide. In October, 1935, the Colorado-Wyoming Headquarters at Fort Logan moved to Littleton. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Within each state the Labor Department had the authority to delegate an established state relief and welfare agency to implement the selection process. Acting through its local representatives, this selection agency had the task of receiving and investigating thousands of CCC applicants each year. When vacancies existed, the Department of Labor issued a requisition to each state for enrollees needed. Young men were taken in four times a year in January, April, July, and October. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">In Colorado, the Official Colorado State Relief Committee (later known as the Colorado State Relief Administration) was the first agency at the State level to handle CCC enrollee selection. It was created on May 11, 1933 by an Act of the General Assembly. It consisted of 7 persons appointed by the governor to administer emergency relief measures, including the CCC program. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The Colorado Works Progress Administration also had responsibilities in connection with CCC enrollment. It was designated to act as the State selection agency in July, 1936 until the Colorado State Department of Public Welfare took over in December of that same year. The State WPA office publicized the CCC program and sent information concerning forthcoming enrollments to various State welfare agencies and to the newspapers. Local WPA employment offices were in charge of accepting and filling enrollment applications and interviewing young men for CCC positions.
 * Lunch Time at Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction, Colorado: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*There are approximately 80 cubic feet of material in the CCC Collection at the State Archives. The records originated with the Colorado State Department of Public Welfare and span the years 1933-1942. The bulk of the collection falls between 1936-1942 when the CSDPW was the official State selection agency for CCC enrollment. Record series in the collection include: enrollment records; reports; manuals and handbooks; correspondence; rosters; station lists; publications; maps; publicity; photographs and other photographic media; and miscellaneous. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Although the collection contains much documentation concerning the enrollment aspects of the CCC, it also provides excellent information about every aspect of the CCC including the policies and rules instituted by the federal government, the camps, life in the CCC, and the federal and state agencies involved in the CCC. It does not include project files but there is information about specific projects and over 300 photographs of projects and CCC camps in Colorado.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">**In Georgia:** <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">After passage of the act in 1933, Georgia quickly found a way to eliminate blacks from participation in the program. In spite of the unemployment rate for blacks being twice the rate for whites, all blacks were listed as "employed," making them ineligible to participate in the CCC. However, by May, 1933, Roosevelt called Democratic Governor Talmadge on the carpet, threatening him by withholding every penny of CCC money that would pour into the state. Talmadge quickly reconsidered and agreed to permit Blacks entry into the program, so long as they served in separate camps.Talmadge was a critic of President Frankin D Roosevelt and his official proximity with African Americans. Unable to run for re-elaction in 1936. Talmadge chose to challenge Senator Russell in the primary, but Russell defeated Talmadge by a wide margin. Talmadge remained unsuccessful.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">For two years Georgia and other states admitted more than 200,000 Black males into a program that over its lifespan of 8 years saw a total of 2.5 million men move through the camps. While early camps in northern states were occasionally integrated, by 1934 there was segregation throughout the organization. The presence of a Negro CCC camp near a town or village anywhere in the United States caused such problems that by 1934 the director of the program complained bitterly about the general attitude towards Blacks. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">one of the greatest tragedies of the CCC occurred in Florida durring the Labor DayHurricane. The storm did immense damage, where 3 individual camps were located. While many had left the camps to evacuate, still over 600 had remained at the camp. As the winds grew a train attempted to return to the camps to rescue the boys. It was blown off the tracks. Winds, estimated as high as 150 to 200 miles an hour ripped through buildings, pulverizing the structures as well as bridges, the only means of escape. Many bodies were found without clothing or skin. The wind had picked up sand and literally sand-blasted them off. Only their shoes remained. Of an estimated 684 men in the three camps 44 bodies were found and an additional 236 men were reported as missing or unidentifiable.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">Eligibility requirements for the CCC carried several simple stipulations. Congress required U.S. citizenship only. Other standards were set by the ECW. Sound physical fitness was mandatory because of the hard physical labor required. Although, most rules were eventually relaxed for war veterans.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The CCC operated seperate programs for Veterans and Indians. But despite its popular support, the CCC never became a permanent agency. It depended on Emergency and temporary congressional legislation for its existance. The year 1939 brought about a major challenge, because there was a struggle with internal problems brought on by changing conditions in both the United States and Europe. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">The potential of war in Europe was belatedly recognized.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">By 1942, congress voted to close the program.In 1942, when the Corps disappeared, some of the housing was reused in local POW camps, or the determent camps of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.

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