Camp Dodge Traditional Cache
drhaas: Not replacing this cache again.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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You will be seeking a 35-mm film canister at this site. It is an
easy hide but not wheelchair accessible. We have particular
interest in this area, as Steve's dad was part of this group.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief
program for unemployed young men age 18-24, providing unskilled
manual labor related to the conservation and development of natural
resources in rural areas of the United States from 1933 to 1942. As
part of the New Deal legislation proposed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to provide relief for
unemployed youth who had a very hard time finding jobs during the
Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource
conservation program on public lands in every U.S. state, including
the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.The CCC became the most popular New Deal program among the
general public, providing jobs for a total of 3 million young men
from families on relief. Implicitly the CCC also led to awareness
and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural
resources, especially for city youth. The CCC was never considered
a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary
legislation for its existence. On June 30, 1942 Congress voted to
eliminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of
the program. During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly
3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800
parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks,
forest fire fighting methods were developed and a network of
thousands of miles of public roadways and buildings were
constructed connecting the nation's public lands. As governor of
New York, FDR had run a similar program on a small scale. Long
interested in conservation, Roosevelt was aware of the numerous
forestry programs set up in 1931-32 in the U.S. and Europe designed
to relieve unemployment by sending young men to work in the woods.
An important theme was the healthy nature of outdoor work versus
the debilitating environment of city slums. Now as president he
proposed to Congress a much larger national program on 21 March
1933: “ I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to
be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and
confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood
control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact
that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only
through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as
a means of creating future national wealth. ” He promised
this law would give 250,000 young men meals, housing, uniforms, and
small wages for working in the national forests and other
government properties. FDR issued Executive Order 6101 on 5 April
1933 which established the organization and appointed a director,
Robert Fechner, a former labor union official who served until
1939. The organization and administration of the CCC was a new
experiment in operations for a Federal government agency; the order
also indicated that the program was to be supervised jointly by
four Cabinet departments: War, Labor, Agriculture and Interior, by
means of a CCC Advisory Council composed of a representative from
each of the supervising departments. In addition the Office of
Education and Veterans Administration participated in the program.
To end the noisy opposition from labor unions, which wanted no
training programs started when so many of their men were
unemployed, Roosevelt picked a union official, Fechner, and took
William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, to the
first camp to demonstrate that there would be no job training
involved beyond simple manual labor. Early Years, 1933-1934 The
legislation and mobilization of the program occurred quite rapidly.
Within ten days after being introduced to Congress the ECW Act was
signed on 31 March 1933; on 5 April Director Fechner was appointed
and War Department corps area commanders were given task to
commence enrollment; the first CCC enrollee was selected 7 April
and subsequent lists of unemployed men were supplied by state and
local welfare and relief agencies for immediate enrollment. On 17
April the first camp, NF-1, Camp Roosevelt, was established at
George Washington National Forest near Luray, Virginia.
Subsequently, by 1 July 1933 there were 1,463 working camps with
250,000 junior enrollees (18–25 years of age), 28,000
veterans, 14,000 American Indians, and 25,000 Locally Enrolled (or
Experienced) Men (LEM). The typical enrollee was a U.S. citizen,
unmarried, unemployed male, 18–20 years of age. Normally the
family was on local relief. Each enrollee volunteered, and upon
passing a physical exam and/or a period of conditioning, was
required to serve a minimum six month period with the option to
serve as many as four periods, or up to two years if employment
outside the Corps was not possible. Enrollees worked 40 hours a
week over five days, sometimes including Saturdays if poor weather
dictated. In return he received $30 a month with a compulsory
allotment $22–25 sent to a family dependent, as well as food,
clothing and medical care. Following the second Bonus Army march on
Washington D.C. a modification of the CCC program through Executive
Order 6129 on 11 May now included work opportunities for veterans.
Veteran qualifications differed from the junior enrollee; one
needed to be certified by the Veterans Administration by
application, they could be any age, and married or single as long
as they were in need of work. Veterans were mostly assigned to
entire veteran camps. Each CCC camp was located in the general area
of particular conservation work to be performed, and organized
around a compliment of up to 200 civilian enrollees in a designated
numbered "company" unit. Each camp was structured to generally have
barracks for 50 enrollees each, officers/technical staff quarters,
medical dispensary, mess hall, recreation hall, educational
building, lavatory and showers, technical/administrative offices,
tool room/blacksmith shop and motor pool garages. The enrollees
were organized into work detail units called "sections" of 25 men
each, according to the barracks they resided in. Each section had
an enrollee "leader" and "assistant leader" who were accountable
for the men at work and in the barracks. The company organization
of each camp had a dual-authority supervisory staff: two or three
Department of War personnel, generally Reserve officers (until 1
July 1939), who were responsible for overall camp operation,
logistics, education and training; and ten to fourteen technical
service civilians, including a camp "superintendent" and "foreman,"
employed by the Departments of Interior or Agriculture, responsible
for the type of field work. Also included in camp operation were
several non-technical supervisor LEMs, who provided knowledge of
the work at hand, "lay of the land" and paternal guidance for
inexperienced enrollees. The CCC performed 300 possible types of
work projects within ten approved general classifications: 1)
Structural Improvements: bridges, fire lookout towers, service
buildings; 2) Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot
trails and airport landing fields; 3) Erosion Control: check dams,
terracing and vegetable covering; 4) Flood Control: irrigation,
drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping; 5) Forest
Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed
collection, nursery work; 6) Forest Protection: fire prevention,
fire pre-suppression, fire fighting, insect and disease control; 7)
Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground
development, lake and pond site clearing and development; 8) Range:
stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals; 9) Wildlife:
stream improvement, fish stocking, food and cover planting; 10)
Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control. The
responses to this six month experimental conservation program were
enthusiastic, and on 1 October 1933 Director Fechner was instructed
to arrange for a second period of enrollment. By January 1934, the
second year of the CCC program, 300,000 men were enrolled. In July
1934 this cap was increased by 50,000 to include men from drought
affected states of the mid-west. The temporary tent camps had also
transitioned from tents to wooden barracks. An education program
had been established emphasizing job training and literacy.
Approximately 55% of enrollees were from rural communities, a
majority of which were non-farm; 45% came from urban. Level of
education for the enrollee averaged 3% illiterate, 38% less than
eight years' of school, 48% did not complete high school, 11% were
high school graduates. At the time of entry, 70% of enrollees were
malnourished and poorly clothed. Few had work experience beyond
occasional odd jobs. Peace was maintained by the threat of
"dishonorable discharge." "This is a training station we're going
to leave morally and physically fit to lick 'Old Man Depression,'"
boasted the newsletter of a North Carolina camp. 
Additional Hints
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