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Archiver > ARIZARD > 2003-01 > 1043604948


From: "Robert W. King" <>
Subject: RE: [ARIZARD-L] CCC camp
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 12:15:48 -0600
In-Reply-To: <003b01c2c532$ce6298c0$134e1e42@ne1.client2.attbi.com>


Hi Lee Anne!

The CCC or Civilian Conservation Corps was one of the 'alphabet agencies'
started by the Federal Government during the depression. The idea was to
give employment to young men without replacing anyone already employed. The
program was run in quasi-military fashion by the Army who provided a cadre
of one or two officers and a couple of NCOs for each camp. The young men
were recruited and transported to camps which had been set up by the Army.
Camps varied in size, but typically housed two to four hundred boys. They
lived in open bay barracks and were fed in mess halls. The work typically
involved construction of some kind.

The camps were built for strictly temporary occupancy for the most part.
That means they were built fast and cheap and have long since been torn
down. I doubt you would even find foundations remaining these days for most
of them.

Many of the permanent structures in our present day national and state parks
were built by the CCC. These include buildings, bridges, dams, trails,
signs, retaining walls, et cetera. To minimize the impact on local area
economies, it was a regular practice to attempt to use locally available
stone and timber. This had the happy result of producing some of the finest
rustic structures we have. In the process, the young men learned the
building trades.

A side benefit of the program was that the Army gained experience in very
rapidly constructing camp facilities and dealing with large numbers of young
men that proved very valuable when World War II came along.

My father, Charles King, spent what would have been his junior year in high
school in a CCC camp in Idaho. He worked on a surveyor's crew. The surveyor
was charged with laying out routes for the fire roads in the National Forest
in that vicinity. The balance of the boys in the camp worked on the road
construction crew. My father's brother, Ray, spent the same year in a CCC
camp at Sylamore on the White River between Izard and Stone County,
Arkansas.

The CCC was abolished during WW II. In the 1970's, California resurrected
the idea, although I understand their emphasis leans a bit in the direction
of employing youths of both sexes who seem headed for trouble with the law.

--
Robert W. King
I'm an ingenieur, NOT a bloody locomotive driver!
SnailNet: 19023 TV Tower Rd, Winslow, Arkansas 72959
BellNet: 479-634-2086
InterNet:
Web site: http://www.wildweasel.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Anne Center [mailto:]
Sent:Sunday, 26 January 2003 05:37
To:
Subject:[ARIZARD-L] CCC camp

Does anyone know what a CCC camp was?

Lee Anne

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