I recently went for a vacation at Oregon’s Silver Falls
State Park. We walked the trails and took in the splendor of a number of falls
and the steep heavily forested canyons that they dropped into. While wandering
one of the upper trails, we came upon a stone structure. It was something that
had been built in the 1930’s as a kitchen for the CCC (Civilian Conservation
Corps) camp. It had later been restored to its more-or-less original condition.
It put me in mind of when I had worked a couple of summers for the US Forest
Service at the Cape Perpetua Visitor’s Center. On top of Cape Perpetua is a
stone shelter and down nearer the base of the Cape are the remnants of a
cookhouse. Both were built for and used by the CCC boys.
The Civilian Conservation Corps along with its brother
organization, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), were part of Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal policies to fight back against the great Depression. These
two organizations employed millions of men at a time when unemployment was
frighteningly high. The CCC planted billions of trees and worked on
improvements to National Parks and National Forests, building trails and
structures, and fighting forest fires. The young men had to “enlist” for at
least six months. In addition to room and board, they were paid $30 per month
but were required to send $25 of it back home to help support their families.
It was a popular depression era program.
The CCC is why I grew up in Oregon. Both my parents were
from Illinois. My father’s family was dirt poor (like most people in the
Depression) and he enlisted in the CCC. He was sent to Crater Lake with a team
that was building trails. He fell in love with Oregon and decided, after the
war, that that was where he wanted to start his family.
By the time America entered the Second World War, the CCC
was in decline. Priorities shifted to the war effort and the CCC was no longer
needed. There are remnants of the CCC scattered all over, mostly in the western
US. Even though they are not that old, it feels like an archeological find when
you stumble upon one. There is nostalgia for a popular government program. They
are relics of a different time, a time of big ideas, a time when we believed in
taking care of each other.
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