Created in 1933 during the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps gave young men gainful employment while transforming hundreds of thousands of acres of American landscape. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed the Civilian Conservation Corps and, rather than creating a new federal bureau, set up cooperation among the Departments of War, Agriculture, Labor, and Interior. Over nine years, three million enrollees received much-needed income and joined a nationwide conservation effort to restore forests after overharvesting and turn these lands into recreation destinations. Their work included planting trees, building roads and trails, creating camps and campsites, preventing erosion, and constructing dams for wildlife habitat and recreation, ultimately making these areas accessible for healthful outdoor recreation for all Americans. The area now known as Laurel Hill State Park was chosen as a Recreational Demonstration Area, one of five in Pennsylvania, for a large-scale project that included significant architecture and major water and trail work to create a complete landscape, along with group camps and the camps and barracks where CCC enrollees lived during their service.

Photo: Mike Wintermantel

Seven Springs, Pennsylvania · USA