The CCC

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CCC Enrollees Dale Shepherd (L), Unknown, Travis Owens (Cntr R), Arthur Phipps (R) at Doughton Park. Photo courtesy of the Blue Ridge Parkway Archives. ^[2]

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a program started in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression. The idea for the group was conceived by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a way for able-bodied young men to help provide for their families while working on infrastructure projects with the National Parks Service across the country. In order to qualify for the CCC men had to be between the ages of 17 and 28, unmarried, and had to pass a physical exam and go through military style training. Applying to the CCC was much easier than getting in. In one county in WNC 200 men applied for 21 open positions.^[1]
After passing the examination and going through training men were often sent to CCC Camps far from their homes. Of their $30 salary, $25 went back home to their families and then men were given the remainder as a type of allowance. That being said, the men were fed three meals a day every day which was a very rare opportunity during the Depression.

CCC Duck Pond and Messhall Doughton Park. Photo courtesy of Blue Ridge Parkway Archives.^[3]

When it comes to the CCC and the BRP, there were three CCC camps where men were specifically assigned to work on the Parkway. However, men from different camps shared the work. A common misconception is that the CCC built the Parkway. This is not true. The men, along with local experienced men, worked on forest conservation, trail and campsite building, and did some work landscaping on the Parkway, but the actual leveling of the land and building was done mainly by contractors (who had to prove they were employing local men to keep the contract).

UP NEXT: Conservationists and Naturalists

Footnotes

1. Harley E. Jolley, “That Magnificent Army of Youth and Peace:” The Civilian Conservation Corps in North Carolina, 1933-1942 (Raleigh: Office of Archives and History, 2007), 16-17.

2. CCC Enrollees Dale Shepherd (L), unknown, Travis Owens (Ctr R), Arthur Phipps (R), Doughton Park, photographer Bert Ricardson, 1940-41, BRPPL.

3. CCC Duck Pond and Messhall, Doughton Park, photographer Bert Richardson, 1940-41, BRPPL.