The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). . At the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President and inaugurated in January, 1933 and by the Spring of that same year he had the Civilian Conservation Corps program up and running., The Civilian Conservation Corps, commonly referred to as the CCC, was a part of the comprehensive New Deal Plan to reduce unemployment caused by the Great Depression. During its heyday, the CCC was nicknamed Roosevelt's Tree Army, but this tag did not do justice to all of the work projects completed in its almost ten year existence., Nationally the CCC enrolled unemployed young men between the ages of 18 and 25. This mostly unskilled labor force planted three billion trees, cleared and maintained access roads, fought forest fires, reseeded grazing lands, implemented soil erosion controls, constructed bridges, animal shelters, wildlife refuges, water storage basins and established both national and state parks still in use today. , , Tens of thousands of unmarried young men, many of whom had never held jobs, came from all over America, from big cities and small towns to work long days, do hard, dirty labor and live in military style camps for $30 a month. $25, of which had to be sent to their families who desperately need this income. , , Roosevelt envisioned this program as a means "...to preserve our precious national resources....and as a moral and spiritual boon to needy Americans.." who preferred to work rather than be on the dole. , , What began in 1933 as disparate groups of young boys, hungry and ill-trained, developed into an assemblage of skilled, fit young men, 80% of whom volunteered for the Army as our country entered World War II. Indeed, it was the War that brought an end to the Civilian Conservation Corps though its legacy will never be forgotten. , , Much of the work needed to pull our country out of the great Depression was performed on this very Willow Springs site where CCC Camp #612 was located.