The Land We Cared For... A History of the Forest Service's Eastern Region

One of the most effective and popular New Deal programs to combat unemployment in the Great Depression was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was also a new kind of program for the Forest Service, one which profoundly affected its purpose and development.

Beginnings of the CCC

"The Forest Army," "Soil Soldiers," "The Woodpecker War," these were some of the titles given to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) created by Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately upon being inaugurated President of the United States in 1933. The idea of using young people to work in the woods was not original with FDR, but it was one of the most radical national programs ever implemented by any President of the United States. The Forest Service in both California and Washington, in cooperation with state and local agencies, had already organized teams of unemployed people to work under relief concepts that the CCC was proposing. In other countries, such as Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Austria, and the Netherlands, such programs for the unemployed had also been developed. The most controversial international model was the German Labor Service, originally created by the Weimar Republic to check unemployment in the cities. Like the CCC, the German Labor Service was voluntary and open to six month enlistment periods, but under Adolph Hitler it became an essential wing of the Nazi propaganda machine. [1]

President Roosevelt was aware of these programs. As Governor of New York in 1932 he had developed an unemployment program which took 10,000 people off relief rolls by putting them to work planting trees. In his acceptance speech to the Democratic Convention, Roosevelt had alluded to a million man conservation work force necessary in the immediate future. [2] In March 1933, one-quarter of the work force of the United States was unemployed, an estimated 13.6 million men and women. It had become painfully obvious to the entire population that our country's people and our land were being shamefully wasted. [3]

Two days after taking office in the spring of 1933, Roosevelt called a meeting of the Secretaries of War, Agriculture, and Interior, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, the Judge Advocate General of the Army, and the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior. [4] They designed a bill for the establishment of Emergency Conservation Work, later called Civilian Conservation Corps. The goal was to put a 250,000 young men and World War I veterans to work by early summer building dams, draining marshlands, fighting forest fires, and planting trees. Congress pushed the measure through in 10 days by voice vote. [5]

On April 10 the first quota of 25,000 men was called, and on April 17, the first camp, Camp Roosevelt, in the George Washington National Forest near Luray, Virginia, was occupied. [6] Gerald S. Wheeler was appointed administrator. Recruitment for Camp Roosevelt as well as all future camps was done by the Department of Labor. Transportation, camp construction and management was the responsibility of the Army. The Departments of Agriculture and Interior cooperated with the State Department of Forests and Parks to both select camp sites and coordinate work projects.

The first job at Camp Roosevelt was to construct buildings. Until barracks were completed at all of the camps, the men slept in tents and ate their meals outdoors. When Regional Forester Joseph C. Kircher visited Camp Roosevelt in its first weeks of operation, he found that the men had experienced some "rough" days in camp because it had rained almost constantly since they arrived. Kircher reported that their spirits were high, and they were getting the Camp into shape. [7]

By June 29, 1933 the Forest Service had 529 CCC camps approved, 115 had been manned in the preceding week for a total of 523 already manned. The states had 292 established, private organizations had 179 and the National Park Service had 62 camps in operation. Of the 1,196 camps already set up, the Forest Service had almost half of all the CCC programs. Of the 523 Forest Service camps established by this early date, 103 were located in Region 7 and 56 were in Region 9. [8]

Forest Service Administration of CCC Projects

Several months later two high ranking Forest Service officials were in Robert Fechner's (CCC Director) office when a telephone call came, asking if the Forest Service could handle administering the work of an additional 4 million men. The Forest Service men were aghast at such a figure. They replied that the Forest Service and the Park Service could accommodate no more than an additional 500,000.

Later the Forest Service leaders attended a meeting at the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). They were told by Harry Hopkins, head of the FERA, that it was the President's desire to put men to work and take them off relief rolls. The idea was to put them to types of work which would not compete with private employment. Thereupon the Forest Service sent telegrams to the Regional Foresters, asking them to supply by November 13, 1933 estimates of how many men they could employ. By now, the leadership had decided to come to terms with the extraordinary conditions of the Great Depression and the New Deal. "To put 4 million men to work and keep them employed until February will tax our resources and those of the states to the limit," they admitted, but they determined that "the Service should do its utmost to accomplish the objective." [9]

The leadership of the Forest Service had to change their way of thinking in order to cope with the newly forming CCC. Before, they had hired experienced men to work in the forest. The primary concern was getting the most labor for the least money. Now they had to plan work for men who may have never been in a forest before. They had to think about training and even rehabilitating young men whose families were on relief and who often had no qualifications except their need for a job. The Forest Service had to recognize that the CCC was a plan for the relief of men, particularly city men, and "not a case of getting the best labor we can get for $30.00 a month and subsistence." [10] Instead, the leaders of the Forest Service had to understand their humanitarian roll in restoring among the enrollees self confidence and faith in the future through worthwhile work. [11]

At the beginning, the Forest Service adopted the name "Emergency Conservation Work" (ECW) for the CCC activities in the National Forests. The White House instructed the Army to contact the Regional Foresters for the purpose of planning the location of the CCC camps. Forest Service personnel also agreed to be instrumental in the educational program at the camps, at least to teach enrollees the rudiments of forestry. The Forest Service's primary duty however, was to train the enrollees as a work force in the Forests. Some Forest Service leaders disapproved of using men to build highways remote from Forest lands, to work on major flood control, to work on fish and wildlife projects, or to work on private land. Some also gave considerable thought to the plight of unemployed men who lived near the National Forests or who normally had made part or all of their living on the Forests. Not wanting to create a situation where newly hired city men would march past the homes of unemployed local men to go to work for the CCC they decided to employ local men at each camp in supervisory capacities wherever practicable. Often these men became more or less permanent employees of the camps. Usually they did not live at the camps but went home at night to their families. [12]

CCC Camps in Regions 9 and 7

The second CCC camp in the country opened on the Allegheny National Forest. These newest enrollees came to the Forest from Pittsburgh, the hard coal region around Scranton, south Philadelphia, and the deep South. They were immediately put to work planting 781 acres of burned and cut-over land with a blanket of trees, establishing the first CCC plantation in the U.S. at Duhring, Pennsylvania. Eventually, 14 camps were built throughout the Allegheny. Because of the excess of deer in these early years, planting could not be done on a large scale until the deer herds were reduced by hunting. [13]

Each of the National Forests in Regions 9 and 7 had CCC camps located within its boundaries. On the Chippewa National Forest there were 23 CCC camps supervised by Forest Service personnel. All of the camp buildings have since been moved or leveled except those at Camp Rabideau where the original structures still stand. This historic camp has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and is under going restoration for adaptive use.

Art Schafer, technical supervisor for the CCC camps on the Munising and Manistique Districts of the Hiawatha National Forest until 1941, describes the camp arrangement after barracks were built to replace the tents. The barracks were "cheap, just Celotex, tarpaper and no insulation. They had barrel stoves for heat, and 30 to 40 of the boys slept in cots in each barrack. Each camp had five barracks, each about 20 feet wide and 100 feet long. There was also a mess hall, bath house, and buildings for the Forest Service and the Army personnel. There was a garage and repair shop, tool shops; and they had their own well and elevated water tanks." After 1942 Schafer was the man in charge of auctioning off the camps—everything from oil barrels to barracks and sheds. [14] Camps on the Hiawatha in the West Unit were at Chatham, Au Train, Wyman, Evelyn, Kentucky, McComb, Dukes, Steuben, Cooks, Polack Lake, Morman Creek, Sandstrom, and Garth. On the East Unit camps were placed at Raco, Strongs, Paradise, Moran, Round Lake, Kenneth, Rexton, Trout Lake, Pine River-Ewald, Eckerman, and Brevoort. Also on the Hiawatha were two National Industrial Recovery Act camps run completely by the Forest Service, at Pole Lake and at Kilpecker Creek. These were comprised of local men who went home on weekends. Camp Marquette, on the Hiawatha, located south of Paradise, was an all Indian CCC camp.

The Monongahela had as many as 12 camps operating at one time at Davis, Alpena, Parsons, Glady, Circleville, Thornwood, Elkins, Leadmine, North Fork, Richwood, Cranberry, Black Mountain, Cowen, Frost, Anthony, Minnehaha Springs, Onego, Hutton, Cheat-Durbin, Scott, and Petersburg. Two camps were located on the George Washington National Forest. [15]

There were 17 permanent CCC camps on the White Mountain National Forest. After establishing their campsites, the men constructed ski and hiking trails, high country shelters, roads, campgrounds and parking areas. Where there was only a foot trail before, the CCC built the road through Evan's Notch. The planting of new trees was not as necessary on the White Mountain as it was in the 1930's on other National Forests. The lasting impact of the CCC camps in the New England National Forests may be seen today as it is on other Forests in the Eastern Region. The CCC work was considerable, and their salvaging efforts after the 1938 hurricane were essential and saved millions of board feet of timber from being wasted after the blow down. [16]

CCC camps supervised by the Forest Service on the Shawnee National Forest were Camps Dry Hill, Kedron, Hutchins, Simpson, Eddyville, Cadiz, Hicks, Delta, Tamms, and Pomona (an all-black enrollee camp). Men from these camps were instrumental in the relief and clean up work required by the 1937 Ohio River flood disaster.

The CCC Company at Tell City, Indiana on the Hoosier National Forest was also involved in the 1937 flood relief work. Some 30 Corpsmen with trucks evacuated the entire town of Leavenworth in three days of ice and sleeting weather conditions. CCC men from both Indiana and Illinois sandbagged levees, built refugee camps carried mail in CCC trucks, provided short-wave radio communication, and saved thousands of board feet of cut logs by removing them from the flooding banks. [17]

There were 11 CCC camps on the Huron National Forest and 25 on the Manistee National Forest. The Manistee men built the Chittenden Nursery at Wellston to supply seedlings for planting. In 1939 there were seven camps on the Ottawa National Forest: Camp Gogebic, Camp Bonifas, Camp Paulding, Camp James Lake, Gibbs Camp, Camp Sidnaw and Pori Camp. [18]

The first CCC enrollees on the Chequamegon National Forest came from Milwaukee. There were CCC men at Camp Brinks, Camp Horseshoe, Two Lakes, Delta, Pigeon Lake, Drummond, Taylor Lake, Mineral Lake, Morse, Moose River, Clam Lake, Beaver, Ghost Creek, Loretta, Riley Creek, Sailor Creek, Sheep Ranch, Jump River, Mondeaux, and Perkinstown. [19] The Forest Service organized and supervised the work at each camp through a superintendent, three to four construction foremen, and two to three subforemen, some being Local Experienced Men (LEMs). At the peak of the program, the Nicolet National Forest had 22 camps. The first being Nine Mile Camp established in April 1933. The Nicolet also had a National Industrial Recovery Act camp (NIRA) near the historical site of the Jones Logging Company Camp. For about one year the NIRA camp was in operation clearing roads, improving timber stands and constructing campgrounds. Also on the Nicolet was a camp cooperatively managed by the State of Wisconsin and the Forest Service, Camp Imogene. The Camp first housed state prisoners, then the state's transient population. These men constructed campgrounds and cleared the right-of-way for State Highway 70.

A significant legacy of the Nicolet CCC is the Trees for Tomorrow Environmental Center which they built near the town of Eagle River. Until 1942 the Center was used as a training facility for Eastern Region National Forest managers. In 1946 the property was provided to Trees for Tomorrow, Inc. under a special use permit. According to one historian of the Nicolet, "The corporation represents a unique example of cooperation between federal and state governments and private industry." The Center was used to conduct proper resource management training during World War II for federal and state land managers, as well as small landowners. Today the Center, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, offers year-round programs on such subjects as winter ecology, outdoor sports, safety, environmental education training, orienteering and survival skills. [20]

The Work of CCC

The 1938 Hurricane

On September 21, 1938, a devastating hurricane came up the Atlantic Coast, up the Connecticut River inland and back out. In a few hours this storm blew down an estimated 175 million board feet of merchantable timber. Thousands of acres of timber were completely ruined. The Forest Service was assigned the supervisory responsibility of clean up and hazard reduction for all of New England. Ken Sutherland asserts that "this is one of the most outstanding jobs that was ever done by a federal organization and by the U. S. Forest Service." In Massachusetts where there is no Forest Service, almost every pond of five acres or more had logs dumped in them to store them until they could be sawed into lumber. Many of the barracks of World War II soldiers were made out of this lumber. In order to manage the task, the Forest Service detailed hundreds of people from National Forests across the country. [21]

Timber Stand Improvement

Regional Forester Jay H. Price described the Chequamegon and the Nicolet National Forests when he first saw them in 1937 as "sorry sights indeed." The evidence of old burns were everywhere and aspen was coming up. The plantings done by CCC were still hidden by fireweed. [22] The CCC work in timber stand improvement included planting seedlings, gathering seeds to produce nursery stock, and in all ways encouraging desirable trees to grow. For example, in 1937 over 7 million trees and 35 bushels of seeds were planted on the Chequamegon by the CCC. [23]

The first planting on the Shawnee National Forest was done by CCC crews in April 1934. Many of these early plantings failed because inappropriate species were used. As soon as it could, the Forest changed to other species: chiefly shortleaf pine, black locust and loblolly pine. The spring of 1941 was the peak of the planting activity when 8,000 acres were planted by 600 WPA laborers, 100 CCC workers, and 100 hired men. [24]

During 1933 and 1934 nearly 8,000 acres on the Ottawa National Forest were treated for timber stand improvement by the CCC. [25] The Federation of Women's Clubs worked cooperatively with the Forest Service through the CCC on a variety of projects. One was an idea for Memorial Forests which first originated in Wisconsin but quickly spread to all states. During the Depression years in Indiana a 175 acre pine plantation, the Claypool Memorial Forest, was funded by the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs. [26]

On the Huron and Manistee National Forests, the CCC planted thousands of acres of red pine. Today the Huron-Manistee have 14% of the red pine in the Lake States and 45% of all the red pine in the state of Michigan. [27] Millions of grasshoppers descended on the Manistee in 1936. On one 160 acre plantation of the Cadillac Ranger District foresters estimated there were at least 37,840,000 grasshoppers. CCC enrollees mixed 350 tons of arsenic-laced bait and applied it to thousands of acres effectively killing most of the insects. [28]

On the Allegheny National Forest, the CCC crews waged a "porcupine war" by poisoning the animals which killed many of the valuable black cherry, yellow poplar and hemlock, by girdling them. On the Chequamegon National Forest snowshoe hares had to be controlled, as they were notorious for chewing new bark off tender seedlings. [29]

The CCC crews gathered seeds which were sent to various nurseries. The Toumey Nursery at Watersweet, Michigan was established, named for Professor James W. Toumey of the Yale School of Forestry. In the Spring of 1935 some 8 million red pine and 10 million jack pine were produced. Seedlings were sent to the Ottawa, Nicolet, and Chequamegon National Forests in the North Central Region (Region 9). [30]

In 1937 the Cass Lake Seed Extractory in Minnesota was built. Thousands of bushels of seeds were collected and shipped (with Clarke-McNary Cooperative Funds) to almost every state in the East (80-85% Norway pine and 15-20% white pine). [31] The CCC men learned to use double-bit axes to fell or girdle undesirable trees, usually red maple, beech, black birch, pin cherry and aspen on the Allegheny National Forest. Black cherry, sugar maple, red oak, white ash, cucumber, yellow poplar, basswood, beech and hemlock were selected by trained foresters for retention as the crop trees. The hardwood stands were thinned to reach maximum productivity. [32]

Wildlife Management

The Forest Service used CCC crews in their wildlife management programs. The enrollees built wildlife ponds, established clearings, built artificial nest sites for waterfowl, and stocked ponds and waterways. They released beaver, turkey, quail, deer and other wild animals and birds. On the Allegheny a U. S. Fish Cultural Station was built in 1941 by the CCC. From 17,000 to 20,000 pounds of fish were raised annually to legal size then stocked in streams within the boundaries of the National Forest. [33]

Construction

The CCC did a vast amount of construction work on each of the National Forests in Regions 7 & 9. They build picnic shelters and tables, fire towers, camp buildings, lodges, Forest Service headquarters, roads, bridges, dams, to name only a few. Road construction was one type of project that lent itself to putting many men to work in a short time. Since the National Forests were badly in need of roads, much of the CCC effort was put there.

In 1938 a repair depot to maintain the Monongahela National Forest CCC heavy equipment was built at Elkins. The depot and another service building were taken over from the CCC by the War Department in 1942 and then transferred back to the Monongahela. [34]

The construction of the Chippewa National Forest Supervisor's Office was initially planned in 1934. First a 100 foot untreated redwood fire lookout tower was built. A log archway was constructed at the entrance and large elm trees were sledded in to landscape the site. Red pines were selected from the areas of Star Island and Lake 13 by CCC personnel. Al Nelson and Ike Boekenoogen were construction foreman. Several local Finnish log workers provided the expertise which guided the CCC and WPA men on the project. In March 1936 the staffs of the Supervisor and Cass Lake District Ranger moved into this 27 room office building.

Recreation Areas and Facilities

It was not until the CCC were put to work on the National Forests that any substantial progress was made in the development of recreation areas in the Eastern and North Central Regions. On the Hoosier National Forest, the CCC built the German Ridge Recreation Area. On the Green Mountain National Forest, the Corpsmen constructed 119,227 square yards of parking area and parking overlooks and built Hapgood Pond.

On the Allegheny National Forest in 1937, it was estimated that 6,500 picnickers and campers had been using the forest facilities annually. Ten years later the figure was up to 150,000. [35] The Nicolet National Forest is one of the many National Forests in the 1980's still using campground facilities built by the CCC. [36]

Education Programs

The CCC announced in 1940 that the educational programs carried on in CCC camps had succeeded in teaching 80,000 young men to read. Their figures showed that three of every 100 enrollees in the Corps were functionally illiterate when they enlisted. The Corps had devised special readers designed for young men rather than children. Camp instructors had been able to teach their students to read newspapers and write ordinary letters within three months. [37]

In reaction to this news, the Springfield Daily News of Springfield, Missouri, said that it was a national embarrassment that 80,000 young men could "slip through the educational system without getting the most elementary preparation for life—the ability to read and write." The newspaper commended the CCC for its literacy work and commented. "Better late than never. . .the CCC thus sets another feather firmly in its cap." [38]

Control of CCC Camps and Work Projects

There were serious problems between the U.S. Army, who had control of CCC camps, and the Forest Service, who provided the work for camps located on National Forest or state forest lands. In 1940, after years of contending with the problems, a meeting was held in Milwaukee offices of Region 9 with Army personnel, Forest Service and Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) officials. Included among the latter were some educational officers. The purpose of the meeting was to work out solutions and coordinate directives to be sent out by the Army and the Forest Service to CCC camps. The conference agreed to standardize the courses of instruction so that the same skills would be taught in all camps. [39]

State Cooperation with the Forest Service and the CCC

President Roosevelt was well known for taking an interest in the detailed workings of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In early 1937 Director Robert Fechner received a note from the President inquiring as to the provisions that the states had made to maintain and use the physical improvements constructed by the ECW. The original arrangement was that improvements made by the CCC on state and private lands would be cooperatively maintained and that certain profits derived from the sale of products resulting from CCC activities would be divided 50/50 between the state and federal government. The Washington Office of the Forest Service periodically checked compliance. Regional Foresters were instructed to inquire of state conservation commissions what their plans were for supervision, maintenance, and use of ECW improvements. When the inquiries were sent in Region 9, the responses from the states were standard bureaucratic fare. Most states had taken some measures to maintain the ECW improvements, but much of it seemed to be only on paper.

Neither Fechner nor Roosevelt were satisfied, so Fechner wrote to the governors stating that no further CCC activity would take place on lands other than federally owned ones unless the state of the political unit made adequate provision for maintenance, supervision, and use of the projects to be constructed. In a separate letter, the President held out the bait of new projects to the Governors, stating that many camps had already completed their approved work projects. "It will naturally follow that those states which show a proper concern for their part in this cooperative work with the federal government will be entitled to receive first consideration." The President asked that the information be sent to Robert Fechner on what each state had done or would agree to do. [40]

In early March of 1937, Regional Forester Lyle F. Watts of Region 9 reported to Fechner that the states in Region 9 had what he called a "very healthy attitude" and had every intention of maintaining the ECW improvements. His analysis was that all of the state departments of conservation had received large appropriations from their legislatures. In addition, the sale of hunting and fishing licenses would yield the money to maintain the improvements on their state lands. It was true, he wrote, that the ECW camps were doing a lot of the maintenance that was done on state lands, but the Regional Forester argued that it was useful conservation work. He believed that all the states were embarking on a more ambitious conservation program. [41]

President Roosevelt's initiative drew significant results. Wisconsin Governor Philip LaFollette reported spending far more than the $30,000 a year minimum set by the Forest Service. [42] Governor LaFollette also contacted Regional Forester Lyle F. Watts and requested that he contact the State Conservation Department in order to coordinate future CCC projects.

Minnesota was a different story. The amount the Forest Service estimated was $25,000 a year and since Minnesota had appropriated only $14,000, Fechner wrote Governor Elmer Benson suggesting he review the situation, giving no assurances of continuing the program in that state. [43]

Forest Service Inspections

The Forest Service periodically sent out inspectors into the CCC camps. In general, they checked to make sure that the offices were well organized and that the daily diaries were kept. The inspectors were also asked to rate the personal relations with the Army, the cooperation given by the Army, and the cooperation given to the Army, the general condition of the camp, whether there was a comprehensive camp plan, how the crews were organized, whether the educational work was being done, whether the tool supply was adequate, the condition of the vehicles and fire equipment, and the health of the men.

From an inspection report of Camp Sawyer on the Chequamegon National Forest we learn that it had 210 men with an average of 29 work details per day during the past week. The Camp turned over an average of 80% of its enrollees to the Forest Service for work during the week of the inspection. [44]

On an inspection tour of camps in Missouri, specifically at Indian Trail Camp, an inspector found that more truck trails than were needed were being built and that plans for timber stand improvement in this particular area were not necessary because it was primarily a game reserve. He also observed that hundreds of cords of wood had been piled up as products of the work, and he suggested that this be sold. He had a number of suggestions about personnel, in several cases that the employees be fired. [45]

Even in Iowa, where there were no National Forests, the Forest Service had the responsibility of inspecting the forestry work being done at the CCC camps. In 1940, Joseph F. Kaylor, a federal inspector, completed a four-state inspection of state CCC camps. He reported that generally the newly inaugurated system of dividing the work of the camps into the same divisions as existed in the state department of conservation was working well. Approximately 10% of the work was being done on fish, 14% on game, 50% for reforestation, 22% on field administration, and 4% for miscellaneous work such as geology and land projects. The camps were making rapid strides in fire protection, erecting towers and towerman dwellings, and extending telephone lines. Increased work opportunities were being provided in Indiana due to a land acquisition program on a number of state forest units. In Ohio the news was the possibility of forming a planning council to guide state CCC work programs. [46]

In 1936 Robert Fechner made a personal tour of inspection of CCC camps on National Forests in the Lake States area. He took two Sundays off to go fishing in some of the rivers and lakes of the forests, and for years after a photograph of him with a good stringer of fish hung on the wall of the Region 9 offices in Milwaukee. In 1940, when Fechner died, the Daily Contact expressed "considerable sadness" at his passing. [47]

CCC Accomplishments

A typical CCC camp, such as the one at Tell City, Indiana on the Hoosier National Forest, was in operation for six years. Total strength of the company was less than 250 men. Within its six years the company built 14 buildings, 3.5 miles of road and 75 miles of telephone line. They had planted 1.5 million trees on 1,500 acres, cut 2,000 posts, built three lookout towers, and completed several hundred acres of erosion control work. They dug six game ponds, fought many forest fires, quarried and crushed 13,000 yards of stone, built a new recreation center, constructed a dam for a small lake, searched for lost children, and assisted in other emergency rescue work. [48]

As a result of the great use made by the CCCs in local and national emergencies and the obvious benefits to the unemployed and the land, there continued through the end of the 1930's strong bipartisan support for the program. "The removal of a CCC camp from a constituency could spell political trouble for the incumbent in an election." [49] In Washington, however, officials were constantly arguing over the CCC program and its general purpose. Army personnel and investigators were told to watch in the camps for "communist" activities. Others fearing fascism, worried about the Army's growing militarization of the camps. [50] As trouble brewed abroad in the 1930's, the voices of those such as General Douglas MacArthur grew louder in their appeals to use the CCC as a reservoir of military strength. [51] When World War II came, many men did leave the CCC to enlist in the regular military. But the Corps remained as it began, committed to two principal objectives: the relief of unemployment and the accomplishment of useful conservation work. [52]

The CCC was an extremely popular program. The benefits to the local area economies were profound. It has been estimated that nearly $5,000 per month was spent by each camp in the local market. On the Monongahela National Forest, for example, 45,000 pounds of potatoes were purchased monthly from local farmers and miles of bread loaves were eaten each month (17.1 miles if placed end to end). Furthermore, $15,000 to $17,000 per camp was spent on the building of each of the camps. Much of this work was done by local labor. [53]

Final Days

President Roosevelt issued in 1940 a summary of what the CCC had done since its inception. In addition to obtaining the advantages of "security, discipline and a well ordered life," the President said, "these youngsters"' had accomplished the following: 1.7 billion trees planted, 100,000 miles of trails and roads built, 75,000 miles of telephone lines laid, and 5 million man-days of fighting fires. [54] In 1940 Forest Ranger Thomas "Buck" E. Roberts of the Kenton Ranger Station on the Ottawa National Forest noted that whenever he came upon a well managed farm in his District, it was almost a sure thing that the farm owner had a son who had been in the CCC and who was carrying out the forestry practices he had learned there. [55]

After Robert Fechner's death on January 1, 1940, James D. McEntee, who had been the Assistant Director since 1933 became Director. McEntee was not as forceful as his predecessor, and the CCC was already experiencing problems mainly due to international events. After Hitler invaded Poland and overran Western Europe, the U.S. economy gained strength through military spending. Unemployment declined dramatically. The most enthusiastic of the unemployed were not entering the CCC any longer and many of its leaders were also returning to regular life in the Army.

Enrollment in the CCC dropped from 300,000 to 160,000 in the year 1941. Hundreds of camps closed as jobs became more plentiful and recruitment into the Corps more difficult to fulfill. After December 7, 1941, the CCC offered all its camps to the Army for work on military projects, and to the American Red Cross it offered help with War emergencies. [56] In its nine year history the CCC did an impressive amount of work, particularly on the National Forests, for a relatively small cost of approximately $1,000 per year for each enrollee. [57]

On July 1, 1942 the Assistant Chief of the Forest Service, Fred Morrell, sent telegrams to all Regional Foresters stating that Congress had passed a bill liquidating the CCC: "The War Department will take over all camps and CCC property. All CCC employees were to be furloughed or terminated as soon as their services were not required to supervise enrollees, guard vacant camps, or to handle property and reports." The Regional Office of Region 9 sent out orders to all camps to concentrate efforts while employees were available on cleaning up, assembling, and storing equipment and leaving projects in the best possible shape. These instructions went to all National Forest Supervisors.

Summary

The work done in the National Forests by the CCC advanced the cause of conservation efforts by many years. The men saved millions of acres of forest and crop land that were in danger of being lost forever. It has been often said by Forest Service officials that more was accomplished by the CCC in those years to develop the National Forests and their various potentials than had been accomplished since the establishment of the Forest Service. [58] But just as important were the cultural and spiritual lessons the forest and conservation work taught American men. These benefits to the United States are incalculable.

Reference Notes

1. Leslie Alexander Lacy, The Soil Soldiers, The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Great Depression (Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Co., 1976), pp. 17-18.

2. Harold K. Steen, The U. S. Forest Service: A History (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), p. 214.

3. Stan Cohen, The Tree Army: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps 1933-1942 (Missoula, Montana, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1980), p. 158.

4. Ibid., p. 7.

5. James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1956), p. 169.

6. USDA Forest Service, Highlights in the History of Forest Conservation (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1976), p. 26.

7. The Courier, April 26, 1933, Region 7 Publications File, NA RG 95.

8. "Minutes of Service Committee," March 23, 1933, Minutes of the Service Committee, NA RG 95.

9. Ibid., November 9, 1933.

10. Ibid., November 23, 1933.

11. Frank Rudolph, "Making Men From Boys: The Civilian Conservation Corps on the Allegheny National Forest, Special 50th Anniversary Series" (Allegheny National Forest, 1973)," p. 1.

12. "Minutes of Service Committee," April 27, 1933.

13. Frank Rudolph, "Making Men from Boys," p. 1; and William C. Curnett, "More Than 100 Acres a Year..., Special 50th Anniversary Series" (Allegheny National Forest, 1973), p. 2.

14. Hiawathaland, September 1981, p. 5.

15. 50 Year History of the Monongahela National Forest, pp. 17-18.

16. John A. Douglass, "History of the Green Mountain National Forest" (Green Mountain National Forest, 1981), p. 96.

17. "Press Release," April 2, 1940, Hoosier Purchase Unit, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95; and "1937 Official Annual," Jefferson Barracks CCC District, Sixth Corps Area, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

18. "Press Release," Ottawa National Forest, November 13, 1939, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

19. "Chequamegon: The Making of a Forest" Supplement to Daily Press, Ashland, Wisconsin, n.d., 1983, pp. 7-8.

20. Kennell M. Elliot, "History of the Nicolet National Forest 1928-1976," published by the Forest Service with the Forest History Association of Wisconsin, July 1977, pp. 46-48.

21. Ken Sutherland, Interview, October 2, 1986.

22. Jay H. Price, Regional Forester, "The Federal Forests of Wisconsin," an address presented at the Wisconsin Silver Anniversary Forestry Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 30-December 1, 1953, p. 4.

23. "Chequamegon: The Making of a Forest," p. 8.

24. Fred Soady, Jr., "The Making of the Shawnee," Reprinted from Forest History IX, No. 2 (July 1965), p. 15.

25. Ottawa National Forest, "Annual Report, 1981," (Ottawa National Forest, 1982), p. 4.

26. "News Release," Hoosier National Forest, May 20, 1938, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

27 Wayne K. Mann, Supervisor, "Thoughts, Observations, Suggestions" a letter to David E. Conrad, September 4, 1986.

28. Hu-Man News, (Publication of the Huron-Manistee National Forests), June 1983, p. 2.

29. "Chequamegon: The Making of a Forest", p. 8.

30. "Press Release," Ottawa National Forest, September 16, 1981, Regional Office Files.

31. Information from Howard Hopkins, p. 6.

32. William C. Curnutt, "Timber Doesn't Grow Like Topsy. . . , A History of Timber Stand Improvement on the Allegheny National Forest, Special 50th Anniversary Series" (Allegheny National Forest), n.d., loc. cit.

33. Larry Stotz, "Wildlife Welfare", p. 2.

34. 50 Year History of the Monongahela, p. 34.

35. Walter Erbland, "Allegheny National Forest, 1923-1973," manuscript, Allegheny National Forest Files, p. 5.

36. Supplement to Rhinelander Daily News, July 29, 1983, p. 16.

37. Daily Contact, May 3, 1940, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

38. Springfield Daily News, April 26, 1940.

39. Daily Contact, March 20, 1940, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

40. CCC Files, Chicago Records Center, RG 95.

41. Ibid.

42. Robert Fechner to Governor Philip LaFollette, March 19, 1937, CCC Files, CRC, RG 95.

43. Robert Fechner to Governor Elmer Benson, March 20, 1937, CCC Files, CRC, RG 95.

44. Inspection Report by Russell Watson, November 25, 1934, CCC Files, NA RG 95.

45. Earl S. Pierce to W.C. Buford, September 21, 1934, CCC Files, CRC. RG 95.

46. Daily Contact, July 31, 1940, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

47. Ibid., January 3, 1940.

48. "Press Release," April 2, 1940, Hoosier Purchase Units, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

49. John A. Salmond, The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942: A New Deal Case Study (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1967), p. 201.

50. Ibid., p. 114.

51. Ibid., p. 193.

52. Ibid., p. 75.

53. 50 Year History of Monongahela, p. 18; and John A. Salmond, pp. 110-112.

54. Daily Contact, April 26, 1940, Region 9 Publications File, NA RG 95.

55. News Release, January 10, 1940, Region 9 Headquarters, Publications File, NA RG95.

56. Stan Cohen, The Tree Army, pp. 145, 158.

57. Robert Fechner, "My Hopes For the CCC," Reprinted from the 1939 issue of American Forest in Glenn Howell, CCC Boys Remember: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps (Medford, Oregon: 1976), pp. 105-108.

58. Huron National Forest, "A Historical Summary," p. 19.

Happy Days, the national weekly newspaper for the Civilian Conservation Corps, June 11, 1938.