The Civilian Conservation Corps variation and flexibility on the Columbia National Forest

Matthew Mawhirter

In the depths of the Great Depression, at the beginning of the New Deal, President Roosevelt created one of the most popular jobs programs ever created, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC put young impoverished men to work on public lands in every state and territory in the United States. Most would work on projects in the National Forests, many in the Pacific Northwest, in conservation and resource development projects. Many Americans who reside in or visit the Northwest are familiar with the legacy of CCC work, visible in some structures, campgrounds, or hiking trails. Few understand how these projects were managed and how CCC enrollees experienced camp life. Most of the scholarly works written about the CCC focus on the administrative elements and assume conformity between all levels of the agency that did not exist. This study looks at the camps on the Columbia National Forest, later the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, to examine if the conformity assumed by other authors disappears when closely investigating local camp construction and practices. CCC Camps had the same intended function but aesthetically differed between Army districts, between camps within a district, and between the different types of camps. The differences, however minor, must have changed the enrollee’s experience. An examination of the camps and comparison between camps in one national forest, beyond what was published by the Army, Forest Service and CCC, should present a more complex and complete picture of the CCC. With the identification of new historical sources for the CCC, this study will also examine the potential for archaeology to add more to the story of the enrollees’ experience. CCC camp sites and dumps could have the ability to show adaptability based on environment and local economic conditions. Because so little archaeology has been conducted on CCC associated sites it is difficult to make a good comparison. The survey of more camps and excavation of camp dumps should expand on the preliminary findings of this thesis and support the argument that the CCC was a flexible agency, which had significant variation between camps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps variation and flexibility on the Columbia National Forest

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