The Civilian Conservation Corps

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.

Star Liner

Comments

A Child of the . . .

What was it like to grow up as a child in the 90s? How about the 1940’s? Thinking about a child growing up in each different decade, conjures up images in my mind. But that is all they are: images. I was a child in the 1960’s. I can tell you what it felt like to be growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, but what it felt like to me is not what the history books remember. History will tell you the 60’s was about the Viet Nam War, civil rights, and the space race. The 70’s was Disco and Watergate. I remember being aware of all of those things, but to me this era was about finding time to play with my friends, something I probably share with a child of any decade. It was about navigating the social intricacies of school. It was about the Beatles, Three Dog Night, The Moody Blues, The Animals, Jefferson Airplane. It was Bullwinkle, the Wonderful World of Color, and Ed Sullivan. There are things that a kid pays attention to that the grown-ups don’t. Then there are things the adults ...

Bureaucrats

I am one of those nameless, faceless bureaucrats. Yes, that is my job. Though I actually have a name; I even am rumored to have a face. Bureau is the French word for desk, so you could say bureaucrats are “desk people.” In short, I work for the government. I sometimes have to deliver unpleasant news to a taxpayer. I sometimes have to tell them that the deed they recorded won’t work and they will have to record another one with corrections. Or we can’t process their deed until they pay their taxes. I can understand why some of these things upset people. The thing is, we don’t decide these things. It is not the bureaucrats that make the laws. The legislature writes the laws. We are required to follow the law. If you are going to get mad at someone, get mad at the legislature. Or maybe get mad at the voters who voted the legislature in (That’s you, by the way). The same thing happens when the voters vote in a new district, or vote for a bond, or a new operating levy for an ...

Telephonicus domesticus

Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone from 1877 bears about as much similarity to the modern smart phone as an abacus bears to a PC or Mac. There are just about as many leaps in technology in both cases. It’s funny how a major jump in technology happens (like the actual invention of the phone). Then there are some refinements over a few years or decades until it gets to a useful stable form. Then it stays virtually the same for many years with only minor innovations. The telephone was virtually unchanged from sometime before I was born until I was about forty. Push-buttons were replacing the rotary dial, but that was about it. (Isn’t it interesting though that when we call someone, we still call it “dialing?” I have never seen a dial on a cell phone.) Cell phones were introduced and (once they became cheap enough) they changed the way we phone each other. New advancements followed soon after, texting and then smart phones. Personal computers were also becoming commonplace and wer...

A speculative mind

Search This Blog