CCC History

CCC workers in front of a building in Zion National Park

Zion National Park archives

President Franklin D. Roosevelt patterned the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on a similar program he ran while governor of New York. He signed the executive order to create the CCC on April 5, 1933. By July 1933, through coordination with the Department of War, Labor, Agriculture, and Interior, the federal government established 1,433 working camps and put 300,000 men to work.

CCC crews worked for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, State Parks, and other land management agencies.

For many, just the prospect of three meals and a bed were enough to get young men to enroll. As jobs and income were incredibly scarce, the CCC for a lot of these young men was their first job. The men would make $30 a month, $25 of which would be sent straight to their families, while the other five was for the worker to keep. Clothing, meals, and lodging were provided in military camp fashion.

While the CCC program was considered a success by most, giving young men work experience and families much needed money, there were portions of the population who did not receive the full benefits of the program. Women were not included in the program and minority men were included at far lower rates than the legislation allowed.

The CCC men planted trees, constructed trails and roads, built picnic sturctures, participated in fire prevention projects, were involved in historic preservation projects and completed many other tasks on more than 800 public lands nationwide, including projects in Colorado National Monument. While the projects were based on the environmental knowledge of the time, there were some projects that later improvements in science would prove to be deterintal to the landscapes. Funding was discontinued in 1942, due to World War II.