The Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) Collection, 1933-1997 (bulk 1933-1942) documents the work relief program estabilished by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) during the New Deal Era. The CCC employed young men between the ages of 18 to 24 to provide manual labor related to conservation of National Parks and resourse management. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1933 as one of the first programs headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to alleviate youth unemployment during the Great Depression. Members of the CCC became known as FDR's "Tree Army", were recruited by the Department of Labor to revitalize the nation's forests and parks by planting trees, setting up state parks, and building roads that connected parks. The young men were able to stay employed during the Great Depression by contributing to a large-scale conservation program which involved every U.S. State. This collection focuses in particular on the Almaden Camp in San Jose, CA. also called the Mount Madonna Camp. The records consist of photographs, newspaper articles, original newspapers, memorabilia, oral history cassette tapes, memorial calendars, and alumni association publications. The collection is arranged into two series: Series I. Civilian Conservation Corps Memorabilia, 1933-1997; and Series II. Original Civilian Conservation Corps Newspapers, 1934-1935

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1933 as one of the first programs headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to alleviate youth unemployment during the Great Depression. Young men, ages 18 to 24 provided unskilled manual labor supporting reforestation and building the National Parks System. The Department of Labor recruited the men into the program and set up the outdoor camps they would be living at. Upon joining, they were provided clothing by the U.S. Army which also managed the camps. Over three million young men joined the CCC in the nine years it was active. They were paid one dollar per day and were offered free room and board. The majority of the projects the young men worked on involved planting forests, setting up state parks, and building roads that made accessing the parks easier. They built more than 1000 national, state, county and city parks and planted over three billion trees across the nation. To this day, the CCC remains the only government conservation program that worked to save our country's environment on a national scale. There were CCC camps located in every state in the U.S., and this program provided important work relief for these young men and their families.

2 boxes, 2.5 linear feet

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