The CCC and Saratoga NHP

A crew of several CCC program participants using hand tools to help remove part of a non-historic concrete foundation at Saratoga Battlefield

Saratoga NHP

A Hand Up

How may a federal program help needy individuals and the nation?

This situation challenged the U.S. as it met a faceless, fearsome enemy: the Great Depression (autumn 1929—late 1930s) and its widespread unemployment, poverty, and hopelessness.

In a unique way, individual need and national interest would converge at Saratoga Battlefield..

In October 1929, the Great Depression was starting, and New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt paid one of many visits to the battlefield—a state historic site at the time—joining site superintendent George Slingerland for a speaking engagement. Slingerland wished aloud that the site would become a national shrine. Both men knew the site’s significance and need for help.

In 1933, a few years into the Depression, and his presidency, Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act. This created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a national relief program giving “a hand up” to hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men, age 18-25, by employing them in 6-month enlistments to develop state- or federally-owned resources for public benefit.

Saratoga Battlefield became one of those sites. In 1939, FDR established a CCC camp in Stillwater, NY specifically to work at the Battlefield.

During its 1939-1942 operations, the Stillwater camp participants worked hard on many projects, including: removing non-historic fences, roads and foundations; developing new roads through the Battlefield; clearing invasive plants; conducting archaeology; developing maps; managing landscapes through prescribed fire; and offering site interpretation for visitors.

In exchange they received $30 per month (2020 equivalent: $600), $25 of which went home to their families. They also received housing, uniforms, meals, medical care, education, and job training.

Above all, they found purpose as they worked, earned, learned, and helped themselves, their families and their nation.

How might you better yourself while helping society?