New Deal Days: The CCC at Mesa Verde

New Deal Days: The CCC at Mesa Verde by Ronald C. Brown and Duane A. Smith, published by the Durango Herald Small Press in 2006 as part of the Mesa Verde Centennial Series, is a tidy account of the accomplishments of the CCC at Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado.

Although the book is somewhat short, the author’s have wisely chosen to keep their discussion and analysis of the creation and general history of the CCC relatively brief, thus giving over more space for the terrific story of the CCC history at Mesa Verde National Park. After all, most folks who consider picking up a book of this sort will likely have come to understand the situation in the United States in 1933 when the first CCC enrollees arrived at Prater Canyon to occupy a camp that can only accurately be characterized as “rustic.”

Brown and Smith provide wonderful snippets of camp life, drawing on personal accounts from enrollees who were at Mesa Verde as well as official records and camp newspaper accounts of activities. From the rigors of working on a bug crew to swapping out the carburetor jets on the trucks, even seemingly mundane tasks associated with life in the CCC camps are worthy of mention in the text. And, while CCC work was “labor intensive and characteristically unglamorous,” it seems the enrollees could always make time for taking potshots at a bobcat with a “bean shooter” or for dumping a local jail building in the river!

Also noteworthy are the more than 35 photos that illustrate the text as well as the walking tour of CCC projects that is included near the end of the book. (The walking tour was written by Don Ross.) Also, for those with a particular interest in camp architecture, there is a terrific section entitled “Architecture, Design and Construction of CCC Camps at Mesa Verde” written by Susana M. Jones also included in the text.

You can see (and purchase) the New Deal Days at the publisher’s website Here.

Be sure to visit the Mesa Verde Museum Association website.

At roughly 130 pages in length a book of this size leaves you wondering what else there might be to uncover. (For example, what were the exact details regarding the jail and its dip into the river?) Nevertheless, this book is still another required addition for anyone hoping to compile a library of meaningful CCC books and with a cover price that is altogether reasonable, there really isn’t any excuse to pass this one up.

A Mystery From the Bookshelf: Who Was Wendell Young?

Understand from the outset that we may never know exactly who Wendell Young was, or is and in that fact there may be a lesson.

In the course of researching and reading about the Civilian Conservation Corps, I’ve managed to acquire a file cabinet or two full of histories and recollections about the New Deal era and especially the CCC. Some of the most intriguing stories are the ones that have a lot of loose ends to them.

Consider an old copy of the Dupont Blasters Handbook, Ninth Edition from 1938. The copy I have is nearly pristine and still in the box that it was shipped in from the advertising department at Dupont in Wilmington, Delaware. Carefully inked inside the front cover is the following:
Wendell J. Young
CCC Co# 1608
CCC-47257 Camp Tomahawk

The book doesn’t contain another mark of any kind. One wonders if young Wendell used the book for a class or if he simply put it in his footlocker and forgot about it.

The bookseller was evidently selling off lots of items related to Mr. Young’s life and in another group was a collection of photos, presumably of Wendell and family or friends. What I find especially interesting is the significant difference between the photo of Wendell at a family gathering (above) compared to the image of the rough and ready outdoorsman in another photo presumably taken at camp (below).

According to a newspaper clipping that was with the other items, the group eventually ended up in Washington State and it seems this might be where the second photo was taken, but unless someone steps forward with more information, it’s really anyone’s guess.

For now Wendell Young will remain just another of the 3 million or so young men who enrolled in the CCC and perhaps quickly forgot about the experience as they helped win a war, raise a family and toil in relative obscurity, all the while making ours the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

It’s easy enough to say that we’ll never, ever know all there is to know about the 3 million or so young men who enrolled in the CCC between 1933 and 1942 but somehow it’s difficult to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we may never know much about Wendell Young, except that he was once in the CCC, he once owned a Dupont Blaster’s Handbook and someone loved him very much.

You can see a US Government image from Camp Tomahawk HERE.

The Colorado Whoopenhollars: Living a Good Life Despite the Great Depression

If we look deep enough and consider all that was happening during the 1930s, it becomes clear that one of the primary accomplishments – if not a goal stated outright - of the CCC was the preservation of families and family livelihoods.

Remember that enrollees were required to send all but a few dollars of their $30 monthly pay home to their needy family. FDR and his advisors realized that money accumulating in an enrollee’s footlocker, deep in some forest in Arkansas or Colorado, wouldn’t do the economy much good. For thousands of families, that additional $25 meant the difference between paying the rent and being tossed into the street. The allotment sent home by a son meant food on the table.

While we’ll never know every CCC enrollee story, we’ve got a good grasp of camp life and the work that went into insuring that the family received the monthly allotment. But what of those who remained at home while the young enrollee shipped out to work in a park or forest far from home? We have some of that story through the eyes of the enrollees themselves because they’ve often told of how important that monthly allotment was to their parents or loved ones. But what about the families of the men who ran the CCC camps? What about the foremen and supervisors from the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service? What did the creation of the CCC mean to their families?

The Colorado Whoopenhollars, a newly released book offers a glimpse of what it was like to be waiting at home while a father is far away working as a supervisor in the forestry camps of the CCC. The full title of the book is The Colorado Whoopenhollars: Living a Good Life Despite the Great Depression and in it the reader is transported back to a small Colorado town in the 1930s. Through personal recollections, letters and the shared memories and experiences of her four brothers Jean Rutherford Duaine provides a close look at small town life during the Great Depression and just as importantly, she offers an insight into how a father coped with the long months of forestry work that kept him from his wife and small children.

The first section of the book is literally a guided tour of Georgetown, Colorado as the author remembers it from the 1930s. We’re introduced to an extended but tight knit family struggling to look after each other in the midst of a national economic crisis. In addition to siblings, parents, grandparents and uncles, we meet friends and neighbors from town – many of whom are as close as family. Woven through this narrative is the continual longing of a youngster for her daddy, William Rutherford, who is miles and miles away working for the U.S. Forest Service.

The latter portion of the book contains the texts of the letters that Bill Rutherford wrote to his children during his long absences; but these aren’t really just letters, they’re the story of five youngsters – the Whoopenhollar kids (named Billy, Frank, John, Jean and Glenn after Rutherford’s own children) and their hair raising adventures in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. A careful reader will come to realize that a longing for loved ones burned in the heart of both the family at home and the forest ranger working in the forest camp far from home.

Part family history, part historical record, part children’s story, The Colorado Whoopenhollars will appeal to readers of all ages. Moreover, despite the national desperation and hardship of those times, the story is upbeat and full of the author’s love of a special time and place.

While not directly related to the Civilian Conservation Corps, The Colorado Whoopenhollars offers a rare look at how the families of this era coped with the long absences of sons, brothers, husbands and fathers while they were away working in the CCC. More importantly perhaps, the book offers a glimpse at one father’s heart warming effort to remain connected to his kids back home.

For more information visit:

The Official Colorado Whoopenhollar website

Disclaimer:Jean Rutherford Duaine is my mom. I couldn’t be more proud of her for writing this book and my enthusiasm probably makes me a biased source but there you have it.

Phoenix Unveils Arizona's Second CCC Worker Statue, 50th in the United States

The program kicked off shortly after 1 pm, February 21st at the South Mountain Environmental Education Center with opening introductions by park staffers P.J. Conover and Kim Keith. Mr. Conover, Recreation Coordinator and Facilities Manager expressed excitement over both the positive turnout as having both the dedication of the CCC Worker Statue and the formal opening of the Grand Canyon, National Park Service traveling exhibit. Mr. Keith, Park Manager, spoke of his new found appreciation for the CCC, gained as a result of his work at the park, amid so much CCC history.

Mr. Keith then turned the ceremony over to Michael Smith, President of CCC Legacy Chapter 44 based in Phoenix. Mr. Smith welcomed those in attendance, and specifically recognized the CCC veterans in the audience. Smith noted the place that the work and legacy of the CCC has alongside not just the wartime service of the New Deal generation, but also alongside that largely forgotten humanitarian effort, the Berlin Airlift that came so soon after the carnage of the war. Smith noted that no other nation could have turned its efforts so quickly and seamlessly from saving its own youth, to fighting a war across two oceans and then quickly back to saving a former foe in time of crisis, with a compassion that only comes from having suffered yourself.

Smith then introduced Bob Audretsch, recently retired National Park Service ranger from Grand Canyon National Park. Ranger Audretsch helped spearhead the CCC exhibit and symposium at Grand Canyon in 2008 and it was in part due to his effort that that same exhibit has now traveled to South Mountain Park were thousands more visitors will see and enjoy it. Mr. Audretsch presented a detailed and interesting account of the work of the CCC at Grand Canyon along with a history of the national CCC program. Audretsch pointed out that in all the years that the CCC worked at Grand Canyon, not a single enrollee was killed in a work related accident, despite the dangerous nature of their high angle work building trails and improvements in the Canyon and on its rims. Audretsch also alluded to the fact that, in much of the work of the CCC, heroism was an everyday thing. Audretsch then turned the program back over to Kim Keith who asked everyone to file out into the courtyard for the official unveiling of the statue.

With the crowd now gathered around the statue, Michael Smith read a letter from CCC Legacy President Joan Sharpe acknowledging the special day and pointing out that this statue is the 50th such statue to be dedicated in the United States. P.J. Conover then asked Jack Duncan, Vice-President of Chapter 44 to step forward to assist with the unveiling of the statue, which was done to enthusiastic applause. Smith then spoke briefly about the history of the Chapter 44 statue projects and noted that in the case of both of Arizona’s statues – Colossal Cave and South Mountain Park – the primary funding came from CCC veterans, proving the point that if you want a job done, call on a CCC boy. Smith noted specifically the generous contribution from Chapter 44 Vice-President Jack Duncan, whose donation funded the South Mountain statue. Jack Duncan then stepped forward and offered some personal reflections on the legacy of the CCC and specifically the struggle to make certain that the story of the CCC is told honestly and correctly in the future. Jack noted in particular his own effort decades ago as he worked to set a local history teach straight regarding the work of the CCC.

The members of Chapter 44 then stepped forward to have their picture taken with the newly dedicated statue and everyone was asked to stay for refreshments and to view the traveling CCC history exhibit. It is estimated that there were over 100 in attendance for the event.

The staff at South Mountain Park have developed a wonderful web page devoted to the work of the CCC at the park and nationwide. You can access that page here.

Arizona Dedicates Its First Civilian Conservation Corps Worker Statue!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a more enthusiastic group in attendance to celebrate the dedication of Arizona’s first CCC Worker Statue on October 25, 2008.

As always, J.J. Lamb and the staff at Colossal Cave put together a terrific event with a slate of speakers that included historians and researchers, local elected officials as well as a rousing portrayal of President Franklin Roosevelt, remarkably performed by James Goodin.

Colossal Cave’s CCC connection runs deep. To quote the text of the dedication program: “Colossal Cave Mountain Park owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps. From 1934 to 1937 two CCC companies, 0858 and 2851, worked at what is now Colossal Cave Mountain Park…Inside the Cave, they widened passages, established trails, installed handrails and lighting, and enlarged the entrance. Above ground, they constructed the magnificent hewn-limestone retaining wall and headquarters buildings.”

Following remarks by guest speakers, Arizona’s first CCC Worker Statue was unveiled by Gerald Johnson, CCC veteran and Colossal Cave Mountain Park Director Martie Maierhauser. It was Gerald Johnson’s generous initial donation in 2004 that got Arizona’s statue campaign rolling and ultimately, an additional donation from Mr. Johnson insured that the statue would be a reality. It is safe to say that without Gerald Johnson, the statue dedication would not have taken place in this, the 75th anniversary year of the CCC.

The statue will stand near the entrance to the visitor’s center where all who visit the Cave will see him, standing proud, a reminder of a simpler but tougher time in our history when sometimes all you had to show for a day’s work was a new set of blisters.

CCC 75th Anniversary Writing Contest Winners Announced!

The score sheets are in and the results have been tallied! Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy Chapter 44 is pleased to announce the winners of the Civilian Conservation Corps 75th Anniversary Writing Competition. Individual winners will be notified by mail and all entrants will receive an acknowledgement of their work and a token of appreciation from CCC Legacy Chapter 44.

The winners are:

First Place Winner: J. Bankhead
The Civilian Conservation Corps: Important To America Then and Now

Second Place Winner: K. Neithercutt
Civilian Conservation Corps

Third Place Winner: A. Bancod
Civilian Conservation Corps: The Start

First Honorable Mention: T. Zaman
The History of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Second Honorable Mention: K. Kottmer
The Spirit of the CCC

Third Honorable Mention: S. Syed
The Civilian Conservation Corps and Their Effect on Social America

Our thanks go out to all who put forth the effort to research and write a paper on the Civilian Conservation Corps. We hope that through this project some of you may come to a lifelong interest in the history of the CCC and that when the 100th anniversary rolls around in 25 years, you will be the young scholars who write a new page in the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

A special thank you also goes out to Mrs. Nelson at Alhambra Traditional School who has the distinction of having the most students enter the competition. Mrs. Nelson’s effort greatly improved the nature of the competition and brought the story of the CCC to youngsters who might not have otherwise learned about this important New Deal program.
Once the awards are presented, the three winning entries will be published in the quarterly newsletter of CCC Legacy Chapter 44, copies of which will be mailed to the winners.

The Birth of the Civilian Conservation Corps

With our elected officials frequently deadlocked over seemingly petty squabbles that prevent meaningful legislation from being passed, it seems astonishing that the legislation creating the Civilian Conservation Corps sailed through congress in less than three weeks. The seeds of a work relief program with a focus on conservation of both young lives and natural resources were alive in Franklin Roosevelt's mind years before his inauguration as president. Indeed the following timeline outlining the first significant events leading up to the creation of the CCC on March 31, 1933 dates back as early as 1910. For an outstanding account of not only the creation of the CCC but numerous aspects of its operation between 1933 and 1942, see John Salmond's book The Civilian Conservation Corps 1933-1942: A New Deal Case Study. In the meantime, here's a quick thumbnail sketch of the birth of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

1910
Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes over the family estate at Hyde Park and immediately begins a reforestation effort.

1931
Roosevelt sponsors an amendment to the New York constitution giving the state government authority to acquire and reforest marginal lands with funds created from the sale of bonds.

1932
Roosevelt adapts a reforestation program for use in unemployment relief.

July 2
In accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, Roosevelt proclaims that he has, “a very definite program for providing employment…,” through the establishment of a conservation program.

1933

January
James Couzens, a Republican senator from Michigan fails in his attempt to pass a Senate bill authorizing the use of the Army for unemployment relief. Though a failed effort, Couzens’ measure introduces the concept of military involvement in relief efforts.

March 9
Meeting with advisors, including the Secretaries of the interior, agriculture, and war FDR diagrams his plan to put 500,000 men to work on conservation-related projects. He asks them to prepare draft legislation, requesting they complete the task by days end. Roosevelt is given a draft document at 9 that evening and further discussion is conducted immediately.

March 14
Roosevelt sends a memorandum to the secretaries of war, interior, labor and agriculture, asking them to form “an informal committee of the Cabinet to co-ordinate the plans for the proposed Civilian Conservation Corps.”

March 15
At his third press conference since being inaugurated president, Roosevelt expounds on the proposed forestry work program, including the proposed wage of $1 a day. Roosevelt explains that swift action on the matter is a foregone conclusion.

March 21
Roosevelt’s message concerning the “Relief of Unemployment” is sent to the Congress. In this message Roosevelt outlined a three-pronged attack on the problem, with the first effort being, “the enrollment of workers now by the Federal Government for such public employment as can be quickly started and will not interfere with the demand for, or the proper standards of, normal employment.”

More specifically, Roosevelt uttered what may be the most often quoted phrase in connection with the Civilian Conservation Corps:
I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I estimate that 250,000 men can be given temporary employment by early summer if you give me authority to proceed within two weeks.
Roosevelt went on to state:
More important will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans who are walking the streets and receiving private or public relief would infinitely prefer to work. We can take a vast army of these unemployed out into healthful surroundings.

Following the President’s message at bill entitled “The Relief of Unemployment Through the Performance of Useful Public Work and for other Purposes” was introduced into both the Senate and the House.

Labor leaders quickly condemn the plan for its wage and recruitment provisions and because of the involvement of the Army.

March 22
Roosevelt calls members of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, and the House Committee on Labor to the White House where he explains his CCC plan in more detail and attempts to allay the fears expressed by organized labor and members of the Socialist party.

March 23-24
Joint Senate and House hearings begin in an atmosphere of cooperation possibly due to Roosevelt’s evening meeting at the White House the night before. Presiding over the hearings is Senator David I. Walsh, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor. Walsh prods the proceedings forward in an effort to adhere to Roosevelt’s stated desire.

Among those testifying at the Joint hearing is Chief forester Major Stuart who testified at length regarding the need for forest workers. Stuart also makes a successful bid to broaden the program’s scope of work to include not just national forests but also state and private forests. Without such a change, Stuart argues, there will have to be a transfer of men from east of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountain region where 95 percent of the public domain is situated. (With 70 percent of the unemployment located east of the Mississippi, it didn’t make sense to transport men westward to give them work.)
Secretary of Labor, Miss Frances Perkins also stresses the programs aim of work relief when questioned about the proposed $1 a day wage for enrollees. She explains that most of the workers are expected to be young, single men and that the CCC should not be viewed “in the sense of providing real wage-producing employment.”

Army chief of staff, General Douglas MacArthur testifies that there will be “no military training whatsoever,” with the military restricting its participation to gathering the men selected by the Department of Labor, outfitting the men, giving the men a physical examination and physical conditioning before transporting them to their camps where they would be turned over to the Department of Agriculture.

The next witness is William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor. Green attacks the program on three points: regimentation of labor, low wages and funding. To Green the mandatory allotment and the involvement of the military “smacked of fascism, Hitlerism, of a form of Sovietism…” Green argues that the CCC wage of $1 a day would establish that as the national wage for workers. Other labor representatives also testify and the hearing adjourns on a far less optimistic note than it convened.

March 27
An amended S. 598 is reintroduced into the Senate. In response to the objections raised by labor, it was agreed that the focus should be on the two aspects of the program for which there were no objections from any side: the chance to perform forestry work as a means of relieving unemployment and the use of unobligated funds to pay for the program. The re-submitted bill merely authorized the President to work in the public domain, perform reforestation and employ unemployed citizens to perform the work.

In the House opposition to the bill is more robust and broad based. Despite indications from labor leaders that the $30 monthly wage would not be contested, an effort was launched to set the pay scale at $50 a month for single enrollees and $80 a month for married enrollees.

March 28
The senate bill is passed by voice vote over dwindling opposition, with minor amendments and in part because of the continuing efforts of Senator Walsh.

March 29
The House considers the bill amended and passed by the Senate on March 28th. Representative Connery stood to protest the proposed wage and dramatically announced that once again, labor leaders had again changed their position and now opposed the bill. Still another faction stood to argue that the measure imparted nearly dictatorial powers on the president and would lead a majority of the population believing that “it is the Government’s duty to put them on the pay roll.”

Nevertheless, the intent of the bill receives wide support in the House, with many recognizing it as focusing on relief of unemployment, not wage control. Representative Thomas G. Cochran of Missouri, stated that he disliked many of Roosevelt’s proposals, but admitting that “…I do like the way the President of the U.S. is trying to meet this emergency…”

Like Senator Walsh in the senate, Representative Robert Ramspeck, a Democrat from Georgia, carries the torch for the bill in the House, emphasizing the emergency nature of the legislation and its important relief function.

Connery’s proposal to set the monthly wage at $50 fails, along with a last minute effort by Republicans to delay proceedings on a point of order. Only three amendments are adopted, including that proposed by Representative Oscar De Priest, a Republican from Illinois and the sole African-American Congressman. De Priest proposed “that no discrimination shall be made on account of race, color, or creed…under the provisions of this Act.”

The bill is passed by a voice vote.

March 30
The Senate accepts the House amendments to the bill and it is forwarded to the President.

March 31
President Roosevelt signs into law the legislation creating the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) program.

April 17
First CCC camp is established in the George Washington National Forest in Virginia.

In an article titled “Rizzo Goes To Work,” Time magazine reports that a week earlier, 19 year old Fiore Rizzo reported to the Army Building in downtown Manhattan and reported for duty as the first CCC enrollee.