Civil Conservation Corp

My brother called me tonight, excited about working on our family ancestory, and he talked about discovering the fact that our grandfather worked for the Civil Conservation Corp or CCC. We are all still enjoying the fruits of many a poor young man’s hard work during the Great Depression through FDR’s New Deal.

Young unmarried men that were mostly unskilled and had families on government assistance were recruited for six month tours of public service all over the country but primarily in the western states.  The men received about $30 a month with free room and board but were required to send the majority of their pay home to their families.  The men learned many skills and many illiterate men learned to read and write in the camps.

In order to move large groups of workers around the country, the Army was enlisted to do the transport. 

Camps were set up at different sites to house the men.  They performed all kinds of task, especially in state and national parks.  They planted over a billion trees, built buildings, cut trails, seeded over farmed lands and much more.  

Over 300,000 men were part of the CCC including Native and African Americans.  Unfortunately the camps were segregated back in those times.  Roosevelt was a huge believer in enjoying and conservation of the outdoors.  We get to enjoy our parks today because young men worked hard to improve our country during hard times.

Initially most people supported the CCC efforts although they did get a lot of the organized labor unions of the time who also did not like the involvement of the Army in the program.  Many famous people worked with the CCC including Chuck Yeager, Raymond Burr and Walter Mathau.  I encourage you to read more about this amazing time period as well as the YCC for Youth that was started in 1971. 

There are many vintage collectibles you can find on eBay as well such as CCC camp patches, newsletters, song books and cool vintage pictures.  Happy Collecting!