Giant City State Park

Okay, you got me...not Kansas, but it does have a personal connection so bear with me.

I just finished a new (2010) book by Kay Rippelmeyer entitled Giant City State Park and the Civilian Conservation Corps: A History in Words and Pictures. I had been eagerly anticipating the release since happening upon it on Amazon a few months ago with a "preorder" option. While I am interested in almost any of the recent publications detailing the work of the CCC around the country, this one holds my interest even more since I lived just a few minutes from Giant City State Park while working in Southern Illinois in the mid-1990s. The park is a great slice of the Southern Illinois landscape and that in itself makes it worth a stop for those who might be making a trip through that part of the world- the fact that it was developed by the CCC is a bonus. A visit to Giant City Lodge is a must if you make the stop at the park.

Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources- Giant City State Park

Giant City Lodge

The park was home to two camps, one positioned in each of two counties (Jackson and Union), in part to ease tension in local politics where different political parties were in control in each county. Work included constructing infrastructure to make the park more accessible and user-friendly as well as conservation work of the park's natural and cultural environs.

The background focusing on this particular park development, the history of the work at the park, and the numerous illustrations of the work through period photographs and other documents (186 illustrations total) is what I enjoyed the most. I can hardly wait to go back and visit again now that I'm armed with this guide to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Giant City State Park. If you're interested in the work of the CCC in park development at the state level, this is an excellent and focused history of such work in Illinois. I look forward to Rippelmeyer's future publication on the Shawnee National Forest and the CCC for much the same reason. Check it out if you get the chance...

"The Future of the CCC"

From the The Adjutant, the CCC newspaper coming out of the Headquarters Company at Fort Leavenworth, comes this editorial concerning one man's thoughts on the future of the CCC. Published January 18, 1936, in the midst of discussion about making the Civilian Conservation Corps a permanent entity, the editorial offers thoughts on the meaningful conservation accomplishments of the organization in under 3 years time. His concluding comments concerning the future remembrance of the CCC were of particular interest to me as I research the work of the CCC in Kansas. While there are in fact statues and monuments erected to the "C.C.C. lad", some in memorial to the fallen, others to commemorate their accomplishments, there are many more public works projects that continue to see use today that stand as silent testimony to their achievements. Indeed, all these years later, "the work accomplished speaks for itself".

THE FUTURE OF THE CCC

There is hardly a day that passes in which one does not hear the question "I wonder what is going to happen to the CCC in the years to come." It is the editor's opinion that the C.C.C. will be a permanent organization. It is possible that details pertaining to administration will change, but the aim to conserve natural and human resources will remain its primary objective.

An organization less than three years old, the C.C.C. has accomplished great things. A nation has had brought home to it in a vivid way the need for recreating our heritage of invaluable resources, particularly in regard to forest, field and stream.

Thousands of acres of denuded and scarred hillsides have been planted to trees where nothing but barren rock would be present in a few short years. A before and after photograph in the January issue of American Forests shows better than words can tell what magic can be wrought by building check dams, and planting young locust trees on a ravished hillside in the Tennessee Valley. In order to save the washing of the mountainsides in the Coastal Range of Southern California, mustard seed has been planted to perform wonders in preventing soil erosion.

Innumerable state parks have been made places of pleasure and healthful recreation for the large urban and rural populations. Dividends will be paid in health and mind, body and soul of those who visit these delightful refuges from a rushing world.

In a few short years the necessity for the prevention of soil erosion has been demonstrated to a large number of the rural population, thus forestalling the event of more sub-marginal land, lower farm incomes, and higher food prices. With the continuance of such notable work, the people of the great Mississippi Valley need not envision for the next century the horrible scene of a desert-like place as pictured in an article by a member of the new deal. He contemplated abandoned cities, a landscape void of vegetation and life, dry rivers and deserted cities.

Nimrods of the future will thank their lucky stars that the C.C.C. carried out grand schemes for conserving their favorite game, and anglers will not have "fisherman's luck" when they cast their lines into a shady pool.

Children of future generations will be grateful for the historic sites which have been restored by the activity of the C.C.C.

Statues of the soldier, the pioneer, the explorer, the ruler and others have been erected. Boys, it would not surprise me that as old men you will visit the public squares and there find a statue erected to the C.C.C. lad. You can swell with pride, perhaps brush away a tear in memory of "old times" and stand with head bared and say in your heart, "I am glad that I was on the Boys."

The C.C.C. has grown in favor with the general population; relations which at one time strained have been healed in large measure. Hundreds of thousands of boys have been saved from the demoralization of idleness. The work accomplished speaks for itself.

(emphasis mine) 

...a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.

 By July 1, over 250,000 young men were enrolled in 1,463 camps. Enrolled war veterans, Native Americans, and local experienced men (LEM) added to this total. The rapid enrollment and expansion of camps tested the capabilities of all agencies and leadership involved.

In Kansas, six camps/companies were established on five projects by July 1 with two additional camps and projects added in mid-July, and two more late in the year in October and November. These were the only camps established in Kansas during 1933.

Company	Project #	Project Type	Nearest Town	Date Established
Co. 735	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 736	S-203	Mined Land Reclamation	Scammon	6/16/1933
Co. 1709	S-201	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1711	S-202	Mined Land Reclamation	Pittsburg	6/20/1933
Co. 1715	S-204	Lake Construction	Toronto	6/23/1933
Co. 767-C	SE-206	Lake Construction	Reading	6/26/1933
Co. 1778-V	SP-1	Park Development	Hays	7/22/1933
Co. 1779-V	PE-206	Soil Conservation	Esbon	7/23/1933
Co. 731	SE-210	Lake Construction	Scott City	10/15/1933
Co. 755	N/A	Soil Conservation	Lebanon	11/10/1933

Roosevelt addressed this newly formed conservation army on July 8, 1933 by way of the organization's newspaper. In it we see the hopes of the president for this new enterprise.


I welcome the opportunity to extend, through the medium of the columns of Happy Days, a greeting to the men who constitute the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Congratulations are due those responsible for the successful accomplishment of the gigantic task of creating the camps, arranging for the enlistments and launching the greatest peacetime movement this country has ever seen.

It is my belief that what is being accomplished will conserve our natural resources, create future national wealth and prove of moral and spiritual value not only to those of you who are taking part, but to the rest of the country as well.

You young men who are enrolled in this work are to be congratulated as well. It is my honest conviction that what you are doing in the way of constructive service will bring to you, personally and individually, returns the value of which it is difficult to estimate. Physically fit, as demonstrated by the examinations you took before entering the camps, the clean life and hard work in which you are engaged cannot fail to help your physical condition and you should emerge from this experience strong and rugged and ready for a reentrance into the ranks of industry, better equipped than before. Opportunities for employment in work; for which individually you are best suited are increasing daily and you should emerge from this experience splendidly equipped for the competitive fields of endeavor which always marl; the industrial life of America.

I want to congratulate you on the opportunity you have and to express to you my appreciation for the hearty cooperation which you have given this movement which is so vital a step in the Nation's fight against the depression and to wish you all a pleasant, wholesome and constructively helpful stay in the woods.
Source: http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933e.htm