The Civilian Conservation Corps was created by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression to provide employment opportunities and improve the country’s forest and recreation resources. Administration and logistics were handled by the U.S. Army, while work projects were directed by the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, and locally experienced men were hired as foremen and liaisons with the community. At its peak in Massachusetts, the Civilian Conservation Corps had fifty-one camps that enrolled ten thousand men. The first year was spent setting up campsites and providing access to forest areas. In the years that followed, the men’s five primary tasks were forest management, fire hazard reduction, pest control, wildlife enhancement, and recreational development. Along with work experience, they were offered a wide variety of educational opportunities, ranging from academic coursework to crafts and culinary arts. The program affected the lives of these Pine Cone Johnnies and left a lasting legacy of forest improvements and recreational resources throughout the state, including roads, bridges, ponds, picnic areas and campgrounds, wells, hiking, riding, and skiing trails, log cabins, and bathhouses. Sixty years later, many of the facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps were still in use.