90th anniversary of Civilian Conservation Corps celebrates group that gave purpose, earnings to young men during Depression
Camp Upton, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Upton in Brookhaven. Credit: New York State Archives
The Great Depression struck Long Island like lightning, hitting communities and robbing many boys and men of work and dignity.
But President Franklin Roosevelt, a conservationist like his cousin Teddy, spotted an opportunity.
“He saw there were so many unemployed young men roaming the streets. A lot of young boys quit school — eighth grade or seventh grade, even fourth grade,” said historian Marty Podskoch, author of three books on the era. “They had to quit school to help their parents … He decided, you know, 'I gotta put these boys to work, helping improve our natural resources.'”
April 5 marks the 90th anniversary of the Roosevelt administration’s program to put those young men — ages 18 to 25 — to work in something that would soon be called the Civilian Conservation Corps. The corps put tens of thousands to work, with the added benefit of helping the local environment.
Across Long Island and the United States, young men helped improve public lands and respond to natural disasters.
As part of the local corps, the men helped control tree-killing moths, looking for the moths' egg masses on trees and using creosote to kill them. They also planted trees, fought fires and helped with emergencies such as the 1938 hurricane, Podskoch said.
A National Park Service history of the corps said: “They opted for long days and hard, dirty work, living in quasi-military camps often far from home in the nation’s publicly owned forests and parks. But they earned money to send back to their needy families, received three square meals a day, and escaped from idle purposelessness by contributing to the renewal and beautification of the country.”
The program ended as the United States was entering World War II, Podskoch said.
By that time, 2.5 million men, boys and veterans of World War I had served in over 4,500 camps nationwide, he said.
For many young men, the military-run CCC was their first job. They were fed and paid $30 a month, $25 of which went back to their families. Many were given an education and health care, too.
“In those days, people did not want things for free,” Podskoch said.
There were camps across the Island, including at Upton, Mitchel Field and Huntington.
Despite being active participants and beneficiaries of New Deal programs like the CCC, Long Island was a “bastion of anti-Roosevelt opposition,” according to a Hofstra University history of the Great Depression on Long Island.
Nevertheless, Long Island took “full advantage” of the programs such as the CCC, according to that history.
“So, they lived in tents, and they started doing work there,” Podskoch said. “They were working on the caterpillars, because they were killing the trees, eating up the leaves, and what they would do is, in some of the places, they would have the boys scouting on state land — or even on private land — and climbing trees to find the egg masses. There’d be millions of eggs in these, like cigar-type things, attached to trees.”
The corps members would have buckets on their belts, and they would climb the trees, throw a rope to secure themselves and pull themselves up to search the trees, he said.
Other times, the corps would be responsible for helping deal with flooding or extinguish forest fires, he said. “They would call the boys to fight fires,” he said. Companies of the corps would come from elsewhere in the region to help on the Island.
Today, that Huntington camp is nondescript suburban housing where hundreds of houses stand, near the Walt Whitman Shops, according to Robert C. Hughes, the Huntington town historian.
“It was an important part of the New Deal program. The Depression affected everyone here in Huntington as well as anywhere else, and this was part of the government relief efforts,” he said. “I think it reminds people that before we had all these hundreds of suburban houses here, there was something else going on.”
There is a historic marker to commemorate the significance of the area, he said.
The significance of the program was profound, Podskoch said, boosting the local economy that had sagged on the Island and nationwide. Roosevelt had hoped this would be the effect, in addition to increasing the self-image of the young men, the region and the nation.
“A lot of the boys — they had a poor self-image of themselves. They wanted to help their parents … these boys were prepared and had discipline," he explained. "When the war came up, World War II, America had young boys prepared for giving out orders and taking orders.”
The Great Depression struck Long Island like lightning, hitting communities and robbing many boys and men of work and dignity.
But President Franklin Roosevelt, a conservationist like his cousin Teddy, spotted an opportunity.
“He saw there were so many unemployed young men roaming the streets. A lot of young boys quit school — eighth grade or seventh grade, even fourth grade,” said historian Marty Podskoch, author of three books on the era. “They had to quit school to help their parents … He decided, you know, 'I gotta put these boys to work, helping improve our natural resources.'”
April 5 marks the 90th anniversary of the Roosevelt administration’s program to put those young men — ages 18 to 25 — to work in something that would soon be called the Civilian Conservation Corps. The corps put tens of thousands to work, with the added benefit of helping the local environment.
Across Long Island and the United States, young men helped improve public lands and respond to natural disasters.
As part of the local corps, the men helped control tree-killing moths, looking for the moths' egg masses on trees and using creosote to kill them. They also planted trees, fought fires and helped with emergencies such as the 1938 hurricane, Podskoch said.
A National Park Service history of the corps said: “They opted for long days and hard, dirty work, living in quasi-military camps often far from home in the nation’s publicly owned forests and parks. But they earned money to send back to their needy families, received three square meals a day, and escaped from idle purposelessness by contributing to the renewal and beautification of the country.”
The program ended as the United States was entering World War II, Podskoch said.
By that time, 2.5 million men, boys and veterans of World War I had served in over 4,500 camps nationwide, he said.
For many young men, the military-run CCC was their first job. They were fed and paid $30 a month, $25 of which went back to their families. Many were given an education and health care, too.
“In those days, people did not want things for free,” Podskoch said.
There were camps across the Island, including at Upton, Mitchel Field and Huntington.
Despite being active participants and beneficiaries of New Deal programs like the CCC, Long Island was a “bastion of anti-Roosevelt opposition,” according to a Hofstra University history of the Great Depression on Long Island.
Nevertheless, Long Island took “full advantage” of the programs such as the CCC, according to that history.
“So, they lived in tents, and they started doing work there,” Podskoch said. “They were working on the caterpillars, because they were killing the trees, eating up the leaves, and what they would do is, in some of the places, they would have the boys scouting on state land — or even on private land — and climbing trees to find the egg masses. There’d be millions of eggs in these, like cigar-type things, attached to trees.”
The corps members would have buckets on their belts, and they would climb the trees, throw a rope to secure themselves and pull themselves up to search the trees, he said.
Other times, the corps would be responsible for helping deal with flooding or extinguish forest fires, he said. “They would call the boys to fight fires,” he said. Companies of the corps would come from elsewhere in the region to help on the Island.
Today, that Huntington camp is nondescript suburban housing where hundreds of houses stand, near the Walt Whitman Shops, according to Robert C. Hughes, the Huntington town historian.
“It was an important part of the New Deal program. The Depression affected everyone here in Huntington as well as anywhere else, and this was part of the government relief efforts,” he said. “I think it reminds people that before we had all these hundreds of suburban houses here, there was something else going on.”
There is a historic marker to commemorate the significance of the area, he said.
The significance of the program was profound, Podskoch said, boosting the local economy that had sagged on the Island and nationwide. Roosevelt had hoped this would be the effect, in addition to increasing the self-image of the young men, the region and the nation.
“A lot of the boys — they had a poor self-image of themselves. They wanted to help their parents … these boys were prepared and had discipline," he explained. "When the war came up, World War II, America had young boys prepared for giving out orders and taking orders.”
* April 5 is the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was created by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression to put men and boys back to work while improving public lands and responding to natural disasters.
* Members of the corps earned money that they could send back to their families and were given a place to live, three meals a day and in some cases education and health care.
* The program ended as the United States was entering World War II and by that time, 2.5 million men, boys and veterans of World War I had served in over 4,500 camps nationwide, according to historian Marty Podskoch, author of three books on the era.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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