CCC in Arkansas

The Civilian Conservation Corps Act was passed by the United States Congress to provide economic relief in the midst of the Great Depression and to preserve and develop the natural resources of the nation.  The program was one of the most successful New Deal programs to meet the needs of Arkansans who were suffering under the worst of the Depression. 

At the national level, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was divided into nine districts.  Arkansas was in District Seven, which had its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. The local headquarters was in Little Rock, where the Arkansas commander appointed young men to work on projects around the state.  The state CCC commander worked with county unemployment relief committees to find young men capable of working on the projects.  

Once young men were accepted into the program, they were sent to Camp Pike (now Camp Robinson) in North Little Rock to be evaluated and trained.  Many of these men were malnourished and few had a significant education.

At its peak in 1935, the state of Arkansas had sixty-five CCC camps with young men from all over the state and nation working on a number of projects. The most lasting legacy of the CCC in Arkansas was its work in developing and building state parks.  In the early 1930s, there were no developed state parks in Arkansas. Petit Jean, Mt. Nebo, and Arkansas Post had been established in the 1920s, but the construction of state parks was augmented in the 1930s thanks to the work of the CCC. According to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the CCC projects transformed the state parks by the construction of bathhouses, boat docks, cabins, lodges, culverts, and trails.  

Outside of developing existing and new state parks the CCC camps also worked to preserve forest land across the state.  The young men were tasked with building hiking trails, planting trees, building fire watchtowers, and fighting fires. They also worked on projects to stop and control erosion.  In the end, they were also able to map out the types of timber in the state for the State Forestry Agency.

The CCC not only put young men to work, but it also offered them education opportunities in the camps.   While stressing reading and math skills, the camps in Arkansas also focused on agricultural techniques in an attempt to modernize how farmers thought about best practices in farming.  These were skills that stayed with these men long after they left the CCC camps.