The Enduring

WRITTEN BY MEGIN POTTER | PHOTOS PROVIDED

This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a peacetime army battling the destruction and erosion of our natural resources. It was the fastest large-scale mobilization of men in US history. In 1933, during the Great Depression, as part of his “New Deal,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act into law, creating the Department of Labor’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a national relief program employing 275,000 men and 10,000 supervisory personnel in 1,468 camps across the country and in many US territories.

Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” planted more than three billion trees, created 94 national parks and 741 state parks. They constructed shelters, trails, roads, campsites, and dams; stocked fish; installed and maintained telephone lines; and fought forest fires.

The first CCC camp, “Camp Roosevelt” was near Luray, Virginia. There were 26 camps in New York’s Adirondack region alone. During its 1939-1942 operation, the Stillwater CCC Camp (near Stillwater Central School, where the American Legion is today), housed approximately 200 single men (ages 18-25).

These men worked on many projects in Saratoga County, including the clearing of invasive plants; managing of landscapes through prescribed fires; and the removal of fences, roads, and foundations.

The men enrolled in the program for six months and worked a 40-hour week in exchange for $30/month (the equivalent of approximately $650 today). They also received housing, uniforms, meals, medical care, education, and job training. The government sent $25/ month home to the workers’ families, leaving the men with just $5/month in spending money.