Civilian Conservation Corps

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In 1915, conservationist George H. Maxwell proposed that young men be enrolled into a national construction corps to help in forest conservation work, in fighting forest fires and floods, and in reclaiming swamp land. During the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover, the President attempted to deal with the worsening national economic crisis by appropriating funds for public works projects including road and trail construction in national parks and monuments, but these relief efforts did little to halt the economic slide of the nation.

Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot established labor camps for young men to work on road construction, but eventually decided that it was a problem at a level higher than the state and asked the Hoover administration's Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend funds to the state for this relief effort. The Hoover administration provided the loan.

In 1932, Herbert Hoover was opposed in his reelection bid by Democratic nominee Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a young man, Roosevelt had served as chairman of the Committee on Forests, Fish and Game in the New York state legislature and was responsible for the first New York legislation on supervised forestry. Roosevelt became governor of New York in 1928, and the following year got the state legislature to pass laws to aid in county and state reforestation.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt established conservation and reforestation programs in New York, Pennsylvania and other states were also attempting to get unemployed men involved in conservation work.

The state soon started buying abandoned farm land to reforest. In 1931, the state government set up an emergency relief administration to hire the unemployed to clear underbrush, fight fires, control insects, construct roads and trails, improve forest ponds and lakes, and develop recreation facilities. This background greatly helped Roosevelt in the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The 1932 Presidential election was a landslide. Franklin D. Roosevelt got almost 23 million votes to President Hoover's 15 million. A nation in panic produced the landslide vote and turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt for an end to the rampant unemployment and economic chaos gripping the country. Accepting the Presidential nomination on July 1, 1932, Roosevelt started a fight against soil erosion and declining timber resources utilizing the unemployed of large urban areas. In what would later be called "The Hundred Days," President Roosevelt took a number of measures, including the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act, which most know as the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Franklin D. Roosevelt called an emergency session of the 73rd Congress in March, 1933, in order to authorize a program along some of the same lines as his former New York State efforts to recruit unemployed young men and send them into the backwater areas of the country to halt the erosion of natural resources. Unions initially balked, fearing a loss of union jobs and concern with the Army being involved, but soon fell in line. FDR was inaugurated March 4, 1933, Senate Bill 5.598 was introduced March 27 and sailed through both houses of Congress and was on the President's desk for signature March 31, 1933. The first CCC enrollee came on board 37 days later on April 7. Members of Company 341, CCC, left Fort George G Meade, Maryland, June 5, 1933, for Benton, where they were to establish a camp in the mountains, 13 miles north of town. They arrived June 6, 1933. Roosevelt promised to have 250,000 men in CCC camps by the end of July, 1933. By the time the program ended, over three million men were involved in the operation.

Implementation and operation continued at the same rapid pace as the authorization did, a marvel of cooperation among all branches and agencies of the federal government. Men, material and transportation became mobilized at a speed unheard of in peacetime.

The local CCC camp was established June 6, 1933, near the former town of Emmons, Davidson Township, Sullivan County, five miles west of Central on the west branch of the Fishing Creek between Bloody Run and Painter Run. It was usually referred to as Camp Morton.
		Picture courtesy of Bernard Hess
		The Main Entrance to Camp Morton

The camp remained in operation until December 12, 1937. Names we still can identify were employed there: Bender, Hess, Young, Hacker, Cole, Mika, Brown, Kile, Smith. The camp was officially known as Company 341, S-104-Pa, Benton, Pa, and was frequently referred to as Camp Morton. When established, the camp was under the command of First Lieutenant. L. E. Mielenz, Engineer Corps.

The officers and those hired to help run the CCC camp at Emmons had wooden buildings in which to sleep. The men's living quarters throughout the whole time of the camp's esistence were tents with minimal flooring.   Picture dated 7/25/1933

Most of the young unemployed youth of the nation lived in the East. Helen Smith Gammon recalls that the CCC was one of the best things that ever happened to Pennsylvania. She writes, "During the middle of the Depression when very few people had any money, it provided a break not only for the boys who served in the CCC but for their families as well. Many were from families in the cities. Most of their earnings were sent home to help support their families. Each man received $5 a month for his own use and they knew how to stretch every penny. They worked full days and were taught skills they could use to support themselves the rest of their lives."

			Although most of the unemployed were from the East, most of the work projects were in the western parts of the country. The Army was involved in the program from the beginning moving enrollees from induction centers to working camps. Army officers, along with some members of the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy temporarily commanded camps and companies.
Photo courtesy of Richard Shoemaker

Bob Maynes recalls that his father was a Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve and a Mechanical Engineer with the Lehigh & New England Railroad when in 1932 he was ordered to report to Fort George G Mead MD for duty as a commanding officer in a CCC camp being activated for World War 1 veterans.

During the subsequent six years, Bob's father was Commanding Officer in camps in Salisbury, Hot Springs, Maryland, McConnelsburg, and Somerset. The Maynes family moved with him to McConnelsburg, Covington, VA, and Salisbury, and returned to Allentown, PA, when he was in Somerset. Pat Price, Bob's sister who now resides in Benton, and his younger brothers, attended four different schools. Bob spent four years in five different high schools.

Bob's father eventually received orders for Naval intelligence operations, from where he, while undercover in the German-American Bund, disappeared without a trace in NY City.

When Bob Maynes graduated from high school in 1939, "the CCC was open to any young man who wanted to sign up for six months." Bob saw a news article recruiting for the program, and went to the Allentown National Guard Armory, signed up, and was told to report back at 1 PM that day. Bob's mother, who was not home at the time, found a note from son Bob about the time he was on the train to the New Cumberland Army Depot.

In one of the few reports we found on "downtime" for the CCC, Bob reports that the group "kicked around there for a few days, and then boarded troop trains for the Southwest. "Our guys got off in Silver City, NM, and rode in the back of work trucks with bench seats for six hours to Beaverhead, NM, up in the Gila National Forest. That was 98 miles from Silver City and at an altitude of over 6000 feet. Quite a few of us were from northeastern Pennsylvania."

Members of Company 341 that came from Fort George G Meade in Maryland to the Benton CCC camp on June 6, 1933, were transported by "community" trucks. The site chosen was beside a creek and was essentially a swamp covered with boulders and underbrush and infested with insects. The scene was so grim that on the first night eighteen men quit! The rest pitched their tents as a heavy rain tore them down as fast as they were put up. All sorts of hardships were endured the first few weeks of the camp, especially sickness.

Capt. Roy T. Barrett, CA Corps, assumed command on July 8, 1933. He was succeeded by Capt. Jack D. Thompson, Inf. Res., on August 31, 1933. The camp quickly "shaped up" and in 1934 was chosen the best camp in the district. The camp then participated with four other camps in the Third Corps Area (composed of camps in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The headquarters was in Baltimore) and took second place. Camp Morton took first place in the state of Pennsylvania in the competition. During the summer of 1935, the camp took first place and the Sub-District No. 1 trophy for having the outstanding camp three consecutive times. The Benton camp also was the champion of the Wayhulington baseball league in 1936, and showing their versatility gathered both first and third prizes in the Columbia County Flower Show in 1936.

Camp Morton was located on game preserve property in Sullivan County, one and seven-tenths miles from the Columbia County line at Elk Grove. Work projects of the camp included building roads, bridges and fish dams, stream improvement, spring development, fire and truck trails, disease control, reforestation, timber estimates, and marking of boundaries. Roads like the Grassy Hollow road from Jamison City show the versatility of the group.

The Departments of Agriculture, Interior and Labor participated with the Army in the administration of the CCC. Labor was responsible for the selection and enrollment of applicants. A former union vice-president, Robert Fechner, a Democrat, was appointed by President Roosevelt as director of the Emergency Conservation Work program and directed the four agencies from April, 1933. Fechner seemingly operated without a set of rules to guide the agency, and yet the CCC never self destructed.

The American public, even including Republicans in Congress, were in favor of the program and young men signed up in droves. In Chicago, a judge gave the CCC credit for a 55% reduction in crime in his city.

The $30 monthly income didn't set the world on fire for high wages. The monthly allotment checks sent back home to the families cut into available money. Cold and drafty tents, uniforms that hardly fit and work plans that often went wrong were negatives to the program, but the young men kept coming. Communities like Benton that were close to the camps benefited greatly. Bob Maynes recalls that he "spent a very enjoyable year learning road building, dynamiting, operating a bulldozer, climbing trees and telephone poles, and for the last three months, because of my academic high school education, I was promoted to Assistant Educational Officer. We earned a dollar a day, and had to send $22 a month home. Most of us bought canteen books at $2 each with our share of the $8 left." Canteen books were coupon tickets each worth a nickel, which were redeemed in the camp's store and recreation center for candy bars, sodas, soap, toilet sundries and pool-table time.

Enrollees worked hearty and ate hearty and all the time improved acres of federal and state lands and parks. Roads were built, parks were built, telephone lines strung and millions of trees were planted.

The regimented camp life under Army control was new to most enrollees. A typical day began at 6 AM with breakfast at 6:30. Sick call and policing of the camp followed. At 7:15 AM, trucks were loaded with tools and crews of 15 to 20 men, with an experienced foremen from the local community and his assistant, scattered to work on various jobs. Some crews traveled up to two hours to a job site. The lunch break was usually half an hour. The men worked until 4 PM, when the trucks headed back to camp for the flag lowering ceremony, inspection and announcements. After dinner, the men had free time until lights out at 10 PM. Bob Maynes didn't remember whether there was beer available "as I was not a drinking man."

By the end of 1935, over 2,650 Civilian Conservation Corps camps existed in each state of the Union, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Enrollees numbered 505,782. The total of officers, supervisors, educational advisors and administrators brought the total to more than 600,000. Pennsylvania had 113 camps.

The area known as Emmons was located in Davidson Township five miles west of Central on the west branch of the Fishing Creek between Bloody Run and Painter Run. George W. Baum once had a sawmill there and the area was originally called Baumtown. A flood destroyed the mill and the business was abandoned about 1850. A hotel and a general store followed and from the 1880s to 1920 the area was a major lumbering operation, a charcoal plant and a chemical factory making wood alcohol, acetate, acetone and naphtha. Mixing the charcoal and quick lime was a base for smokeless powder and dynamite. A post office remained open in Emmons until 1910 at the time that logging operations in the area ended. The area was essentially a ghost town for 24 years until the decision was made to locate a CCC camp in the sweet-scented ferns and the woods of North Mountain, a very long walk from Jamison City, the original proposed site of the CCC camp, beside the road from Central to Nordmont. Jamison City had been rejected as a site, since alcoholic beverages were sold there.

Camp Morton was much like other CCC camps. Usually, camps had about 200 men, including an army officer and junior officer, camp doctor, educational advisor and the project supervisor. The usual camp had about 24 buildings, including kitchen, mess hall, barracks and quarters for the officers. Many camps began as tent cities, while at Camp Morton the men's living quarters for the four and a half years of its existence were tents with minimal flooring. The officers and those hired to run Camp Morton had wooden buildings in which to sleep.

Most camp commanders were Army Reservists. Bob Maynes remembers that "All of my Dad's second in commands were 1st or 2nd Lieutenants in the Army. In my own experience in New Mexico, we had only Army officers. The men in charge of the work projects were Forestry Department personnel who lived with their families in cabins on the camp property. All of the equipment used was US Forestry Department."

Reforestation, fire protection, and recreation facilities were the major jobs of the CCC in Pennsylvania. The state's parks and forests were greatly improved by the Corps, parks like World's End State Park, built by Camp S-95 in Laporte. S-95, which closed in 1941, built the swimming area and dam, cabins, hiking trails and roads. Other state parks, like Trough Creek State Park and High Knob, owe their existence in part to the CCC.

Helen Gammon remembers that to "provide entertainment and socializing, monthly social dances were held in the recreation hall with invitations to the local residents to join them. They hired very good dance bands for live music. The dates were announced ahead of time so people could plan to attend. They didn't have buses for transportation so the men stood up in the back of the trucks to make any trips."

Helen recalls the first CCC dance she attended as a teenager. Helen's mother's sister, Deborah Peterman Kile, and husband, mailman Walter Kile, lived in Central near the Elk Grove camp. "My mother took me along to visit and would spend days sewing clothing for their family.
Many of the locals planned to attend the dances. I remember both my aunt and mother accompanied us to the dance and remained to listen to the music as did other parents and their daughters. One dance and I was hooked."

Helen's mother had "checked it out" when plans were made to provide transportation by truck to bring girls from the surrounding areas to the CCC camp for the monthly dance. Helen was allowed to go, "and it was FREE! It was one of the only bright spots in that dismal time."

About 6 PM on the evening of the dance, "they sent a large open-bed truck to Berwick to provide transportation for the girls wishing to attend the dances. I don't remember the pick-up point but there were probably 20 girls who were anxious to attend. We stood up in the back of the truck holding on to the wooden sides to maintain our balance. I doubt if the driver drove more than 10 miles an hour at any time. We didn't mind how long it took. We had plenty of time if not money..."

Helen remembers that "We were taken directly to the front door of the recreation room. Most of the boys wishing to dance were already inside waiting for the music to start. Only a few bars of music were played before the floor was filled with couples. That was the time of the Big Band Era when music was really music and not noise. And how some of those boys could dance! The only breaks were when the orchestra stopped for a break. I don't remember any 'wall flowers.' Nearly everyone danced every dance. Lots of good clean fun."

After Auld Lang Syne finished playing and the last dance ended the girls piled back onto the truck for the trip back home to Berwick with lots of chattering and anticipation of the next dance. Helen recalled that "I don't remember hearing of any problems, just a place for us to have a good time for a few hours. Many new good friends were made and romances and marriages followed. It was one of the highlights of my teen years and dancing was one of the things I enjoyed all my life."

The Emergency Conservation Work Act didn't mention either education or training of the CCC ranks, but in 1933 President Roosevelt appointed Clarence S. Marsh as Director of Education. By 1934, education and training both became part of the CCC experience. More than 40,000 enrollees were eventually taught to read and write and did it mostly on their own time. Only in the later years of the program was training given during normal working hours.

From 1933 to 1942, over three million young men enrolled in the CCC, including 250,000 who were enrolled in about 150 all-black CCC companies. Early in the program, some camps were integrated, but the Army and CCC administrators succeeded in getting integrated CCC camps disbanded in July, 1935, holding that "segregation is not discrimination." That rule remained in effect through the remainder of the program.

The national economy was always a problem for President Roosevelt. He tried cutting back the number of camps and enrollees in order to balance the federal budget, but budget reform during the period that the Corps was so popular didn't work. No one wanted camps closed in his area. Both Republicans and Democrats rallied to reverse Roosevelt's policy.

Using official agency figures, the Corps built 3,470 fire towers, 97,000 miles of fire roads, spent 4,235,000 man-days devoted to fighting fires, and planted more than three billion trees.

In 1935, Roosevelt created the WPA (Works Progress Administration) which was similar to the CCC but used local people who lived at their homes rather than in a camp as the CCC group did. Many roads, buildings and bridges were built in Pennsylvania State Parks using WPA people.

A tragedy hit the CCC during a hurricane on Labor Day in 1935 when three CCC camps consisting of 684 veterans on the Florida Keys got caught up in hurricane. The official report listed 44 dead, 238 missing or unidentified dead, and 106 injured.

Many of those joining the CCC organization never had been more than a few miles from their home, few had been beyond the borders of their state. Many never returned, instead choosing to remain near their camps in new communities they soon called home. The men fell in love, married, raised families and put down community roots. For those who did return to their community of their youth, they came a better man than when they left. Many returned home to tell of their experiences, and many more extended their enlistments.

Life in a CCC camp was a six-day a week work routine. Camps came to life after the evening meal was over, when the men kicked back, relaxed and had fun. Each camp had a building that was a combined dayroom, recreation center and canteen. In this building, Ping-Pong and poker, cokes and occasional beers were part of the evening ritual.

Bob Maynes remembers that "The CCC guys around here were lucky. We were hermits in Beaverhead, NM." Bob was 17 years old at the time, and almost died in service to the CCC. He filed this report, "We sent one or two truckloads of men to Silver City every two months or so. Because of the six-hour ride in the hot sun riding benches in the back of Chevy stake body trucks, and a cold six hour ride back leaving about 10 pm the same day, it was hard to find takers."

Bob continues, "After we moved lower down to winter camp in Mimbres, NM, we sent trucks to town every other Saturday night. Still a long haul of more than 8 hours round trip. As I recall, the gals in Silver City crossed to the other side of the street when they saw us. We lived in squad tents in Beaverhead up 'til about mid October when everything froze up and we had to build fires under the D8 Cats in order to warm up the oil enough for the pony gasoline engines to start the main diesel engine. Many a day we started out from camp in tee shirts and dungarees, and by the time we reached the job site a couple of thousand feet higher, we were wearing every available piece of clothing we brought with us. In Mimbres, we lived in barracks heated by a pot-bellied wood stove at each end of the building. We drove those damn cats from Beaverhead down to Mimbres camp. It took almost a week, as there was no such animal as a lowboy to trailer them on."

There were about 25,000 local enlisted men, popularly called LEMs, who trained unskilled enrollees to go from a city life to a life of using an pick and shovel and axe. Bob Maynes recalls that "Many camps did have LEMs who were recruited from the immediate communities and served in the camp. Usually in a camp of 150 or 200 men who came from all over the country, there were four or five LEMs. The LEMs were effective in reducing any fears of the local populace that there were a bunch of roughnecks being dropped in their neighborhood. The other 200 or so were sent from out of the state and had a tough time going AWOL.

Bob Maynes recalls that enlistments were for six months and guys did "Go over the hill." No penalties were attached if the guy made it home, but if he was picked up enroute there, he was returned to camp and stood for a court marshal. The usual sentence was hours of extra duty around camp on weekends. Extra duty was ordered for fights, pranks, insubordination, etc. Bob remembers that he "Had some myself."

FDR tried to make the Civilian Conservation Corps permanent in April, 1937. Congress refused, but extended the CCC as an independent agency for two more years.

In 1939, storm clouds forming over England and France impacted the economy of the United States. Jobs became more plentiful, and interest in and applications for the CCC declined. Also in 1939, the Federal Security Agency (FSA) consolidated several offices, service and boards under one Director. The CCC merged into the new organization and Fechner was told to report to the Director, FSA. Fechner resigned in protest, but later withdrew his resignation. In December of 1939, he had a heart attack and died on New Year's Eve.

The new Director, John T. McEntee, had been Fechner's assistant, but soon got in trouble with Harold Ickes, Department of Interior. The Corps remained popular, but as in 1936, the President tried again to scale back operations, but vote-conscious Congress added $50 million to the CCC's 1940-41 appropriation and kept the 300,000 enrollees.

The era and prestige of the CCC soon was over, however, as the defense of the country moved to the top of the priority list. Unemployment was gone. Some Congressmen called for termination of the Corps and by the summer of 1941 the Corps was in serious trouble with fewer than 200,000 men in about 900 camps. Defense of the nation was top priority following Pearl Harbor. Any federal project not directly associated with the war effort was in trouble and Congress recommended the Civilian Conservation Corps be abolished by July 1, 1942.

The Corps was actually never abolished. In 1942, Congress just didn't fund it. Congress did provide $8 million to liquidate the agency. The full Senate confirmed the action by voice vote and the Civilian Conservation Corps passed into history.

A total of 194,500 Pennsylvania citizens served in the CCC nationwide. The value of the work completed by the CCC nationwide is estimated at $8 billion and it is estimated that "Roosevelt's Tree Army" was responsible for planting an estimated three billion trees from 1933 to 1942.

"The National Civilian Conservation Corps, not a panacea for all the unemployment, but an essential step in this emergency..."
~ President Franklin Roosevelt