During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt
created the Civilian Conservation Corps to provide jobs for millions of
out-of-work men. Thousands of desperate young men from the East Coast came to
Washington State to work in the woods alongside local boys to build bridges,
roads and park buildings. Historian
Janet Oakley will explore their legacy in her presentation, Tree Army: The Civilian Conservation Corps
in Washington State 1933-41, on
Saturday, January 11th at 10:30am at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse
Community Center in Redmond. She is
speaking as part of the Redmond Historical Society Saturday Speaker Series.
The Civilian Conservation Corps helped to shape parks, forests and
infrastructure from forty eight camps throughout the state with the largest
activity occurring at Mount Rainier National Park. Oakley will address how the CCC was developed
nationally, its impact our on state and its impact the men who did the
work. In the process of conducting her research at Western Washington
University, Oakley met seven men who had been CCC boys.
According to Oakley, ”From their stories I
began to appreciate their legacy here.
Projects were all over the state and all left this impression with the
men I spoke to: They fed us, they gave us education, and they gave us hope for
our families.” Read More >>