In a time of great hardship, the Civilian Conservation Corps provided thousands of jobs and injected millions of dollars of needed capital into the depressed Arkansas economy. The jobs provided young men the opportunity to improve themselves by the acquisition of skills and education in a disciplined military setting. The projects they completed were not “make-work.” Rather, the conservation, transportation, communication, and infrastructure projects modernized and improved Arkansas, setting the stage for economic recovery and long-term growth.
At the start of the Great Depression, Arkansas was already in a state of economic crisis. Beginning in the 1920s, a series of natural disasters plagued Arkansas. The Great Flood of 1927, for example, was the most destructive in state history. More than 6,000 square miles of farmland were inundated and 350,000 people were displaced. Many independent farmers were unable to recover and lost their land, thus transitioning to tenant farming. Additional floods, along with forest fires, droughts, and tornadoes plagued Arkansas into the early 1930s.
In 1929, Arkansas led the nation in per capita debt, and the state legislature ceased funding for public construction like schools and roads. The stock market crash exacerbated Arkansas’ fiscal problems as federal and charitable funds were redirected to a wider swath of recipients across the nation. Arkansas lacked the resources to make up for the lost outside support. The Arkansas labor force was 80% agricultural, the majority being poor, tenant farmers. In 1930, Arkansas’ per capita income was less than half the national average of $705. During the period of 1929 to 1932, more than a third of employed Arkansans lost their jobs.
Roosevelt’s New Deal offered the hope of relief for the impoverished people of Arkansas in programs like the Public Works Administration, the Works Progress Administration (later the Works Projects Administration) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC provided tens of thousands of $30 per month jobs to Arkansans, who spent some of their earnings in communities near camps, thus propping up some community-scale economies. The CCC also injected the state economy with capital for statewide CCC-contracts.
Completed projects of the CCC transformed some economic sectors of Arkansas. For example, the CCC provided the boost needed to create a state forestry system from one that had existed only on paper. CCC enrollees completed fire suppression work (building watchtowers and roads and adding telephone lines), they thinned forests by removing diseased trees, and they planted millions of saplings. They added forest recreation facilities, and, crucially, they mapped the state’s timber, essential for the economic development of the forests. There were 16 CCC camps in the Ouachita National Forest alone. These vast improvements to forestry laid the groundwork for a major, sustainable industry. In 2017, the economic impact of forestry in the state exceeded $6 billion.
The soil conservation projects of the CCC introduced modern techniques and established soil conservation districts for long-term gains in productivity and sustainability. As a whole, agriculture remains Arkansas’ largest industry, adding $16 billion to the state economy annually. Another example relates to the six magnificent state parks improved or developed by the CCC. Destinations such as Devil’s Den State Park are pillars of the state’s $7.8 billion tourism industry.
The CCC employed men idled by the Great Depression in conservation-related projects of the day. Abstractly, these endeavors provided purpose for thousands of unemployed Arkansans, who parlayed their experiences for social and economic gains. Therefore, the long-term benefits generated and accrued by its participants is one side of the CCC coin, while the tangible, like its forest access roads, telephone lines, and stone park lodges, are the other.
Header Image: A postcard of the CCC-constructed boat house at Petit Jean State Park. Postcard Collection (UALR.PH.0105), UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture.
About the Author:
Dr. Jess Porter is Chair of the UA Little Rock History Department. A cultural geographer by training, Jess coordinated the UA Little Rock Geography program upon his arrival from Oklahoma State University in 2009.