Monday, March 22, 2010

On March 31, 1933, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a Depression-era federal agency. The CCC was one of the New Deal programs initiated in the first one hundred days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential administration. The program was designed to relieve the economic and humanitarian distress caused by the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.In the early 1930s large numbers of young men roamed the cities and countryside, looking for work. The Roosevelt administration feared that, without jobs and training, a whole generation of young men would be unprepared to assume the financial responsibilities of home and family. Life in CCC camps would also rehabilitate young men who were not only jobless, but suffered from a lack of physical and spiritual nourishment.The CCC had a dual purpose. Roosevelt also envisioned that the agency would provide necessary labor for various conservation projects designed to revitalize overworked agricultural land, reverse soil erosion, and implement reforestation. He was particularly enthused about using CCC labor, in conjunction with the National Park Service (NPS), to develop national and state parks that would be accessible to all Americans. Working together, the CCC and NPS developed parks and built structures that left a legacy of distinctive architecture, quality craftsmanship, and in each man, a lifeline to a more productive future. This was particularly true in Oklahoma, where CCC men put into use unproductive land on which they built dams and lakes, planted trees and shrubs, and quarried stone to establish the state's first park system.Shortly after taking office in 1933, Roosevelt asked his secretaries of war, interior, agriculture, and labor to coordinate plans for the development of the Civilian Conservation Corps. CCC administration was shared by these four departments and one outside agency, the Veterans Administration. It was the responsibility of the Department of Labor to select CCC enrollees from state and local welfare agencies.To be eligible as a junior enrollee, a young man must be between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, unmarried, and a citizen of the United States. One of the conditions of enrollment was that out of the enrollees' monthly thirty-dollar pay, twenty-five dollars would be sent home to assist their dependent families. The Veterans Administration determined the eligibility of applicants for CCC veteran units.Once the selection of men was made, the Department of War organized, conditioned, transported, and supervised the enrollees from induction to final discharge. This included organization into CCC units, transportation to work place, construction of CCC camps, and supervision in camp when the enrollees were not working on assigned duties. The War Department was also responsible for medical care, discipline, education, and religious ministration. CCC enrollees worked on projects designed by the interior and agriculture departments. Within the Department of Interior, the General Land Office, the Office of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, and the Division of Grazing were in charge of CCC work. In the Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Biological Survey, the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the Soil Conservation Service also directed CCC projects.