Happy Sepia Saturday, folks! This may be the last of the CCC themed posts, as I seem to have culled the best of those images from my Dad’s album. But never fear: I have lots more old family photos to share on upcoming Sepia Saturdays.
As the last in the CCC series, I thought I’d offer a little background information about the Civilian Conservation Corps. It’s almost 70 years since the program was disbanded, so its history has faded—& I’ve been pleased to see that blogmates from other countries have expressed interest in knowing more about the CCC. The information in this post comes from Wikipedia.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, providing vocational training through the performance of useful work related to conservation and development of natural resources in the United States from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the CCC was designed to aid relief of the unemployment resulting from the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on federal, state, county and municipal lands in every U.S. state, including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The CCC became one of the more popular New Deal programs among the general public, providing economic relief, rehabilitation and training for a total of 3 million men. The CCC also provided a comprehensive work program that combined conservation, renewal, awareness and appreciation of the nation's natural resources. The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence. On June 30, 1942 Congress voted to eliminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program.
During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks, forest fire fighting methods were developed and a network of thousands of miles of public roadways and buildings were constructed connecting the nation's public lands.
Hope you enjoy the pictures & the background info on the CCC. Please be sure to visit other Sepia Saturday participants. You can find links to all participating blogs here.Info on the photos:
- Shorty Gentile [R]; John Barbosa [L]; John E Hayes [m]; July 1935, Townsend, Vermont [in my Dad’s handwriting on the back—he would have been 21 at that time]
- The completed stone house
- Walter Mack; Stephan Danko; John E Hayes; Victor Burnett – Hayes’ crew – masonry 1935-36 [again, in my Dad’s writing. I don’t know if this was supposed to read from L to R or R to L, but I can tell you my Dad is second from the left]