CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS:
Ensuing the creation af the Tennessee Valley Authority, another of the fourteen programs to be facilitated in the first hundred days of the New Deal was the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on March 31, 1933. The nation was struggling to come out of the Depression of the 1930's, and the conservation of the natural resources was long overdue. The nation was plagued with waste and greed. President Roosevelt saw an oppertunity to facilitate emergency conservation works and at the same time eliminate much of the unemployment in the country.
In conjunction with the passage of the bill, the President ordered the CCC to get started. He wanted 250,000 men in the camps by early summer. By the middle of June 1300 camps were established, and by the end of July, more than 300,000 boys were in the woods. They young men planted trees, made reservoirs and ponds, built dams, dug ditches, built bridges, fire towers, fought tree disease, restored historic battlefields, cleaned beaches and camp grounds, and improved parks, forests, and recreational areas.
Young men signed up for the CCC in droves and were organized into 1,330 army-like companies under the direction of Colonel George Catlett Marshall, who found himself no longer a commander of an infantry division, but the administrator of an enormous labor project. Fort Benning, Georgia, was a focal point of CCC activity and was flooded with CCC applicants. Inductees were processed at Fort Benning, issued clothing, established pay accounts, given physicals, and a couple of weeks training, then shipped to camps in the field. "The army's magnificent performance with the CCC in the summer of 1933, undertaken so reluctantly, was one of the highlights of its peacetime years," wrote Leonard Mosley in his Marshall: Hero of Our Times.
Enrollment in the corps was limited to six months for unmarried men between eighteen and twenty-five, who were paid $30 per month. Five dollars was given to the men and the remainder was sent home to their families. At the end of the six-months enrollment period, men were given a chance to "re-up". During the period of its existence more than 2.5 million boys passed through the camps, with most of them staying six months to a year. Work schedules, recreation and entertainment facilities, classes in a variety of subjects, and weekend trips to Knoxville, curtailed "over the hill" absent because of homesickness. A number of CCC boys married local girls and became productive Union County citizens.
In all, a total of thirty-five CCC camps were established in the Tennessee Valley between 1933 until demoblization and disbanding began in 1939. Three CCC Camps were in Union County and one of those was located two and one-half miles from Loyston on the Clinch River. The original company was organized on October 20, 1934, and was designated as Camp TVA-P8, under the company number 1208. The camp was named Big Ridge Park Camp and was under the direction of the National Park Service and the Land Planning and Housing Division of TVA. At that time the camp was made up of officers and enrollees of the Second Corps Area.
During November, 1935, the camp was moved to Norris, Tennessee, and designated Camp 4495 by the Army and TVA-P2 by the National Park Service. This camp was responsible for the construction of a dam in Big Ridge State Park for the purpose of maintaining a constant water level to provide for fishing, boating, and swimming. The huge concrete structure makes a lake covering forty-three acres and was stocked with brim, bass, and white perch when completed. Men from TVA-P2 also built cabins, park roads and hiking trails in the park.
Company 4493, Camp TVA-Pl, was originally Company 284, a Second Corps Company. This company worked under the Forest Service and was designated as Camp TVA-8. In October, 1934, the National Park Service took over Camp TVA-Pl, and began work on Norris Park. The site of this camp was on the brow of a hill overlooking Clear Creek near Norris. On the night of December 11, 1934, a fire took the lives of Elwood Kramer, 20, of Nutley, New Jersey, Jacob Klein, 20, of Bronx, New York, and Charles Depalma, 21, of East Orange, New Jersey. The fire started in the headquarters section of the barracks and spread rapidly burning a number of boys housed in the building. Despite the heroic efforts of the camp members, the fire spread to two other barracks and the mess hall. Immediate action was taken to secure aid and find quarters at Camp-P2 located nearby. Construction of new barracks were begun immediately.
Camp TVA-P1 was responsible for dismantling the 135 year old Rice Mill from Lost Creek valley and reconstructing it near Norris Dam. (See Fall of the Old Mill)
The Official Annual Civilian Conservation Corps "C District CCC Fourth Corps Area, published in 1937, reeds group pictures and lists of personnel assigned to each camp. The roster of officers and men attached to Camp TVA-P1 and Camp TVA-P2 is included in the appendices.
For more information on this article or any article or publication of the Union County Historical Society please write them at:
Union County Historical Society
P.O. Box 95
Maynardville, TN 37807
Or
E-mail the Union County Historical
Society.
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