When we go fishing, or out and about in the “Great Outdoors”, it is a time to remember the Unsung Hero’s, that made most of our local Sate Parks and Forests.
1930’s were hard times, and 25% of the young men ( between the ages of 18 to 25) had no work. The men got paid $1 per day, $30 dollars per month. They live in CCC Camps, got to keep $5 to live on for the month, the other $25 was sent home. They got 3 square meals a day, work clothing, and a bunk.
Nothing at the Canteen, cost more than a Nickel, and each camp had its own newspaper reporting on everything happening in the camp, from the number of patients the doctor treated and their ailments (tonsillitis, measles, mumps, pneumonia, appendicitis, scarlet fever, removal of a big toe, and acute gold bricking!)
In the nine year that the CCC was in operation, they gave work to 3.5 million men, who worked out of 4,500 camps nationwide. They built 125,000 miles of roads, developed 800 state parks, planted 3 billion trees and sent home $662,000,000 to their families.
The camps were run by U.S. Army Personnel, and when December 7th, 1941 happened, most of the men of the CCC, were to first to enlist into the military.
The CCC Camps they had built, became the POW Camps for German soldiers.
The men of the CCC were taught by Local Experienced Men, how to cut and lay native stone, weld metal, cut down huge pine trees and turn the logs into building material, how to prune trees, cut underbrush, and build forest fire lookout towers.
The roadway through the Smokey Mountains, is a CCC Project. There are many more scattered nationwide, the work these men did, was build to last many lifetimes, for the future generations to enjoy.
To those who served in the CCC…“Thank You for Your Service!”
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 09 January 2006).]
