With Picks, Shovels, & Hope: The CCC and Its Legacy on the Colorado Plateau
During the great depression, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt created a Civilian Conservation Corps that put some three million young boys to work and called it "the reclamation of natural resoures and the r3ecdlamation of young American manhood." Between 1933 and 1941, young people from all over the United States lived in various camps scattered over the Colorado Plateau and run by the military. During this time, they arrested soil erosion on twenty million acres, restored 3,980 historic buildings, planted four billion trees and fought forest fires. They built roads and bridges and strung 89,000 miles of telephone line. They developed state parks and built trails in the Grand Canyon. The results of their labors can be seen today in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. The young men learned new skills, discipline and self assurance, and at the same time helped the country recover its economy since $20 of their $25 salary went directly to their families. The book includes personal histories of many individuals helped by the program. --Southwest Books of the Year 2008