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By the Time Franklin D. Roosevelt Took his First Oath of Office, the Great Depression had virtually gutted the nation's agricultural heartland. In Kentucky, nearly one out of every four men was unemployed and relegated to a life of poverty, and as quickly as the economy deflated, so too did morale.
"The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets... would infinitely prefer to work," FDR stated in his 1933 appeal to Congress. So began the New Deal and, with it, a glimmer of hope and enrichment for a lost generation of young men.
From 1933 up to the doorstep of World War II, the Civilian Conservation Corps employed some 2.5 million men across the country, with nearly 90,000 enrolled in Kentucky. Native Kentuckian and CCC scholar Connie Huddleston chronicles their story with this collection of unforgettable and astonishing photographs that takes you to the front lines of the makeshift camps and through the treacherous landscape, adversity and toil. The handiwork of the Kentucky "forest army" stretches from Mammoth Cave to the Cumberlands, and its legacy is now preserved within these pages.
Acknowledgements 9
Introduction 11
Life in the CCC 17
The CCC's Conservation Mission in Kentucky 29
Developing Kentucky's State Parks 37
Veteran and African American Camps 79
When the Workday Ended 83
One CCC Man 93
The Flood of 1937 101
The Lasting Legacy of the CCC 113
Appendix A Soil Conservation and Other Camps 121
Appendix B Mammoth Cave 125
Sources 127
Overview
By the Time Franklin D. Roosevelt Took his First Oath of Office, the Great Depression had virtually gutted the nation's agricultural heartland. In Kentucky, nearly one out of every four men was unemployed and relegated to a life of poverty, and as quickly as the economy deflated, so too did morale.
"The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets... would infinitely prefer to work," FDR stated in his 1933 appeal to Congress. So began the New Deal and, with it, a glimmer of hope ...