American Experience: The Civilian Conservation Corps

Discover how President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the pressing economic and environmental challenges of his time in this documentary about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the agency founded to boost the economy by creating jobs in natural-resource conservation. The year was 1929: the stock market had just crashed, unemployment was rising, and the Midwestern farmers were losing valuable topsoil to the first winds of the Dust Bowl. Realizing that drastic action was needed in order to prevent an all-out economic collapse, President Roosevelt proposed the CCC and put 250,000 Americans to work in the first two months alone. By day, the workers would construct flood barriers, fight fires, plant trees, and maintain roads on both private and federal land; by night, they would attend classes designed to educate them and instill them with valuable job skills. In July of 1942, the economy was on an upswing and the program was dissolved, but the impact of this important agency can still be felt today by the millions of American families who frequent national parks every year.