The Civilian Conservation Corps

Without the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 31^st, 1933, our state parks, scenic areas, and forests would not exist as we know them today. Created to provide government-paying jobs for the hundreds of thousands of young men unemployed because of the Great Depression, and to help ‘rejuvenate’ the nation’s deteriorating forests.   

Before the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Penn’s Woods were in dire straits. Due to over-logging throughout the 19^th century and early 20^th century, the once mighty hemlock forests of the commonwealth were reduced to mere pockets of hundreds of trees. The chestnut blight, which had ravaged the eastern U.S in the early 1900s, decimated billions of ancient chestnut trees, which were a major food source not only for animals but also for people. The white pine blister rust, a new fungal infection that first made landfall in the U.S in the early 1900s, was destroying the remaining primeval stands of white pines¹, which themselves had escaped the ship maker’s axe a century earlier.  

Due to the loss of natural vegetation and plant cover, the soil on the commonwealth’s hills and mountains was weakened, leaving them susceptible to flash-flooding and mudslides during periods of intense rain.  

Nature was not the only victim of the ever-expanding American economy, however. Due to shady and unsound investments, unsustainable ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes, fraudulent land investments in California and Florida, and the pervasive mindset of many Americans that the ‘roaring 1920s’ would last forever, reality soon reared its ugly head in 1929. Between September 1 and November 30, 1929, the stock market lost more than 50%² of its total value, bringing the American economy to its knees.

The years directly after the crash of 1929, in a period of time known as ‘The Great Depression’, saw millions of workers lose their jobs as thousands of factories, businesses, and banks shut their doors for good. Those who just years before enjoyed a home and a stable income found themselves wandering the streets desperately in search of any job. Over two million people, including hundreds of thousands of youngsters, simply got up and left their homes in search of a job as employment opportunities became scarce. The greatest danger in the minds of many were the thousands of unemployed “tramps” now wandering the countryside³.  

Something had to change, and by the time of the 1932 election, the economic condition of the nation was worsening. President Herbert Hoover, who had one his election by a massive margin in 1928, was growing ever unpopular. Hoover tried to take steps to alleviate the effects of the Depression by creating government programs meant to relieve overburdened local and state unemployment agencies. However, these programs were never truly effective owing to the staggering number of people who needed some form of aid, whether in the form of food, fuel, or clothing.  

Times were indeed desperate, and immediate, decisive action was needed before the nation spiraled into chaos.  

In 1932, the Democratic Party nominated New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, a distant relative of former president Theodore Roosevelt, to run in the upcoming election against Hoover. Roosevelt campaigned on utilizing the resources of the federal government to provide relief to the millions of unemployed in the form of government-paying jobs and relief programs.  

Roosevelt had experience in this matter, as during his tenure as governor he experienced firsthand the effects of the depression and actively sought ways to get workers back on their feet. One program he helped create in 1932 gave unemployed men on state ‘relief rolls’ jobs planting trees and improving infrastructure in New York’s state parks. Roosevelt, an avid admirer of nature himself, sought to combine his love of nature and his belief in decisive governmental action into a way to assist both the unemployed and the environment. In his eyes, both nature and those millions suffering from the effects of the Depression must be saved³.    

The CCC, or Civilian Conservation Corps, was the culmination of Roosevelt’s efforts to see both the nation’s youth and forests rehabilitated. The official act creating the CCC was signed into law by Roosevelt on March 31^st, 1933. The CCC itself was managed by four different governmental bodies, those being the War Department, which oversaw general camp organization and retained overall command of the enrollees, the Department of Labor, which selected applicants aged 1725 for enrollment into the CCC, and the Departments of the Interior and of Agriculture, which both oversaw and planned work projects for the camps.

Those who were accepted into the CCC were organized into companies of 200 men each, which were in turn commanded by a captain and two subordinate lieutenants, who were reserve officers in either the Army, Navy, or Marines. In addition to these officers, local residents known as ‘LEMs’, or Local Experienced Men, were hired in the role of company ‘foremen’ for their previous work experiences and their knowledge of the area in which the ‘enrollees’ were posted.  

These companies would then be assigned to one of the thousands of camps throughout the country. At these camps, enrollees would build roads, pavilions, cabins, dams, and fire watchtowers. One of the more well-known legacies of the CCC is the millions of trees that were planted, leading many to lovingly call the CCC “Roosevelt’s Tree Army”. Many of these camps became state or national parks, and much of the work undertaken by these young men eighty years ago can still be seen today.  

In addition to work, however, camps also offered enrollees educational and vocational experiences, as well. Since so many youths were forced to leave school early due to the effects of the Depression, a scheme was hatched to provide the enrollees with the opportunity to complete their schooling and to provide valuable vocational training for all those who wished to enter the trades. Although the classes and courses differed from camp to camp, some common examples of courses taught included US history, English, engineering, woodworking, and automotive repair⁵.

CCC Camps, therefore, were not only to provide work for the enrollee, but also to prepare them for their future outside of the Corps.  

Enrollees were ‘enlisted’ for sixth-month periods, with the opportunity to reenlist once. They were paid $30 a month, with $22-$25 of that amount having to be sent home to designated beneficiaries. These wages, even for 1933, were seen as somewhat low⁶, but the extra money being sent home to their families made their enrollment all the more worthwhile to enrollees.  

However, the CCC is not to be without criticism. Although the law creating the CCC required that there be no discrimination on account of “race, color, or creed”⁷, the legacy of Jim Crow pervaded the Corps throughout its entire existence.  

As per official military policy, CCC companies and camps were segregated throughout the whole country, and companies that were composed of black enrollees were to be commanded by white officers only. In addition, despite facing even more drastic levels of unemployment and poverty on average than their white counterparts, a lower percentage of blacks were enrolled in proportion to their share of the U.S population⁸.

Companies of black enrollees also faced discrimination by local residents living near their designated camps and were frequently subjected to racist accusations that they were going to ‘bring harm’ to local communities, despite official CCC reports stating that black companies experienced fewer instances of misconduct than their white counterparts⁹.  

Although not present in Pennsylvania, in the Midwest and Great Plains there were dedicated

CCC camps for Native Americans, which looked quite different from those of non-Native American enrollees. These camps were often placed on preexisting reservation land and were more temporary than those that were to be found in the East. Additionally, enrollees could bring their families to live with them at these camps if they so desired¹⁰.    

Despite such problems, and despite its termination in July of 1942 by Congress, the CCC remained immensely popular throughout its nine-year tenure.  The CCC provided work for the unemployed, the opportunity to learn for those who desired to do so, and valuable employment experience. Moreover, it also gave these men a sense of belonging and purpose, with he friendships they formed in the Corps lasting a lifetime. For the hundreds of thousands who ended up enrolling in the Corps, the time they had in the CCC, although brief, “was the best time in their lives”.

Research and text by Penn State Intern Nathanael Davidson, 2025.

CCC RESOURCES OF INTEREST