History of Michigan CCC camps

The Ocqueoc Outdoor Recreation Center was the setting for a seminar titled ?History and Legacy of the CCC Camps of Michigan? on September 5.

Rob Burg, official historian for the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum at North Higgins Lake, presented the program, sponsored by the Presque Isle District Library?s First Tuesday with Friends of the Onaway Library.

About 106,000 men served in 46 CCC camps around Michigan during the operation of the New Deal program from 1933 to 1942. Burg explained that the program was aimed at men from 18 to 25 who were paid $30 per month; the men were given $5 and the remaining $25 was sent to their families.

The workers received three meals a day and were given government-issue work uniforms. Their main work was to plant trees throughout the state.

?About 484 million trees, mostly red pine, were planted by the CCC workers,? Burg said.

He said the red pine trees were favored because they were more resistant to a form of blight that was spread by wild currants that had spread throughout the deforested areas of the state.

WHEN PRESIDENT Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, he moved to implement the CCC based on a similar program he had spearheaded as governor of New York. Roosevelt?s objective was to help some of the millions of jobless people during the Great Depression.

?We can take a vast army of the unemployed out into healthful surroundings. We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability,? Roosevelt said just five days after his inauguration in March 1933.

The average Michigan CCC enrollee began his service by applying at a local selection board. The men had to be capable of physical labor, not too short (under five feet), not too tall (over six foot six), nor too light (not less than 107 pounds).

The nation?s defense system benefited greatly from the corps. By 1942 more than three million CCC men learned how to take orders, the basics of sanitation, first aid, and personal cleanliness, and other skills that were helpful to the war effort that followed.

The CCC also hired local men to train and help maintain the camps. These were known as LEMs or Local Experience Men. One such man was Frank J. Schell (91) of Onaway. Frank was on hand at the Ocqueoc facility to listen to the seminar and tour his old bunk house.

?I REALLY ENJOYED my time with the corps and it gave my family some extra money during hard times,? he said.

A lot of towns objected to the CCC in the beginning for fear of strangers coming into their communities. These fears were soon dispelled when the economic benefits of the camps came to be known and appreciated by local businesses.

Camp libraries and classrooms gave men a chance to continue high school and college studies. There also were vocational training programs for various trades.

Food was an important factor at the camps as many men arrived at the camps malnourished and in poor health. After a few months working in the open air and eating three square meals a day, these men were restored.

The CCC cooks could be the most popular or least popular men in the camps, depending on their prowess in the kitchen. Surplus mess kits left over from World War I were used to serve meals.

The normal work schedule was six days a week with Saturday being a half-day. Sunday was a day of rest. On Saturday nights the men would go to the local towns to look for entertainment. Quite a number of them found their soul mates and settled down in the localities with their new brides.

THE INITIAL term of service was for six months and they could stay on for up to two years total. Those men wh

o left before the end of their service usually did so for three main reasons: marriage, other employment, or dishonorable discharge for going ?over the hill.?

The CCC was for men only, although First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt initiated a pilot program for women in New York.

The accomplishments of the Civilian Conservation Corps are impressive. It represented the country?s first concerted effort to restore its ravaged natural resources. The corps planted a total of 2.3 billion trees, spent 6.4 million man-days fighting forest fires and helped eradicate diseases and pests on 21 million acres of land.

The program was responsible for the revitalization of the Michigan State Park system, establishing Isle Royale National Park and building campgrounds in the state?s national forests. Total CCC expenditures in Michigan reached $95 million, and enrollees sent over $20 million to their families over the ten-year life of the program.

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