Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota

INTRODUCTION: The Quiet Change

5 INTRODUCTION: THE QUIET CHANGE In 1933,a quiet change began in Minnesota and elsewhere across the country . One governmental program—part of an “alphabet soup” of New Deal programs started by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression—offered hope to young men and teenage boys. Hope was what these men and boys needed most of all in the dark days of the Depression . But the Civilian Conservation Corps, or ccc, also gave them a steady paycheck and meaningful work.1 Whether you know it or not,you’ve probably seen traces of the ccc’s work in Minnesota.The legacy lives in the warm stone used in the Lakeview Refectory at Gooseberry Falls State Park in northeastern Minnesota—and in countless other buildings constructed by the ccc across the state. It stands in the red pine trees planted on state-owned lands by men and teenagers of various walks of life, of various ethnicities, who were part of the ccc.The legacy lives in southeastern Minnesota, where the ccc implemented contour farming techniques still in use today. And perhaps most importantly, the ccc remains a vivid and vital part of the memories of men and boys who took part in the program. Few in the ccc would have called their work “revolutionary,” but they knew it was special. Enrollee Harvey Richart put it this way:“What the cccs accomplished will never again be equaled. It made our lives for the rest of our time.”Another man,in a case of classic Minnesota understatement, said simply,“It was a good deal.”2 ccc enrollees from a camp in Rabideau, Minnesota, take a break from their work in the Chippewa National Forest. Rabideau is one of the few remaining intact ccc camps in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a national historic landmark in 2006. This book takes its title in part from that ccc enrollee’s words. Within these pages,you’ll find countless other quotations from oral histories.An oral history is a primary source document—similar to a letter or a diary—that is the result of an interview with someone who witnessed or participated in a historical event.The oral history interview is conducted to preserve and collect information about the past. Its goal is to leave for future researchers a first-person view of history. The oral histories used in this book, all of which are available to researchers, shed light on history from the perspective of the men and boys of the ccc. Conducted in 1982, 1983, and 1994 with former enrollees, camp educators, administrators, army personnel, and others, these interviews tell us what it was like to be in the ccc.The quotations used are as faithful to the original interviews as possible, preserving speech patterns and even feelings —loneliness, humor, camaraderie, pride, frustration. Perhaps more eloquently than any other historical document, these oral histories tell us how the ccc affected the people involved. When combined with other sources, they help us more fully understand this part of Minnesota history. HardWork and a Good Deal is a celebration of the people of the ccc and of the work they left behind. It’s also a backward glance to an era when—faced with a monumental crisis—both the federal and the state governments nurtured hope.Today,more than seventy years later,vestiges of that hope remain in tall trees,conservation farming techniques,stone buildings,and even simple walking paths—all started by the ccc and all part of the state’s enduring landscape. 6 the ccc takes shape ...