The principal purpose of this study was to discover what tangible evidence remains of the Civilian Conservation Corps construction projects undertaken on the National Forest System lands in the Pacific Northwest Region: to identify, locate, describe and evaluate these historic cultural resources and to ascribe some significance to them. It should be noted that all references to National Forests and to Ranger Districts are to current administrative jurisdictions, unless otherwise specified, for reasons of convenience.

New Deal programs, like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), were developed by President Roosevelt during the 1930's to soften the economic and unemployment problems of the Great Depression. Indiana based CCC Company 589 created and sculpted the land now known as Salamonie River State Forest in Wabash County. This study evaluated the conditions of the historic and existing landscape of Salamonie River State Forest, with the intent of educating forest personnel about the role of the CCC in manipulating the property. Through identification and preservation, the CCC resources can then be interpreted to the public.Years of work transformed the abandoned farmland into a lush recreational area for hunters, fishermen, and other visitors. Today much of the vegetation has grown into a dense forest as intended, but other CCC resources have fallen into disrepair, been demolished, or forgotten. The condition assessments of the landscape, architecture,archaeology, and historic documents are the first steps in evaluating the landscape for a preservation treatment plan. The overall condition of Salamonie River State Forest and its Civilian Conservation Corps resources is good; however these resources need to be protected and preserved to insure their longevity for future generations. / Department of Architecture

Thesis (M. A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Frederick R. Davis, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 81 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

During the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work in state and national parks across the United States. One of such parks, Big Bend National Park, is the focus of this study. The CCC had two camps within the park, one from 1934 to 1937 and another from 1940 to 1942. During their time in Big Bend, the CCC constructed many projects including a road, trails, cabins, and other various structures. The purpose of this study is to delineate the role of the CCC in creating Big Bend National Park and the experience of the CCC during their time in the Big Bend camp. This study determines the role of the CCC through a discussion of the planning done by the CCC for Big Bend National Park and the work completed by the CCC in the park. In doing so, it argues that the CCC played a substantial and significant role in the development and character of the park. This study works to understand the experience of the CCC in Big Bend through a discussion of education, safety, and an investigation of a commanding officer. Through this discussion, the role of the federal government and national organization in the local camps can be seen, as can the value they placed in the enrollees.

Humboldt-Univ., Diss.-2001--Berlin, 2000.

Between 1915 and 1940, millions of African Americans migrated from the South to cities in the North. “Recovering Green in Bronzeville” examines the ways in which these migrants experienced, perceived, talked about, valued, and shaped these natural and landscaped environments in the interwar years. Taking Chicago as its focal point, this dissertation argues that not only should African Americans be central to narratives of environment and place in the early twentieth century, but also that natural and landscaped environments are central to African American culture. The dissertation’s first part compares and contrasts the environmental resonance of lives left behind in the South with those established in Chicago, particularly with regards to foodways and labor. It asserts that while many African Americans had already become integrated into national industrial networks prior to migration, residence in even the most urban southern city could not have prepared them for Chicago’s densely populated South Side. The dissertation’s second part explores the significance of African American experiences with both urban and rural natural and landscaped environments from roughly 1915 to 1929. It shows how African Americans joined a chorus of late Progressive Era Americans who saw these environments as an antidote to modern city life that produced ill health and delinquency, as well as how race – through the discourses of respectability, uplift, and primitivism – uniquely inflected their approaches to those places. Primarily grounding its analysis in a few specific sites – Chicago’s Washington Park; Idlewild, an African American resort in rural Michigan; and Camp Wabash, a YMCA youth camp in rural Michigan – it also reveals black Chicagoans as a mobile population that regularly accessed the rural North. The dissertation’s third part considers how African Americans’ connections to these same environments evolved during the Depression, adding an analysis of segregated African American Civilian Conservation Corps companies which, with the labor of black Chicagoans, radically altered the landscapes of rural Illinois and Michigan. On the whole, African Americans focused on building communities in natural and landscaped environments separate from whites in a cultural context defined by widespread poverty, New Deal-era politics and agencies, increasing segregation, and diminished migration.

In March 1933, the administration of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated a national relief program aimed at alleviating the disastrous effects ofthe Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) began as one of these programs designed to employ young men from all over the country and put them "back to work". The CCC provided these young men with training, a monthly stipend, and basic supplies such as food, clothing, and accommodations. After 1942, CCC camps were closed and many of these sites were abandoned or destroyed, leaving little historical documentation as to the experiences ofthe people involved. This project revolves around the archaeological investigations and data recovery of a CCC camp that was in operation from 1933-1942 in Zigzag, Oregon. This research analyzes the remains of the camp in order to gain further knowledge about this important period in American history, and more specifically, Oregon history. In assessing the material culture left behind, combined with the historical documents and oral history interviews, the goal of this project was to expand the historical and archaeological narrative of the CCC experience. More specifically, the aim of this research was to reveal the unwritten record of CCC camp life in a pivotal period of American history. The results of the historical archaeological research indicates that Camp Zigzag represents a community that participated in resistance related activities, such as drinking alcohol on camp property, but one that also adhered to the regulations of camp policy. Military-style order and training permeated even the surrounding architectural environment. The rituals of daily life in the structured order of the camp appear to have developed and formulated a strong sense of cohesion among the men. However, resistance-related items, such as alcohol bottles, suggest that Camp Zigzag enrollees resisted the authoritarian dynamic of the camp. Social drinking would have provided the men with a sense of solidarity and commonality that would have been maintained beyond the ideals of camp uniformity. This communal familiarity may have influenced the men's behaviour in daily camp routines, rituals, and work. Overall, the archaeological evidence depicts the Camp Zigzag community as united through the bonds of formality and in its resistance to it. Camp Zigzag offered a unique and unusually expansive window into not only the history of Oregon State, but into the history of our nation as a whole. The camp's archaeological assemblage remains as an important learning tool and its value far exceeds the humble nature of its material contents. It is a collection of untold stories representing the lives of young men and their families at a tumultuous turning point in American history.

The organization of the Emergency Conservation Work was found to possess many faults. The Seventy-Fifth Congress, taking cognizance of some of the more glaring imperfections, approved a measure reorganizing and re-establishing the Emergency Conservation Work under the name of The Civilian Conservation Corp. The bill eliminated many of the defects of the former organization, and invested authority and defined duties and regulations in such a manner that a more efficient institution resulted.