Beginning late in 1929, the Great Depression brought desperate economic hardship to the United States as the stock market crashed and unemployment reached record highs. After his 1933 election, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved quickly to begin relief, and thirty-seven days after his inauguration, the first enrollee joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many young men arrived at the camps hungry and poorly clothed, received uniforms and three meals a day, and most gained about forty pounds while serving. They earned $30 a month, most of which was sent home to their families. The U.S. Army ran the camps while foresters directed the work, and the CCC fought forest fires, planted trees, built roads and buildings, and created many state parks. Through this labor, thousands of men helped build Pennsylvania's parks, reforest its hills, and transform both Pennsylvania and the United States.