CCC AN OBSCURE ALPHABET AGENCY
(Please be aware this post was written in 2004 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
Other than it being one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal era alphabet agencies few people living today know much about the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. Most history books mention it in passing but say little else about it. The agency, however, was one of FDR’s pet projects and one that got him elected in the beginning. It was instrumental in bolstering the economy of the Great Depression and reshaping the agricultural and recreational face of the country.
The intention of the CCC was to end unemployment by putting unemployed young men to work and to repair the land of the nation that had been depleted by over harvesting, neglect and abuse.
It is estimated there were over 4,500 CCC camps in operation in all states and US territories and 505,782 enrollees plus officers, supervisors, educational advisors and administrators employed totaling over 600,000 men. Officers from the U.S. Army were assigned to the CCC to run the camps and the enrollees applied from the ranks of the unemployed to fill rosters.
Through the efforts of the CCC soil erosion was ultimately arrested on over 20 million acres. They collected 13,632,415 pounds of hardwood tree seeds and 875,970 bushels of cones, transplanted 45 million trees and shrubs for landscaping and planted over 3 billion trees where forests were logged and burnt off.
They restored 3,980 historical structures, developed over 800 state parks, surveyed and mapped millions of acres and hundreds on lakes, built 46,854 bridges and 4,622 fish rearing ponds and stocked over one billion fish. The CCC also installed approximately 5,000 miles of water supply and improved 3,462 beaches, built 32,149 wildlife shelters, 1,865 drinking fountains and 204 lodges and museums and built 3,116 fire lookout towers.
A portion of the CCC workers’ paycheck was sent home to their families for subsistence and money spent by the workers near the camps generated economic activity and invigorated the local economy. In addition many of the illiterate men employed by the CCC took classes to learn to read and further educate themselves.
Kathy Mays Smith of Dallas has published a comprehensive history of CCC Company 1538 which operated in Kentucky and West Virginia. The book is dedicated to her father, Col. Charles William Mays, who was the company commander from 1933 through 1936.
While Smith’s book is about Company 1538 it could be considered a case study on CCC in general. Gold Medal CCC Company 1538: A Documentary is a detailed history of CCC, the officers, the enrollees, what the company did for work and play and their interactions with one another and the local people.
The book is available for $43.70 and may be purchased from the author by e-mailing her at kmswrsj@starrunner.net or kmswrsj@ev1.net .
A website for alumni of CCC is located on the Internet at http://www.cccalumni.org/index.html . It contains a lot of interesting facts about the CCC plus links to the CCC alumni websites for every state in the nation and several territories. The website also includes a list of CCC companies in each state listed by federal and by state company number, the post office, the town and the railroad by which they were located.
Readers wishing to obtain the personnel file of a CCC enrollee can write The National Personnel Records Center, Civilian Personal Records, 111 Winnebago St., St. Louis, MO 63118.
FIRST CCC WORKER STATUE IN TEXAS DEDICATED
The first statue in Texas honoring CCC workers will be dedicated at a former CCC campsite, Sunset Bay in Dallas’ White Rock Lake Park at 10 a.m. Saturday April 17. For more information on the site visit http://www.watermelon-kid.com/places/wrl/history/ccc_salute.htm or email Kathy Mays Smith at kmswrsj@starrunner.net or kmswrsj@ev1.net .
RAMBLERS HOLD SEMINAR IN BRYAN
The Texas Research Ramblers will host their 10th annual seminar from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday April 17 in the ELC Building of Blinn College, 2423 Blinn Boulevard, in Bryan .
The seminar will feature three well known speakers. First, Ella Sheffield in her lecture, Is This Really Grandpa Bell?, will show her audience a case study on how to tell if one’s research is correct. Next, I will discuss Anthrogenealogy-Using DNA To Trace Your Family Tree . And last Robert de Bernardinis will discuss the Clayton Library Friend’s Texas Records Microfilming Project and the Clayton Library’s Non-Texas Collection.
Registration, including lunch, is $20 until April 9 when it becomes $25. To register or learn more call Sue Foy at 979-696-4361 or visit the Ramblers website at http://www.sallysfamilyplace.com/Clubs/ramblers.htm .
