After the stock market crash on Oct. 29, 1929 helped bring on the U.S. Great Depression, many Americans were unemployed and numerous families lost their homes to foreclosure. In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed the Civilian Conservation Corps, a joint program with the U.S. Forest Service, Department Labor, Department of War, and National Park Service. Young men could enlist and work for a dollar a day, keeping only $5.00 and sending the rest home to struggling families. The three CCC companies that built Cheaha State Park were Co 465, Co 468, and Co 2420. They built numerous parts of the park, including the road to the park, cabins, the tower, Bald Rock Lodge, the lake, pavilions, the lake bathhouse, and trails. As they worked on public lands, created parks, planted trees, fought forest fires, and helped stabilize a nation, Cheaha became the oldest state park in Alabama, an honor made possible by the CCC.