CCC Camps

As a child, I remember my uncle talking about the CCC Camp that had been located nearby our family’s farm in Licking Creek Valley, Juniata County, Pennsylvania. How did it come to be there? In 1933, right after he took office, President Franklin D. Roosevelt started a group of government programs to help relieve the country from the effects of the 1929 stock market crash. One of his programs was the Emergency Conservation Work renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps which was nicknamed CCC. The plan involved putting unmarried, unemployed men ages 18-25 to work on projects.

After being selected, groups of these men moved into an area and lived in tents until some permanent buildings were built. They received uniforms and three meals a day. They earned $30 a month that most sent home to their families. Pennsylvania contained 113 of these camps. 194,500 Pennsylvanians served in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

A model of a CCC Camp barracks displayed at World’s End State Park Visitors Center

The U.S. Army ran the camps but foresters, carpenters, and other crafts people directed the work. The men worked on roads, picnic areas, swimming areas, and campgrounds in state parks and other places. Supervised CCC workers constructed much of the stone work you see in Pennsylvania state parks.

The plaque on the back of the fireplace

A fireplace built at Penn Roosevelt State Park by CCC workers

When World War II started, the CCC Camps ended.

Pictures taken by author. Information gathered from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation  and Natural Resources site:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/thingstoknow/history/cccyears/index.htm