CCC Legacy

CCC Legacy. . , Maybe those mountains are hard to climb. Those trees so hard to cut. , But the air is pure, the water fine. And we're climbing right out of the rut.... , For besides helping ourselves, you see. We are helping Mother and Dad. , - Robert L. Robeson, CCC Enrollee, The nearby plaque commemorates an amazing feat achieved by members of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930s - construction of a telephone line spanning the entire width of Grand Canyon. One of the poles still stands behind this wall. Beginning in 1934, CCC enrollees worked through winter snow and summer heat to survey and clear a right-of-way roughly following the Bright Angel and North Kaibab trails. Supplied by pack mules, they set 592 galvanized pipe telephone poles and completed stringing the 18 miles (29 km) of copper-weld wire in 1935., Captions: , The even stone wall on the canyon rim through Grand Canyon Village is a fine example of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Young men employed in the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the CCC all built sections of the wall, completing it in 1935., At Grand Canyon, today's visitors still benefit from the labor and skills of seven CCC companies. During the Great Depression, these young men constructed trails, roads, walls, fences, reservoirs, fire towers, buildings, power lines, telephone lines, and more.