The Civilian Conservation Corps

During the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt devised a plan for the government to create jobs for unemployed young men restoring natural resources. On March 31, 1933, a bill establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps was passed and the president's goal was realized. New York State Parks used the program to develop facilities by creating four CCC camps at Letchworth State Park. Between 1933 and 1941, 3,000 men lived and worked at Letchworth State Park's Gibsonville, Great Bend, St. Helena, and Lower Falls camps. At the Gibsonville Camp, the young men constructed shelters, fireplaces, rail fences, cabins, comfort stations, and the main park road from Mt. Morris to the Wolf Creek area; seeded and planted shoulders and rights of way; conducted trail and woods cleanup; operated one of two quarries in the park; and removed dead trees and brush.

Leicester, New York · United States