CCC History in North Carolina

The New Deal era Civilian Conservation Corps and its accomplishments had a considerable and lasting effect on Western North Carolina. Large scale projects like the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway, widespread planting of forests, and the construction of numerous recreational areas were an investment of which Western North Carolina still reaps the aesthetic, social and economic benefits. The U.S. Forest Service specifically benefited from the massive road and bridge construction, forest planting and maintenance, and watershed restoration and recreation CCC projects. Likewise, impoverished families and individuals unable to find employment were able to find relief through the CCC program. In 1933, 27 out of 100 people were on relief in North Carolina, with the hardest hit in the mountain areas (Bassett 2000). Of the 131 CCC camps established in North Carolina, 25 were operated from Forest Service lands. Various local and non-local sources were available for the generation of this context.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was authorized by the Emergency Conservation Work Act, ratified on March 31, 1933 (Throop 1981). First established as the Emergency Conservation Works on April 5, 1933, the CCC, was one of many programs implemented to alleviate the plight of the poor and unemployed. The idea behind the CCC as expressed by Congress was "to relieve the acute condition of widespread distress and unemployment existing in the United states, provide for the restoration of the country's depleted natural resources, and advance an orderly program of useful public works".

The New Deal Era, proclaimed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his election in 1932, is one in which the American government radically reversed the policies of previous administrations. Laissez-faire policies toward business and industry, and an absence of government administration on the behalf of the "common man", characterized the years of the industrial Revolution from the late 1880's to the stock market crash of 1929. The programs of the New Deal implementing citizen protection spanned

the years 1933 to 1942 nationally. In his presidential acceptance speech Roosevelt proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps. This idea dated at least as far back as 1915~ when conservationist George Maxwell proposed that a national corps of young men be formed for reforestation, conservation, flood and fire control The coordination of this effort included the Department of Labor, which recruited men: the War Department which used the U. S. Army for supplying and direction of the camps; the Office of Education which provided for educational programs; the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture for the supervision of projects (Wise 1994).

Nearly three million men, most between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, did much to improve and preserve America's forests, parks, and agricultural lands (Rawick 1957; Salmond 1976). The average "enrollee'" had an eighth-grade education and had been unemployed for at least nine months, as had his father (Steen 1976). In addition to removing a hungry soul from the household, the CCC also assured that income was sent home. Each enrollee was paid $30.00 per month and was required to send at least $25.00 per month home to their families (Merrill 1981). Young men were provided clothing, boots, room, board, and training. Initially~ enrollees could serve for six months, with the possibility of and additional six months. In later years of the program, enrollees could serve as long as two years (Mastran and Lowerre 1983).

CCC camps were supervised by Army or Army reserve officers. Each camp typically contained 200 enrollees. Although some camps were located on military bases, most were in rural locations in national forests, national parks or state parks. Smith (2004) describes the establishment and structure of a camp (Espenshade 2005):

The first task performed by the enrollees was to clear a camp site under the direction of regular Army officers. Tents were used as living quarters until it was possible to construct more permanent buildings... Site plans differed for each camp and depended largely on the available supplies and terrain. However, some elements of the camp site were always consistent. A flagpole and administration office were usually the first visual indications of the camp. Officers barracks were in straight rows in front of enrollees' (quarters) ... Other buildings found in a typical 200 man camp included latrines, hospital and infirmary, showers· and washroom, kitchen and mess unit, administrative unit, garage and shop.

Like the program name implies, the CCC projects were most commonly conservation oriented. Merrill (1981) lists the 10 types of approved projects:

1. Structural Improvements- bridges, fire towers, service buildings.

2. Transportation - truck trails, minor roads, foot trails, and airport landing fields.

3. Erosion Control - check dams, terracing, and vegetative covering.

4. Flood Control- irrigation and drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, rip rapping.

5. Forest Culture - planting trees and shrubs, stand improvement, seed collection and nursery work.

6. Forest Protection - fire fighting, fire prevention, and fire pre-suppression, insect and disease control.

7. Landscape and Recreation - public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site

clearing.

8. Range - stock driveways, elimination of predators.

9.Wildlife - stream improvement, stocking fish, food and cover planting. 10. Miscellaneous - emergency work, surveys, mosquito control

Landscape designs developed for recreation sites constructed by the CCC have their roots in the works of Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmstead, Frank Waugh and many others. The sites represent an exploration of design in harmony with the natural environment. Period buildings represent a hybrid of influences from vernacular architecture to the Shingle and Arts and Crafts styles, most commonly referred to as Rustic style. The materials used in the construction of the sites and buildings were indigenous stone, timber and earth. These materials, true to the design intent of the architects and landscape architects, allow the man-made forms to blend with the natural environment.

The craftsmanship of the resources is distinctive to Civilian Conservation Corps work and federal public projects of the 1930's. The works of the CCC are of simple, primitive methods of construction. The materials, rough laid stone, heavy timber and log construction are those of vernacular American architecture, but their use is more varied. In CCC construction, log and timber joinery is exaggerated, stonework has playful insets or is exaggeratedly massive. Timelessness, serenity and complete integration with their surroundings, give Civilian Conservation Corps projects a presence not commonly found in the United States (Wise 1994).

The Weeks Law of March 1, 1911 authorized the purchase of private lands in the East by the Federal government for the purpose of protecting navigable waterways and reestablishing forests for future generations. Many years of forest exploitation and overuse had decimated the county's forested lands and resources. Resulting floods, fires and erosion were commonplace, especially in the Southeast. Mastran and Lowerre (1983) summarize the impact of the CCC on Southern forests:

One of the biggest jobs undertaken by the CCC in the Southern Appalachian forests was road and trail construction. The enrollees built high-quality roads in some areas to open up the forest for timber harvesting or recreation. In addition, the CCC altered the landscape of the Southern Appalachian forests and parks. The fire towers, trails, roads, and campgrounds it build and the trees it planted, thinned and protected were improvements that controlled fire, enhanced the forests' beauty, and made the mountains more accessible.

The United States Department of Agriculture had the vast majority of the CCC camps under its jurisdiction from the beginning of the Emergency Conservation Work. As of June 30, 1935, the department had 1,231 camps, 517 of which were on National Forests. The National Forest Reservation Commission designated 7 purchase units in 1911, including the Pisgah Unit in North Carolina (NF/NC Acquisition Records. The first parcel of land purchased under the Weeks Law was the 8,100 acres known as the Curtis Creek Tract in McDowell County, west of Marion, NC. This land is part of the Grandfather Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest, the first National Forest established in the East. The average number of camps operated in North Carolina was 45, 17 of which were on National Forests.

Scott Ashcraft and Rodney J. Snedeker, February 2006 Heritage Resources Evaluation of the Curtis Creek CCC Camp and Improvements Project. Grandfather Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest.