Great Smoky Mountains National Park
CCC Legacy: The Park Was Built During the Depression
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
The national park visitors recognize today was built during the Great Depression.
The Civilian Conservation Corps placed thousands of young men in camps across the Smokies from 1933 into the early 1940s.
At different times, as many as four thousand enrollees served in more than twenty camps.
They built roads, trails, fire towers, bridges, campgrounds and other infrastructure.
They also performed conservation work such as erosion control and forest restoration.
The CCC combined unemployment relief with public-land development.
Young men received wages, food, housing and training.
A portion of earnings was often sent home to families.
The program was also shaped by the inequalities of its era.
Camps were segregated.
Leadership opportunities differed by race.
Women had far fewer comparable opportunities in the program.
Public works can be socially progressive in one dimension and discriminatory in another.
The rustic stonework visitors associate with national-park authenticity is often twentieth-century government construction.
That is one of the most useful Smokies corrections.
The park looks natural because crews worked hard to make roads and buildings visually fit the landscape.
For locals, CCC structures are part of regional heritage.
For visitors, remember the labor behind the scenery.
The Depression did not merely happen while the park was being created.
Federal relief labor physically produced much of the park experience still in use today.