In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized a nationwide program to ease unemployment during the Great Depression by offering unmarried men ages 18-25 construction work in exchange for three meals a day, clothing, and $30 a month in wages, $25 of which was sent directly to their families. Virginia’s first camp, Camp Roosevelt, opened in June 1933, and Camp Dismal Hollow opened in 1935 on this land. The men at Dismal Hollow built the Front Royal Golf Club, worked on the overlook and roadbed of Skyline Drive, planted trees in Shenandoah National Park, tended plant nurseries, and helped construct the Warren County Courthouse, the lawn of Front Royal Town Hall, and the Warren County Fish Hatchery. Most camps housed about 200 men, many of whom arrived malnourished and under-educated because of economic hardship, and daily life followed a strict routine of breakfast and bunk inspection at 6:00 a.m., work from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., dinner, and lights out at 10:00 p.m. The program’s regular meals, military-like discipline, physical labor, and educational opportunities helped enrollees thrive, while free time often included sports, visits to nearby towns, and occasional dates. Nationally, from 1933 to 1942, 3 million CCC men planted more than 3 billion trees, developed 800 state parks, built 125,000 miles of road, and taught more than 40,000 illiterate enrollees to read and write.