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South Carolina Department of Archives and History Document Packet Number 4 THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA 1933–1942 South Carolina Department of Archives and History Document Packet Number 4 ©1997 South Carolina Department of Archives and History Produced by:The Education Service Area, Alexia J. Helsley, director; and the Publications Service Area, Judith M. Andrews, director. Credits: Folder drawings by Marshall Davis for the Camp Life Series, 1939–1940; Records of the Office of Education; Record Group 12; National Archives,Washington, DC Photographs of scenes from camp life courtesy South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Columbia, SC Aerial photograph of Cheraw State Park: Can 20542, OY 4B 17; Records of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service; Records of the Department of Agriculture; Record Group 145; National Archives, Washington, DC Folder cover of CCC work on Hunting Island from Forestry Commission Administration Photographs from CCC files c1934–1942, SCDAH South Carolina Department of Archives and History Document Packet Number 4 Table of contents 7. Document 3: 13. Document 10: First enrolment form Pictograph report 1. Introductory folder Student activities Student activities 2. BSAP Objectives 8. Document 4: 14. Document 11: 3. Bibliography/Teacher resource Day telegram to state foresters Letter 4. Vocabulary Student activities Student activities 5. Document analysis worksheet 9. Document 5: 15. Document 12: Affidavit of property transfer Certificate 6. Photograph analysis worksheet Student activities Student activities 5. Document 1: 10. Document 6: 16. Document 13: FDR’s sketch of CCC Appproval of Project SP-1 1940 Census map Transcription Student activities Student activities Student activities 11. Document 7: 17. Document 14: 6. Document 2: Letter from cmdr at Ft. Moultrie Map of CCC camps Executive Order Student activities Student activities Student activities 12. Documents 8 and 9: 18. Essay and photos of Memo re roads and map CCC camps Student activities S.C. DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES & HISTORY DOCUMENT PACKET 4 THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA 1933–1942 He noted the problems and employment opportunities that lay within the public domain and urged the creation of a workforce to rescue the land, revitalize the nation’s economy, and improve social conditions. Congress acted quickly. Ten days later, Roosevelt signed a bill that embodied his ideas and created a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The new law gave Roosevelt blanket authority to put his plan into effect. Section 1 of the law stated its pur- pose. Congress had passed it to relieve unemployment, provide for the restora- tion of the nation’s depleted resources, and advance an orderly program of large- Background scale public works. It authorized the October 1929—the stock market crashed On July 2, 1932 when Franklin D. president “under such rules and regula- and prosperous America was suddenly Roosevelt accepted the Democratic tions as he may prescribe,” to enroll the bankrupt. The market collapse instantly party's nomination for president, he jobless in the program, regardless of race, checked the uncontrolled use of borrowed revealed a plan for a great public works color, or creed. The enrollees would money that had fueled the free spending project that would relieve distress and reforest national and state lands to of the “Roaring 20s,” plunged the nation reclaim the ravaged land. The land prevent floods and erosion; control plant into a period of economic hardship, and project, said Roosevelt, would employ pests and deepened the plight of South Carolinians, “a million men.”1 disease; construct paths, trails, and fire who had been coping with an agricultural Once elected, Roosevelt moved lanes in national forests and parks; and depression that had begun in the early quickly. On March 9, 1933, only five carry out any other desirable programs. 1920s with a drop in cotton prices days after his inauguration as president, The law also permitted the president to followed by the boll weevil's destruction he called a meeting of six high provide the men with clothing, housing, of cotton crops. For the next decade, government officials: the secretaries of medical care, hospitalization, and a cash unemployed, hungry, and frightened war, agriculture, and interior, the director allowance. Americans suffered through the “Great of the Bureau of the Budget, the solicitor While Congress acted on the bill, the Depression.” from the Justice Department, and the president sketched an organizational plan The depression peaked in the winter judge advocate general of the Army. that used existing federal agencies to of 1932. Businesses had failed, When they gathered, he set before them avoid the introduction of a new, employment vanished, and millions of his plans for a civilian conservation cumbersome, and expensive administra- Americans, condemned to idleness, corps—a large-scale reclamation scheme tive system (Document I). An Executive struggled with poverty. The majority to recover the nation’s natural resources Order put the CCC into operation on were young men. They stood idly on and rescue America's young men. April 5, 1933 (Document II). It appointed street corners or stalked the countryside The president planned to transport Robert Fechner as director of Emergency searching for jobs no longer there. By half a million unemployed young men Conservation Work; authorized him to June, they numbered over one million. from city, town, and countryside into coordinate the efforts of an Advisory To complicate matters, the nation damaged resource areas—forests, farms, Council made up of representatives from faced a formidable problem of and streams—where they would live in the departments of war, agriculture, conservation. Shortsighted felling had outdoor camps and restore their interior, and labor; supplied funds; and reduced America’s virgin timberlands surroundings. Assured by the secretary planned logistics. By using the services of from 820 to 132 million acres; had of war that the camps could be made old-line departments, this new and unique downgraded once fertile areas to five- operational quickly and by the secretaries hundred million acres of scrubby second of interior and agriculture that projects growth, farm woodlots, and submarginal would be ready for the recruits, the farm land; and had lost fully one-quarter president ordered the judge advocate of the second growth to erosion. The general, the solicitor, and the budget lack of ground cover coupled with a director to legalize his plan. drought turned much of the nation’s On March 21, 1933, Congress richest areas into a “Dust Bowl.” listened to a message from the president. system of governmental administration state agencies promoted efficiency and assured sound management. benefitted the entire nation. Although Two weeks after Congress passed agreements between the state and the bill into law, the Advisory Council federal governments varied from place completed its plan of action. Federal to place, the CCC worked on any lands and state agencies would pool that needed conservation (Document resources and work together under the IV). In South Carolina, this teamwork direction of Fechner and his small staff; gave rise to project SP-1 (State Park 1). the Department of Labor would work The government had organized CCC with state welfare and relief officers to camps in South Carolina by May of select enrollees; Interior and Agricul- 1933, and the state made plans to ture would select camp sites, work designate and acquire land on which projects, and technical supervisors; the men would work. Citizens from fertile soil, employed 49,000 young War—specifically the U.S. Army, who Chesterfield County purchased 700 men, and injected more than fifty-seven alone had the capability—would acres of land and donated it to the state million dollars into the state’s economy construct and supply the camps, for recreation (Document V). The through wages and the purchase of land, mobilize and transport enrollees, South Carolina Commission of supplies, equipment, and services oversee their welfare, and provide Forestry administered the property, and (Document X). Nationwide, it stopped medical care. With their assignments in when the National Park Service the destruction of natural resources and hand, field offices of the various acquired 5,000 adjoining acres through created a national network of parks, departments and hundreds of state federal and state cooperation, the entire forests, and wildlife refuges. And it did conservation organizations quickly area became the nucleus of the conser- more. The leaders of the CCC knew that began the massive task of implementing vation-recreation program that created young men beaten down by the depres- Roosevelt’s grand plan. By April 17, SP-1 (Cheraw State Park). sion needed mental and physical enrollees were on their way to the CCC Company 445, which began rehabilitation to prepare them for work camps, where they would be introduced work near Conway and Charleston, in the field. To this end, they placed to a routine similar to army basic training. moved to Chesterfield County in unemployed teachers in each camp to The first enrollees were generally March 1934 when plans for SP-1 were conduct on-the-job vocational, aca- between the ages of 17 and 24, approved (Documents VI and VII), demic, and administrative training unemployed, and dependent upon commenced work on Cheraw State programs. As a result, hundreds of welfare. The government limited Park in June. Four years later, thousands of young men, when they left enrollment to six months and prohibited Company 445 had completed a 1,200 the camps, used the skills they had reenrollment to give everyone a chance to foot earthen dam to form 300-acre learned to enter new trades (Documents participate. Soon, however, it lifted this Juniper Lake and had built a commu- XI, XII). restriction and encouraged twelve-month nity hall, a kitchen, a dining hall, In the 1940s as the country prepared enrollments.

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