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

1: Why We Need the CCC

7 A t first, Minnesotans didn’t know they needed the ccc. Even before Minnesota became a state in 1858, people were drawn to the area’s rich natural resources. Tall stands of trees, good soil, and navigable rivers beckoned. The state gradually built an economy based on farming, logging, milling, and mining. By the 1920s,large and small farming operations were spread throughout southern, central, and western Minnesota. Some farmers were even planting on cleared forestlands up north.Along with producing wheat,corn,and other grains, farmers raised hogs and cattle. In southeastern counties, dairy farmers made milk production an important part of the state’s economy. Minnesotans looking for work outside of farming could generally depend on other industries, such as milling and logging, for jobs. But while logging operations in northern Minnesota still employed many men, by the 1920s they were winding down as lumber companies moved to the forests of Montana and the Pacific Northwest.That’s not to say Minnesota workers had no other choices for jobs: flour milling and other industries had also developed in the state, particularly in the main population centers of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Minneapolis, General Mills (the former Washburn Crosby Company) was developing enduring brands such as Gold Medal flour, Wheaties, and 1: WHY WE NEEDED THE CCC Bisquick. A friendly woman by the name of Betty Crocker answered questions about cooking and even offered advice on the radio. The company’s main Minneapolis rival, Charles Pillsbury’s flour-milling operation, had helped turn “Mill City” into a national leader of food production—and into a center for jobs. Across the Mississippi River in the state capital of St.Paul,industries such as brewing provided employment.Schmidt’s Brewery and the Hamm’s Brewing Company were among the nation’s largest—so successful, in fact, that in the 1930s the families of both companies would become victims of notorious kidnappings for ransom. Industrial jobs in Minnesota were not isolated to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Up north on the Iron Range, the mining industry was hungry for workers to dig up some of the world’s richest iron ore. Mines employed 18,000 men during World War I, and although numbers dropped somewhat after the war, iron ore production held steady in the 1920s. Ships owned by steel companies carried the ore from the Duluth harbor, through the Great Lakes, to eastern steel-producing centers.1 While the state’s farmers, loggers, millers, brewers, and miners helped harvest and process natural resources, yet another industry was developing. With the rise of improved roads and automobiles, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” was fast becoming a tourist destination, and tourism was providing even more jobs in the state. But well before the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, signs of stress had appeared in Minnesota’s economy and job market.The state was rich in businesses and industries based on natural resources. Growth, however, had put increasing strain on these resources.Throughout the state, signs of wear and tear were showing. Logging in northern forests left millions of acres of land practically barren. Elsewhere, particularly in the southern and western parts of the state, farming practices led to soil erosion that in turn polluted once-clear rivers and lakes.With greater dairy farming in southeastern Minnesota and increased demand for dairy products, many acres of marginal land, not suited for agricultural development, had been put into production. Minnesota wasn’t the only state to find itself in a precarious situation. On the Great Plains, erosion resulting from poor land use—combined with sustained drought—would eventually create the “Dust Bowl” in what came to be popularly known as the DirtyThirties.Throughout the country,poor land and water use were sapping resources, and people were beginning to discover that nature had definite limits. Crop prices, which began falling in the years after World War I, made it a challenge for farmers to break even. Earning a profit was becoming a more and more elusive goal during the agricultural depression of the 1920s. In Minnesota, many farmers were barely hanging on while others lost or abandoned land even before the Great Depression. In some areas of southeastern Minnesota, the market value of land fell by one-third between 1914 8 the ccc takes shape and 1934.Average yields of corn, barley, wheat...