A Brief Overview of the Civilian Conservation Corps
Our history is littered with economic hardship but none have been as devastating as the one that the nation had to endure in the late 1920 's and most of the 30 's. This era of economic strife is called the Great Depression. Depression politics spawned the introduction of several drastic programs in hopes of righting an otherwise sinking country. The parent program is referred to as the "New Deal" which included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
In the following pages you will see how the young men of the CCC changed the country and the benefit to our environment that resulted. The CCC was an organization associated with overwhelming success as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's (FDR) "New Deal" program. Millions of otherwise non-existent jobs were made available to young men from almost every low-income bracket of the middle and lower class social structure and background. President Roosevelt devised a plan and persisted with the plans implementation. This is something that his preceding counterparts were either unwilling or unable to do. The CCC Accomplishments and some of the memories are highlighted here, as well as some of the camps characteristics such as the camp layout and the camp life.
Jazz, dance marathons and Harry Houdini often symbolized the "Roaring Twenties". This was the era that emerged in the United States after World War I and was seemingly one of security and no major troubles, economic prosperity flourished mostly due to free enterprise (Flehinger). Actually great despair and economic turbulence had been simmering for several years before the Great Depression occurred. Some causes of the depression include the unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920s, and extensive stock market speculation during the latter part of the decade (Gusmorino). In addition, there was emerging higher interest rates and over production by farms thus driving
Cited: "CCC Camp News". Big Piney Examiner 24 Apr. 1941: A1 Douglass, Lonna Allison. Vers. Vol 3. 3 Aug. 2000. Gale Group. (14 July 2004). Conservation corps." Smithsonian. Dec. 1994: 66. 1998.http://members.aol.com/famjustin/ccchis.html (14 July 2004). Duke University Press. 1967. vi, 240 p. 23. Sternsher, Barden, ed /www.erroluys.com/Ridingthe Rails.htm (18 July 2004). Press, 2001. 216-222.