THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
John Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Perhaps
some of you reading this column served in the CCCs,
the Civilian Conservation Corps. Or
perhaps you had a father, uncle, cousin or brother who worked in “FDR’s
Tree
Army” as this organization was called.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was
born out of hard times in our country.
The stock market crash occurred in October, 1929.
The Great Economic Depression set in, and
jobs were hard to come by.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt became
a Democratic candidate for president in 1932, he campaigned on the
platform of
restoring our country “to its former beauty,” providing jobs for young
men, and
taking measures that would conserve
The plan was to enlist men between the
ages of 18 and 25, at first 250,000 strong, to “preserve the natural
resources
of these
What was life like in the Civilian
Conservation Corps? First, each young
man inducted was guaranteed a salary of $30.00 per month.
This does not sound like much money now, but in
a period of deep depression when cash was scarce, a regular salary was
a
God-send. Of the $30.00, each enlistee
was required to send $25.00 home to wife or parents or guardians to
help them
with finances. The
Reforestation was one of the major
tasks of “FDR’s Tree Army,” and became the job from which the Corps
received
its nickname. Large timber companies had
moved in previously with sawmills and riddled the virgin forests in
most places
where trees once grew in abundance. The
camps throughout the area that is now the
Fire prevention was another of the
conservation projects, with fire towers built at strategic locations to
provide
a watch for conflagration that could easily destroy acres of timberland. The first tower at
Building roads was another major
task. Automobiles were becoming a little
more common as the economic depression lifted.
But roads in many areas were little more than buggy or wagon
routes. Crews graded and paved roads,
making them more accessible to automotive travel.
Building dams on streams to help
control flood damage was a major project.
In certain areas where hydro-electric power was to be generated,
these
dams proved invaluable to future economic conditions and in providing
electricity. The dam at
Camps to house the recruits to the
Those who remember their days at the
For the hard years of the 1930s, it
was as good a way of life as some young men could find.
Their needs were provided, including
clothing, shelter, food, education, transportation and religious
services. Each camp had a chaplain, and,
unlike today
when a great hue and cry arises about the mention of God in government
functions, the men could attend regular religious services if they
chose to do
so.
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, writing later
about some of her husband’s accomplishments as president, stated: “I realize that the one project in which my
husband took the greatest pleasure was the establishment of the three
Cs.”
More than seven decades have passed
since the
c2004 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Apr. 29, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Updated September
26,
2009
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