The Civilian Conservation Corps
The hardships of the Great Depression of the early part of the twentieth century lead to many drastic decisions by our countries leaders on how to deal with the problem. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States at the time, decided to infiltrate the country with government money to create jobs and better the country as a whole. The Civilian corps">Conservation Corps, or CCC created many of these jobs.
The Civilian Conservation Corps, which was established in 1933 to conserve the wilderness and give young able men jobs. This program was one of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that were to bring the country out of the depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps took in unmarried men from ages eighteen to twenty-five and moved them to the wilderness to work. They planted trees, built parks, fought soil erosion, and preformed timber culturing (Davidson 718).
The Civilian Conservation Corps set up camps all over the country with many of them right here in the western part of Virginia. There were eight different camps in the Shenandoah Valley. Seeing as the Shenandoah Valley, specifically Staunton is where I am from, I wish to focus on the three camps that were located within Augusta County. North River, West Augusta, and Sherando were the names of the three camps located within Augusta County.
North River Camp, also known as Mount Solon Camp, was first established on May 31, 1933 by one hundred eighty-six men. These men first had to create a clearing for the camp and establish living quarters. They built nineteen different buildings for
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uses such as recreation, dining, worship, storage and sleep. The camp men built many of the surrounding areas attractions. These men developed an intricate maze of fire roads, horseback trails and timber paths for future development of the National Forest in that area of Augusta County. Another accomplishment of this particular camp was the cleaning up of Staunton Dam, or Elkhorn Lake. This lake supplied the camp and Staunton with its water and had been contaminated by erosion. The men spent considerable time fixing the erosion problem and beautifying the area into a wilderness attraction. Now many families still retreat to this lake for picnics and camping trips.
The West Augusta Camp was located further into the wilderness than the North River Camp or the Sherando Camp. The West Augusta Camp men spent most of their time constructing roads throughout the underdeveloped and extremely impoverished area.
In the Roaring Twenties, people started buying household materials and stocks that they could not pay for in credit. Farmers, textile workers, and miners all got low wages. In 1929, the stock market crashed. All of these events started the Great Depression. During the beginning of the Great Depression, 9000 banks were closed, ending nine million savings accounts. This lead to the closing of eighty-six thousand businesses, a European depression, an overproduction of food, and a lowering of prices. It also led to more people going hungry, more homeless people, and much lower job wages. There was a 28% increase in the amount of homeless people from 1929 to 1933. And in the midst of the beginning of the Great Depression, President Hoover did nothing to improve the condition of the nation. In 1932, people decided that America needed a change. For the first time in twelve years, they elected a democratic president, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Immediately he began to work on fixing the American economy. He closed all banks and began a series of laws called the New Laws. L...
Within its nine years of existence, the Civilian Conservation Corps did much more than just provide jobs to unemployed men. James McEntee, the director of the CCC, knew that it was to late to restore some of the damage that had already occurred due to neglect in the past years, but looked at the Corps as a tremendous accomplishment for the United
President Herbert Hoover was the conservative republican president of America when the great depression occurred, and was given the burden of rebuilding the economy. He believed the federal government should not intervene, and instead believed that helping the needy was the obligation of private organizations and donors, whom he pressured. In addition, Hoover granted loans to big businesses, hoping that the money would “trickle down” and that more employees would be hired. Still, during...
During the late 1920s, in October 1929, the stock market crashed which led to the Great Depression. By winter 1930 through 1931, four million people were unemployed; by March 1931, eight million. By the year 1932, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected, the national income was half that of 1929; there were twelve million unemployed, moreover, there were one of four. Within two weeks of his inauguration, in the year 1933, FDR reopened three-fourths of the Federal Reserve Banks and tried to save the economy. Many called Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration "the Alphabetical Administration; it was often ridiculed because it seemed to have so many different organizations designated by different groups of letters.” (Witham 48) For example, the C. C. C., the Civilian Conservation Corps, started in the year 1933 and found jobs for over 250,000 men. The Federal Emergency Relief Act, or F. E. R. A., started in the year 1933, led by Harry Hopkins put $500 million back into circulation. By the year 193...
The Great Depression was one of the greatest challenges that the United States faced during the twentieth century. It sidelined not only the economy of America, but also that of the entire world. The Depression was unlike anything that had been seen before. It was more prolonged and influential than any economic downturn in the history of the United States. The Depression struck fear in the government and the American people because it was so different. Calvin Coolidge even said, "In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope—nothing of man." People were scared and did not know what to do to address the looming economic crash. As a result of the Depression’s seriousness and severity, it took unconventional methods to fix the economy and get it going again. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration had to think outside the box to fix the economy. The administration changed the role of the government in the lives of the people, the economy, and the world. As a result of the abnormal nature of the Depression, the FDR administration had to experiment with different programs and approaches to the issue, as stated by William Lloyd Garrison when he describes the new deal as both assisting and slowing the recovery. Some of the programs, such as the FDIC and works programs, were successful; however, others like the NIRA did little to address the economic issue. Additionally, the FDR administration also created a role for the federal government in the everyday lives of the American people by providing jobs through the works program and establishing the precedent of Social Security...
the camp they experience the better part of their journey, While at Camp Weedpatch they receive
Roosevelt became the U.S. president in 1932; he made an attempt to stop the Great Depression by The New Deal, which was based on the idea that the government’s money can save the economy. The New Deal gave jobs for people in governmental projects and also saved the banks from the chaos. However, the new deal didn’t overcome the unemployment issue and the jobs given to the people were only for a short period of time. Also, most of the government’s project created lost much more money than it gained. To be specific, Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was based on building dams and hydroelectric power, this employed up to 8.5 million Americans; however, the projected costed a huge amount of money and the people were unemployed after the work was done. Franklin’s attempt to end the great depression wasn’t as effective as World War II’s boom in industry and
One of the biggest problems was sanitation. Clean water for drinking and bathing was rare and illness from poor hygiene or contaminated water was very common. Most of the camps were in tight groups and contagious diseases such as chickenpox, colds or the flu would spread over camp within
There was a Great Depression in the 1930's. During this time President Hoover was trying to fight against unemployment. The percentage of unemployed people rose 25 percent during this time. With unemployment continuing to rise, President Hoover urged congress to provide up to 150 billion dollars for public works to create jobs.
... still surviving. CCC alumni have donated many of the photographs and artifacts depicting their day-to-day life and accomplishments to the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum in Grayling, MI. Roosevelt’s project truly made an impact on many American lives and helped to turn the economy around during one of our country’s lowest points.
They arrived on a ship with 108 men led by Bartholomew Goznold, the founding father no one knew, who found Jamestown. They were sent by an English company in
As soon as Franklin Roosevelt came into office, he began to implement a series of measures known collectively as the New Deal. One idea behind the New Deal to implement economic measures to prevent complete economic collapse. To protect the economy, Roosevelt introduced 15 acts of legislation such as the Banking Act of 1933 which guaranteed bank deposits of up to $5000("Roosevelt Institute"). Another idea behind the New Deal was to implement measures kickstart the economy by providing employment. One employment program was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for unemployed single men aged 18-25, which ran from 1933 to 1942("Roosevelt Institute"). This program provided unskilled manual labor in conservation and development of natural resources in rural areas. Another employmen...
The Andersonville Prison was occupied by innumerable soldiers, much more than the camp was designed for, and because of that many men had inadequate shelter. The prison was built to only house ten thousand people, but ended up holding more than three times that amount (Turner 162). Nonetheless, four hundred new prisoners arrived daily, and by the time summer ended, the camp contained thirty-three thousand citizens, which made Andersonville the fifth largest city in the Confederacy (Davis 351; Savage 43). Forty-nine thousand and five hundred Union troops had passed through the camp’s gates by the time the war ended (Hyde 131). At any
President Roosevelt initiated the only program that could pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal got the country through one of the worst financial catastrophe the U.S. has ever been through. Diggerhistory.info biography on FDR states,” In March 13 million people were unemployed… In his first “Hundred Days”, he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and those in danger of losing their farms and homes”(Digger History Biography 1). Roosevelt’s first hundred days brought relief to the unemployed. He opened the AAA (Agriculture Adjustment Administration) and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps.). The administration employed many young men in need of jobs all around the country. Roosevelt knew that the economy’s biggest problem was the widespread unemployment. Because of Roosevelt’s many acts and agencies, lots of young men and women around the country were getting jobs so the economy was healing. According to Roosevelt’s biography from the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, “Another Flurry of New Deal Legislation followed in 1935, including the WPA (Work Projects Admi...
The Great Depression in the 1930s was a fallout of the stock market crash of 1929. Till the 1930s, the role of government in the economy was minimal. The capitalist model envisaged a ‘laissez-faire’ economy’, wherein market forces would auto-correct implicit imbalances, with little need for government intervention. At best, the government played a facilitating role, rather than actively intervening in the economy. Herbert Hoover, who was the President when the stock market crashed in 1929, refused to actively intervene in the market economy. By 1933, there was massive unemployment, starvation, a large inventory of standing crops with no buyers, and a near-collapse of the banking system. Added to this was rampant corruption and crime. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who became President in 1933, initiated a slew of measures, clubbed under ‘the New Deal’, to recover faith in the economy, extend support to individuals, and reinvigorate the banking system and public institutions (Roosevelt Institute).