Forests & People - Forests and The Great Depression

Forests and the Great Depression

The Great Depression, from 1929 to 1941, when the US entered World War II, was a time when the Federal Government set up work programs to provide people with meaningful work and add infrastructure the nation’s forests.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC’s) put young men to work in forests across the nation, they were supervised by the Army.  The CCC’s built roads, trails, campgrounds, water systems, ranger stations, lookouts, buildings and more.  Those young men planted trees, they fought fires, they were bored, they were homesick, they were excited, they were cold in winter and they sweltered in summer, and through it all  they built their own character which would make them what we (Tom Brokow) label “The Greatest Generation.”  Was it the land that build this generation?  The generation  that the world needed for what was to come?  It certainly helped, maybe we should find ways to replicate it, we could use another great generation, but I digress. 

Finding uniqueness in America’s forest architecture came out of this era, Timberline Lodge on the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon, the Yellowstone Lodge, Glacier Lodge and many other forest buildings built by the Depression era Work Project Administration were artful architecture  that made statements about the forest’s beauty and what it offers us.  

The thousands of young men who built these forest structures gained an intimacy with the forest, its beauty and its harshness,  they took pride in what they had done and wanted it respected.  That issue would come back, after the War.