All of us have been touched by the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps and New Deal whether we realize it or not. As an elementary student, I attended a W.P.A.-built school, Corryton Elementary, and swam at the C.C.C.-built Big Ridge State Park beach. We camped and hiked through the erosion-preventing New Deal era forests and park campgrounds. During the Great Depression, Union County was effected greatly by programs like the C.C.C.. The Corps' reach put men, desperately in need of jobs, to work and helped to shape the physical landscape of the county. "From Hearth And Hoe" illustrates the work done in the county by the men employed in this New Deal program. This is part one of a multi-part series taken from the aforementioned book outlining this historic program and its impact.
"As part of his war on the Depression, President Roosevelt called on his expertise as a conservationist and created an army of young men to reclaim the land. While governor of New York, he had set 10,000 unemployed people to work at reforestation and similar projects. With the Depression nationwide and thousands of men unemployed, he conceived the idea of putting one million unemployed to work in emergency conservation works. On March 14, 1933, he sent a plan to Congress, which eventually put 250,000 unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 in the Civilian Conservation Corps by early summer of 1933. By June 1, 300 conservation camps were established and by July over 300,000 boys were in the woods, planting trees, making reservoirs and ponds, building dams, digging ditches, raising bridges and fire towers, fighting tree disease, restoring historical battlefields, clearing beaches and camp grounds, and in a number of ways protecting and improving parks, forests, and recreational areas. They came from every walk of life, from every part of the country to strengthen their muscles and expand their minds.