A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Mammoth Cave National Park Kelly A. Lally December 1987 When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President in 1932, the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression. Roosevelt needed to take drastic measures to get America back on its feet. He had always been fascinated with the idea of using unemployed men in conservation work. In fact, he had put thousands of men to work in New York's parks when he was the governor of that state. On March 31, 1933, less that two weeks after it had been introduced to Congress, Roosevelt signed the bill creating the Civilian Conservation Corps into law. From 1933 to 1942, over 2.5 million young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty five worked in CCC camps in the nation's rural areas and national, state, and local parks. In Kentucky, which was a part of the Fifth Corps area of the country (the area also included Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia), there were fifty-nine CCC projects in 1935, although the average number of Kentucky projects was thirty-four in the program's nine year history. One of the largest CCC projects in Kentucky was the development of the Mammoth Cave Properties in the south central portion of the state. In the early 1930s these properties "were in transition from state management to national park st tus, and the presence of the CCC accelerated the progress." There were four different camps stationed at Mammoth Cave, one of which, Company 510 (also known as Camp #1), was made up solely of Black men. Though it has been over fifty years since the Civilian Conservation Corps began its work, there have been very few studies of the effects that this extensive national program had in the areas of Kentucky with which it was involved, nor on the actual work that the CCC completed. In May 1987 I received a grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission to document the work of the Corps at Mammoth Cave by conducting oral history interviews with people who had been involved with the CCC in that area of the state. After briefly describing my fieldwork experiences, I will discuss the history and work of the CCC at Mammoth Cave based on my research and interviews, concentrating on five specific areas: the background of the men who worked in the CCC at Mammoth Cave; work projects; camp life; the relationship of the Corps with the local population; and the general evaluation of the success and effectiveness of the CCC by former enrollees. From June to September 1987 I interviewed twenty-five people--twenty former CCC enrollees and five other related people about their experiences with the CCC at Mammoth Cave (see figure 1). I interviewed men from each of the four camps and was able to talk with people who were involved with many facets of camp life, such as cooks, a camp commander, truck drivers, fire fighters, an office clerk, and road and trail builders, to name a few. I also consulted with a camp commander's widow, a geologist from Washington, D C. who was called into the area during the period, and a few local residents with vivid memories of the CCC. All but five of the interviewees for the project presently reside in the area around Mammoth Cave National Park. The preliminary list of interviewees for the grant proposal was provided by Bob Ward, Mammoth Cave National Park's historian. Those initial informants, as well as employees at the park from the area and other local residents, recommended other former (cont'd) INTERVIEWEES FOR THE MAMMOTH CAVE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT NAME LOCATION ROLE O. L. Thomas Bowling Green, KY fire dispatcher Joe Kulesza Park City, KY office worker/leader Henry Scott Cave City, KY camp commander #1 Joe Hall Glasgow, KY water/sewage system Smith Meredith Mammoth Cave, KY stone mason, leader Hobart Vincent Brownsville, KY enrollee James Dennison Cave City, KY enrollee Ellis Jones Cave City, KY head mechanic, #4 Troy Davis Park City KY enrollee Ray Scott Frankfort KY photographer Vernon Wells Erlanger, KY assistant to Robert Holland 1st ranger Clint Thompson Cub Run, KY communications Sherman Moffitt Horse Cave. KY enrollee, #1 Georgie Childress Mammoth Cave, KY enrollee GilDert Bush Horse Cave KY enrollee Shorty Coats Cave City, KY enrollee Gilbert Sanders Pigg, KY surveyor Kathryn Kadel Cave City, KY widow of camp commander Dick Kadel James Ashby Louisville, KY enrollee Donald Haziett Russellville, TN geologist/consultant Rubin Vincent Ollie, KY enrollee Vida and Doss Davis Mammoth Cave, KY local residents Elmer Britt Brownsville, LY enrollee, #1 Louis Cutliff Mammoth Cave, KY local resident (cont'd) enrollees who would be willing to discuss their experiences with me. Though at first Bob and I feared that it would be difficult to find twenty former enrollees with whom to talk, we ended the project with a list of potential interviewees much longer than was needed for the project. In general, the people I interviewed were very cooperative and excited about being able to contribute to the study of the history of their local area. I can honestly say that every person with whom I spoke taught me something that I did not know about the CCC or the area, and/or gave me a different perspective from which to look at the Corps and the Park's development. However, my project did have its share of problems--some humorous and some unfortunate. Several of the people with whom I talked. though willing to be interviewed, did not feel that they had much to offer or were nervous about the tape recorder, and therefore answered my questions very briefly and could not be prompted to elaborate on their answers. These very same people told me wonderful stories that were rich in detail before and after the official interview, but clammed up as soon as the machine was turned on or mentioned again. The opposite situation also cropped up: several interviewees jumped at the chance to tell their complete life stories on tape. I generally did not mind these personal sidetracks-they were often interesting, informative, and somehow related to the Subject at hand (such as elaborations of hardships during the Depression or career development after the CCC). Most of those interviewed were able to keep the purpose of my visit in mind, returning to the a discussion of the CCC with little or no persuasion. One man, however, refused to stay on the topic for very long, and literally had to be interrupted (gently, but repeatedly) to get him back on track. One of my more humorous interviews took place with a man who was almost completely deaf and whose hearing aid was broken. This man was coherent, but he could not hear my voice very well. Bob Ward, who accompanied me on the visit and whose voice is louder than my own, had to repeat nearly all of my questions. The tape resulting from the interview features a great deal of repetition and three people talking very loudly to each other A few other problems which appeared during the project included loud background noises which significantly lower the quality of a few tapes, getting myself lost on Edmonson County roads on the way to interviews and traveling 250 miles to talk with a man who, I was dismayed to find out, had very little contact with the CCC while he was at Mammoth Cave. Fortunately that interview, though essentially unrelated to the project, was worthwhile because this man was important in Mammoth Cave National Park's history for other reasons. Throughout the project I worked closely with Bob Ward, who not only put together the preliminary list of contacts, but also set up many of the interviews for me and accompanied me on several occasions. Dr. Lynwood Montell, of Western Kentucky University, helped me to develop my list of interview questions and served as a general project consultant. The oral History of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Mammoth Cave has been one of the most rewarding educational experiences that I have had to date. I have learned much about thy CCC that cannot be found in history books, especially the ways in which local areas adapt federal policies and programs to meet their own needs. I have learned a great deal about the trials and tribulations of fieldwork, as discussed above. Finally, my notions of the value of oral history interviews have been re-enforced both by my field experiences and the fact that one of the people with whom I talked died less than a month after I had interviewed him. Some of his memories of a role that he played in history have been preserved. The bill "establishing the Mammoth Cave National Park in the State of Kentucky" had been passed by Congress and signed into lay in May of 1926, 7 yet by 1933 very little work had been done on the proposed park site. Only a handful of the residents who had sold their land to local land buyers or to the Mammoth Cave National Park Association had actually vacated the premises. In fact, many people were told, falsely, by land buyers that they could still inhabit their land if they sold it. 8 In 1934 Arno Cammerer, the new Director of the National Park Service, announced that the federal government would no longer accept land from any state for national park purposes until all of the inhabitants had left the area. 9 Despite the presence of people on the land, the CCC was sent to Mammoth Cave to physically prepare the area to become a park, and Robert Holland, a National Park Service representative, was sent to the area to speed up the process of removing people from the land. In 1933 the CCC began building a recreational wilderness area from what had been farmland for decades. They faced tasks such as treating soil erosion, reforesting of much of the landscape, building and improving roads, and constructing park buildings. Company 510, known more commonly as Camp #1, was the first Corps camp to be established at Mammoth Cave. Located on the site of what had been the Bluegrass Country Club on Flint Ridge, near Crystal Cave, Camp #1 later became a camp for Black men, though in the beginning both Blacks and Whites worked in this camp, segregated by barracks. Henry Scott of Cave City, Kentucky, served as the camp commander for Camp #1 for several years. He describes the development of Camp #1: It was more or less of a semi-temporary set up then; When I went there they were building the new barracks. . . . So we had the camp eventually all built like the others. But it was a temporary affair. They had a clubhouse out there which they left standing. We used that for the Officers' Quarters. The cadets (enrollees] were living in tents while they were getting this camp buiIt.(10) Camp #1 occupied this site until it was disbanded in 1942. In more recent times this same site served as the first location of the Job Corps at Mammoth Cave. The other camps at Mammoth Cave were established soon after Camp #1, though it is unclear from my interviews whether the members of Company 510 built these additional camps, whether the army initiated the camp construction, or whether the enrollees of each of the camps built their own buildings, as the members of Camp #1 did. The rest of the camps were numbered and located as follows: Company 543 (Camp #2)--near the New Entrance to Mammoth Cave. 1933-1943, Company 582 (Camp #3)--located on Joppa Ridge, 1933-1938, Company 516 (Camp #4)--stationed on the north side of the Green River at Cade, 1933-1942. When constructed, each of the four camps had several buildings: three to four barracks, a kitchen and mess area, latrines, the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) office. a blacksmith shop, commissary, garages, and storage and maintenance areas. The camps received most of their supplies, including fuel, food, and clothing, from Fort Knox, although certain local businesses, such as Brown's Dairy in Glasgow, were able to provide the camps with some provisions. The military played a major role in the operation of the CCC camps. Army officers and reserve officers, such as Henry Scott and Dick Kadel, the deceased husband of Kathryn Kadel with whom I talked, provided leadership for the camps during the non-working hours. Though the army essentially ran the camps, the CCC was not a military operation and was much more informal than any of the branched of military service. Park Service officials and other hired professionals supervised the work projects. Each camp housed 200 to 250 enrollees who formed a community and in general met their own needs. Enrollees served as leaders and assistant leaders in the barracks and on some of the work projects, providing some leadership from amongst themselves. They also worked as the cooks, office workers, and maintenance men of their camps. CCC enrollees were given clothing, room, and board for their work and were paid a salary of thirty dollars a month, twenty-five dollars of which was sent home to their families. Those promoted to assistant leader received thirty-six dollars a month, while leaders were paid forty-five dollars a month for their services. Near the termination of the CCC as a relief program, enrollees sometimes had the option of having some of their earnings deposited in a savings account for later use. The CCC Enrollees at Mammoth Cave Young men signed up or were selected for the CCC in a wide variety of ways, depending on the policies of the particular county in which they resided. Some, such as Joe Kulesza, drew numbers for a spot in a camp. Others filled out applications at the local courthouse, and a few were actually "recruited" in the later years when the number of enrollees began to drop off: Almost everyone who needed employment was accepted for the CCC if there were openings to be filled in the camps. Generally, only those who did not qualify on the basis of financial need were not accepted to work in Ace Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of the CCC enrollees at Mammoth Cave lived in communities and counties near the proposed park site. Some local men, when they initially enrolled, were sent to camps out west, returning later to the camps near their homes. Camp #4 was made up of a large number of young men from Indiana and Ohio who had originally worked in one of the two camps at Martinsville, Indiana. When a camp at Martinsville was closed, enrollees were sent 12 to Mammoth Cave. Those who came to Mammoth Cave from outside the local area and who were new to the CCC were sent to Fort Knox for two to three weeks of "processing" (i.e., medical examinations, paper work, and physical conditioning). Those who were stationed at Mammoth Cave and whose homes were in the vicinity reported directly to one of the camps for processing. and were usually assigned to a work project immediately without a period of conditioning. Like the majority of the population of the United States during the Depression, most of the men who enrolled in the CCC were unemployed and in need of some income to help support their families. The majority of the men with whom I talked lived on farms and could barely support or feed their families with their crops. Georgie Childress, the second oldest of twelve children, describes how the Childress family survived during the Depression before his father began working on a Works Progress Administration (WPA) job and he enrolled in the CCC: This gets down to the grassroots of things. Times were hard. My brother next to me and my father, we would go to--a lot of times in the summer in the Depression--we'd get us a sack a piece. . .and we'd go into these hollows and we'd dig wild ginger and mayapple roots. And bring them home and wash them and dry them and carry them about two miles to a dealer in this community. And we'd sell them in exchange to buy bread.(13) Enrollees remained in the CCC anywhere from six months to several years, depending on the enrollment policy, whether or not there were an adequate number of enrollees to fill the camps, and the individual roles members played in the camps. Joe Kulesza was in the CCC for eight years because of his abilities as a manager and leader, while most men were enrolled for an average of two years. Hobart Vincent enrolled under two different names in order to stay in the CCC longer. From 1937 to 1939 he worked in Camp #2 under his true name, Charles Vincent. In 1939, after his first term of enrollment was up, he re-enrolled as Hobart Vincent and was assigned to Camp #4. No one ever found out about his name change. CCC Work Projects at Mammoth Cave In his book Hard Times and the New Deal in Kentucky, 1929-1939, George Blakey mentions that the men of the four camps at Mammoth Cave "[planted] nearly one million trees, [built] miles of new roads and hiking trails, [prepared] topographical survey maps, and [constructed] rustic homes for park employees." But the role of the CCC in developing Mammoth Cave National Park was much more substantial. In April of 1940, Acting Superintendent R. Taylor Hoskins sent the following memorandum to the Mammoth Cave Operating Committee detailing the work of the CCC: Since the inception of the CCC in Mammoth Cave National Park approximately 747,825 mandays have been expended on various jobs, which include, among others, the following: Construction and Improvement Man-days Frozen Niagara Entrance Improvement 7,000 Comfort Station (1) - 400 Dwellings for personnel (6) 5,450 Water system 25,000 Machine shop 3,300 Foot trails, 7 miles 8,000 Truck trails, 61 miles 72,000 Residential road, 1 mile 11,700 Telephone system, 42.6 miles 12,000 Steel lookout towers (3) 2,900 Cave improvement, 24 miles 12,000 Amphitheater 1,750 Telephone exchange building 800 Sewage system, 4 miles (residential, utility, camping and hotel areas) 8,600 Fire guard cabins 2,000 Ferry house 175 Fire hazard reduction 13,000 acres 130 000 Tree planting 9,000 Check dams 15,000 Razing undesireable structures (1,827) 3,000 Landscaping 10,000 Surveying 2,000 - General cleanup, 100 acres 1,500 . . .In addition to the above mentioned projects, a multitude of small projects have been completed such as topographic survey, trail markers, boundary markers, parking areas, picnic grounds, development, and so forth.(16) Thus, from Hoskins's description one can see that the Civilian Conservation Corps was heavily involved with all aspects of the park's development at Mammoth Cave. Hoskins also mentions in his memo that to that date in 1940 the United States government had paid $5,770,000 for all of the work done by the CCC at Mammoth Cave. This sounds like a great deal Of money until one considers what it would have taken to pay six go eight hundred professionals working full time for nine years on the same project. Even during the Depression years such a project would probably have cost much more than one dollar a day and clothing, food, and shelter. The federal government received top quality work at bargain prices. All four camps shared the work at Mammoth Cave, although a few of the camps did specialize in certain areas. For example, the men of Camp #4 installed the telephone system throughout the park, while a great deal of the work in the cave itself was completed by the enrollees from Camp #1. Certain individuals also did work fair the entire park. Say Scott, of Camp #2, eventually became the Corps photographer, while Joe Hall, also of Camp #2, working with one other enrollee and a maintenance foreman built and maintained the park's sewage and water system. Though the majority of the young men were simply assigned work details, some individuals were assigned special duties because of their abilities and qualifications: When they bring in rookies, why, of course they have some knowledge of you. And sometimes they would assign you to this, that, and the other thing. But most of the men that were sent there were sent in the field-that was call ed fieldwork. . . . They were [also] looking for someone for very specialized jobs. (17) O. L. Thomas, because of his mathematical abilities, worked as a fire dispatcher, although that job usually belonged to a professional. Ray Scott, mentioned above, developed an interest in photography and became the Mammoth Cave project photographer. Smith Meredith showed promise as a stone mason, and eventually did most of the stone work on the CCC constructed buildings in tile part. Joe Kulesza was first assigned to office work because he could type. As an enrollee, Vernon Wells was assigned to assist Robert Holland, the Fark Service official who had been sent to accelerate the park's development. When his term of enrollment ended he became one of the park's first rangers. There was room for both ambition and individual interests in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Camp Life in the CCC Though the CCC was not a military operation, there were many similiarities between military and Corps life. For most enrollees the day began at reveille. James Dennison describes the typical aspects of his daily schedule: Well when we woke up, the first thing we had to make our beds and get everything in order. end we'd have our breakfast and fix up the grounds. And then we'd go out to work. And we did a good day's work too. . . . Well, when I was out here at number two we come back [for lunch]; we was close there. A lot of them, now, was maybe farther away didn't [come back for lunch].(18) Those enrollees who did not come back for lunch either took food with them or had it delivered to them in the field. After work, the enrollees returned to camp and ate dinner. Though lights went out at ten o'clock in the evening, the boys were not required to regain in camp unless they were on fire duty, were being disciplined for some reason, or were quarantined due to illness Although Georgia Childress remembers one point in his experience with the CCC when the men in his camp weren't fed adequately, most former enrollees remember eating well while they were in the CCC. H. B. Jackson, who forked his way up from kitchen helper to first cook and mess sergeant of camp #4, said that when he ordered food he was alloted 33.3 cents a day to spend on each man when ordering food. He describes what he, as a cook, considered to be a good evening meal in the CCC: "A good evening's meal would be a choice beef roast with vegetable gravy, . . . with mashed potatoes, buttered peas, cole slaw, and Boston Cream pie for dessert. That's a pretty fair meal." The enrollees were also given special meals on holidays. The menu for Camp #2's Christmas dinner in 1938 included: roast turkey, snowflake potatoes, giblet gravy, buttered peas, creamed cauliflower, lettuce salad, bread and butter, coffee, assorted fruits and nuts, fruit 21 cake, ice cream, and cigarettes and cigars. Unless an enrollee had a special job which required unusual hours, such as that of a cook, a fire dispatcher, or a ferry operator, or had another type of special assignment, such as being on call for fire duty, all of the young men in the Corps had their evenings and weekends free. Many of the local boys went home for the weekends to visit and help their families. Georgie Childress went home almost every weekend: "I'd come home, and most of the time I'd go to church on weekends. . . . I didn't go anywhere much, I was a home boy." Other enrollees participated in a variety of recreational activities. Competitive sports and games were popular among the CCC boys. O. L. Thomas describes the athletic activities in the camps and his personal triumphs: See we had a regular curriculum there- sports and also studies. For instance, we played basketball. There was eight camps Slat was in an organization, a league. We had baseball, we had track and field meets. It might interest you to know that I never lost a 100 yard, 50 yard, or 220 yard dash. . . . I also made every all star team they had on baseball.(23) Though not everyone participated in organized sports, many enrollees liked to watch athletic events and support their camp teams. Other men remember spending time fishing, wrestling, reading, and playing tennis, cards, and pool. Most enrollees spent at least some of their evenings and weekends in Cave Fity watching movies (and probably the local girls, too). The boys were transported to and from town by a camp truck. Admission to the movies cost five cents. The camps also sponsored dances and activity nights at the Whoopie House, which was the recreation building that all four camps shared. Busloads of girls from Cave City or Glasgow (accompanied by proper chaperones, of course) traveled to Mammoth Cave for these events. Drinking was a part of the CCC social experience for some of these young men. Cave City was "wet" during the 1930s, and many of the local moonshiners catered to the boys. The CCE camps had educational programs in which some enrollees participated. Courses such as typing, drafting, woodworking, and mechanics, as well as reading and writing, were offered. Camp #2 had a journalism class which put out a monthly newspaper called The Cave Man. Although few of the men with whom I talked spent much of their time in the CCC taking classes, the educational programs must have been fairly popular. In October 1939 Camp #2 dedicated a new educational building: "It has been the desire of every camp officer of every camp from the beginning of the Civilian Conservation Corps to have an educational building. They realized that the enrollees desired an opportunity to improve themselves. . . . this dream has eventually been realized, our building is completed." Another type of recreation for many CCC boys was the pulling of pranks on one another. Short sheeting, hot foots, and the ripping or burning of back pockets off of uniform trousers seem to have been the most popular pranks, although the placing of slimy creatures or cornflakes into bunks and the flipping over of the beds of sleeping men were also common. Experienced enrollees often played pranks on new men in camp, such as sending them on {else errands or leaving them in the woods to find their own way back to camp. O. L. Thomas told me about one prank played on a new enrollee while he was in the CCC: When we got rookies in, . . . we didn't do anything mean or anything like that, but we'd give them a broomstick and tell them to guard the flagpole. . . . One old boy took it seriously too. Some of the fellows came out there and told him that we had pulled a rookie trick on him and he hit them a few licks with that broom. He said, "I know," he said, "When they tell me to guard the flagpole, I'm going to guard the flagpole. And you're going to stay off this piece of green grass right here. I was told to keep everybody off." And buddy he kept them off too! (25) The camp leaders usually handled discipline problems, such as conflicts which might occur between enrollees or the failure to carry out assigned duties, by giving the offending parties extra clean-up duty or grounding them to the campsite for a specific period of time. Severe problems led to the dismissal of the disruptive person from the CCC, although this did not happen often. Most men were so grateful to be able to do something useful and to make some money that they did not dream of making trouble. The people with whom I talked were divided on the subject of whether or not the various camps interacted with each other very much. There was some contact among camps during athletic competition. Occasionally members of different camps worked on the same project. However, social events, such as dances and activities at the Whoopib House were usually kept separate to avoid conflict among the members of different camps. The situation was probably similar to that of rival fraternities or schools--many enrollees had friends in the other camps, but members of the different camps also competed with each other. Approximately twenty-five percent of the enrollees at Mammoth Cave were black. Camp #1, which housed the Blacks, "won several superior ratings for exemplary achievements." Most of the people I interviewed felt that the Blacks, though segregated as was common for the period, were accepted into the area. Few former enrollees remember having witnessed any incidences of racial tension and did not believe that such conflicts were present in the CCC. Others told me that they heard about times when Blacks were victims of violence and racial prejudice. Henry Scott tells about an incident which occurred when Camp #1 was being built: When I first went there [camp #1] we had Negroes in the camp. And there was one barracks full of Negroes. And the rest of the boys were from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. And they just didn't like Negroes period, you know. And one night they ran them all out of the camp. . . . And they went in every direction. . . . So we had a heck of a time running them down and finding them. And they didn't want to come back to camp. (27) Sherman Moffitt, one of the two Black enrollees with whom I spoke discusses the racial discrimination that he and other Black men experienced in the CCC: There's a lot of good things to be said about it. . . . But there was a lot of discrimination that kept me from advancing, you know, like lots of others didn't advance. . . . We were held back because of our color. . . . It's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still has to be contended with today. It was in the CCC camps. . . . They kept us separated. And this was bad on [for] both sides. (28) Relationship of the CCC with the Local Population Most of the local residents, especially those from Edmonson County, which lost the most land in the park dealings, were very angry about the development of the park. Some of the area people had been misled by land buyers who convinced them to sell their land by assuring them that they could still live on the property. Vernon WeIls and Joe Ridge, who had been CCC enrollees assigned to assist Robert Holland of the National Park Service, became the park's first rangers. Holland developed the plan for the systematic removal of those people who refused to leave the property that had been sold to the government. Letters were sent to the residents asking them to vacate the premises within twenty days. If the letters and subsequent personal warnings by Wells and Ridge to move off the land were not heeded, members of the CCC were instructed to begin razing structures. Vernon Wells, though understanding of the hard feelings that developed, believed that such drastic action was necessary: The hostility that was directed at the three of us was because of the actions we had taken to evict these people from the land. But understand it was a necessary action. And due to the fact that we could not get any help from the legal authorities in evicting these people . . . and then too you'll have to remember that Edmonson County lost a great amount of its land to the national park. . . . So they had, they thought, valid reasons for not cooperating with us. But Mr. Holland was a very, very determined person. And it was his job to get the thing moving down there. And when he saw . . . that it was impossible to move quickly in any other way, why we had to resort to these forceful tactics in order to get the land vacated. Otherwise Mammoth Cave National Park would have been many, many years after that in becoming a reality.(29) By 1936 Holland's policy had been so effective that Mammoth Cave became an official protectorate of the National Park Service, although it (id hot officially become a national park until 1941. Despite the animosity of the local people toward the National Park Service and the fact that some of the CCC enrollees were involved in the "razing of undesireable structures," which the Superintentent mentions in the memo quoted earlier, the local residents did not blame the CCC for these actions and generally had positive feelings toward the Corps: "Well, as far as the CCC's, they weren't bothering us. They done a whole lot of work around here, helped out a lot. They built these roads and then they, a few of them, they'd go and help people on farms." Many local boys worked for the CCC too, so their families benefitted from the money they were bringing home. Yet some of the residents of the local area still protested the development of the park by setting fires, which the CCC boys had to fight. On the whole, conflicts between residents and the men in the CCC were few and probably stemmed more from the occasional rowdiness of the men than the work the Corps was doing at Mammoth Cave. The local girls also had positive feelings toward the Civilian Conservation Corps. Imagine what it would be like for a teen-age girl in a rural area or small town when eight hundred young men descended upon the region. (A dream come true?) As mentioned earlier, many girls attended the dances that the various camps held. As a young woman being courted by camp commander Richard Kadel, Kathryn Kadel was invited to many special dinners held in the Officer's dining room. And if all else failed there were other ways of making contact with all of those men. One former enrollee told me that he believes a few women set fires to get the CCC boys to come out to their locality. How-ever the interaction came about, the CCC enrollees and the girls of the area did make some contact with each other. In fact, some of the CCC boys, even a few from outside the area, married local girls and settled in south central Kentucky. Evaluation of the CCC Every person with whom I talked considered the Civilian Conservation Corps to be a successful program in one way or another. For most of the interviewees in my project the Corps's most significant contribution was the relief it provided them and their families from the devastating effects of the Depression: Twenty-five dollars a month does not sound like much by today's standards, but it went a long way in those times. Sherman Moffitt notes that the CCC also kept young men from becoming desperately discouraged: A big reason that I think the CCC camps was set up to give boys a job. . . instead of walking the streets. There was a lot mere violence going on, you know, stealing, breaking in, back in those days. People are going to--they're going to survive some way or another, you know. If we can't get it the right way we'll get it the wrong way. So I think this [the CCC] eliminated. . . a lot of wrongdoing.(33) In fact, this type of moral encouragement was one of Roosevelt's primary goals in setting up the CCC: "More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. . . . We can take a vast army of these unemployed out into the healthful surroundings. We can eliminate to some extent at least some of the threat of enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability."(34) In addition to gaining financial aid and some hope for the future, many of these men learned things that would prove valuable in their life careers. For some, confidence in their abilities and their self-worth, which they took with them throughout their lives, was the most important lesson they learned in the CCC. Others acquired more concrete skills and personal contacts. Of the former enrollees I interviewed, James Dennison at one time made a living at carpentry, a skill which he learned in the Corps. Troy Davis, Hobart Vincent, Shorty Coats, Rubin Vincent, and Elmore Britt have all worked for Mammoth Cave National Park in various capacities. Joe Kulesza joined the National Park Service after leaving the CCC and eventually returned to Mammoth Cave as the park's Superintendent. Ray Scott, the Corps's photographer, learned his skills in the CCC. He later made his living as a professional photographer: I would say that without a doubt my years in the CCC pointed my entire professional and business life in the direction in which I have gone because it gave me the background to move into photography and public relations. . . . I would say that without that particular experience and background I may very well have gone in a different direction. And I am extremely grateful for that experience and what it has done for me. (35) On the local level, both former enrollees and area residents see road improvement as the greatest contribution of the CCC. Smith Meredith told me that before the roads were improved, residents on the north side of the Green River were basically stuck at home during the bad weather months. The local economy also benefitted from having the four camps nearby. Although the CCC received most provisions from Port Knox the men did spend some of their money in the area towns. Nationally, a few people thought the CCC had a greater effect on the morale of the country than it actually had on the economy. Most interviewees felt that the program did help the nation economically, as well as military. Though the CCC did not provide any specific military training, those who spent time in the Corps were accustomed to living closely with other men, taking directions, drilling. wearing uniforms, being away from their families, and living a fairly regimented lifestyle. These lessons were impotent to the men who after leaving the CCC joined or were drafted into the military to fight in World War II. Most of the people I interviewed believed any problems in the CCC to be miniscule compared to the benefits it gave to the people who were involved with it The Civilian Conservation Corps helped some families to get back on their feet financially, prepared many enrollees for later life experiences in the military and in their occupational lives, and improved conditions in local communities. Aside from all of this, for many men being in the CCC was an enjoyable experience: "We worked hard, but it was the most fun I've ever had in my life." Notes 1. Frank Freidel, FDR: Launching the New Deal (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1973), 257. 2. Ibid, 263. 3. John A. Salmond, The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942: A New Deal Case Study (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967), v. 4. George T. Blakey, Hard Times and the New Deal In Kentucky, 1929-1939 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986), 83. 5. Salmond, 84. 6. Blakey, 84. 7. Edmund B. Rogers, comp., History of Legislation Relating to the National Park System Through the 82nd Congress (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of the Interior, 1958). 8. Interview with Vernon Wells, 26 July 1987. 9. Charles L. Perdue, Jr. and Nancy J. Martin-Perdue, "Appalachian Fables and Facts: A Case Study of the Shenandoah National Park Removals," Appalachian Journal 7 (1979-80):90. 10. Interview wit) Henry Scott, 11 June 1987. 11. Interview with James Dennison, 27 June 1987. 12. Interview with Joe Kulesza, 9 June 1987. 13. Interview with Georgie Childress, 6 August 1987. 14. Interview with Hobart Vincent, 24 June 1987. 15. Blakey, 84. 16. R. Taylor Hoskins, "Memorandum for the Mammoth Cave Operating Committee," 10 September 1940, Mammoth Cave National Park Library, Mammoth Cave, KY. 17. Interview with 0. L. Thomas, 8 June 1987. 18. Interview with James Dennison, 27 June 1987. 19. Interview with Georgie Childress, 6 August 1987. 20. Interview with H. B. Jackson, 9 July 1987. 21. Members of the Journalism class of Camp #2, "Menu for Christmas Dinner," The Cave Man (December 25 1938). 22. Interview with Georgie Childress, 6 August 1987. 23. lnterview with 0. L. Thomas, 8 June 1987. 24. Dedication Program of the Educational Building, CCC Co. 543-NF-2, Mammoth Cave, KY, 14 October 1938. 25. Interview with 0. L. Thomas, 8 June 1987. 26. Blakey, 84. 27. Interview with Henry Scott, 11 June 1987. 28. Interview with Sherman Moffitt, 4 August 1987. 29. Interview with Vernon Wells, 26 July 1987. 30. Interview with Doss Davis, 2 September 1987. 31. Interview Kathryn Kadel. 14 August 1987. 32. Interview with Smith Meredith, 19 June 1987. 33. Interview with Sherman Moffitt, 4 August 1987. 34. Freidel, 260. 35. Interview with Ray Scott, 16 July 1987. 36. Interview with Smith Meredith, 19 June 1987. 37. Interview with Joe Mall, 12 June 1987. Bibliography Blakey, George T. Hard Times and the New Deal in Kentucky, 1929-1939. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986. Freidel, Frank. FDR: Launching the New Deal. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1973. Goode, Cecil B. World Wonder Saved: How Mammoth Cave Became a National Park. The Mammoth Cave National Park Association, Mammoth Cave, KY, 1986. Hoskins, R. Taylor. "Memorandum to the Mammoth Cave Operations Committee." 10 September 1940. Mammoth Cave National Park Library, Mammoth Cave, KY. Journalism Class of Camp #2. The Cave Man. 25 December 1938. Kimmett, Leo. "Life in a Yellowstone CCC Camp." Annals of Wyoming 56:1 (Spring 1984), 12-21. Leuchtenburg William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Perdue, Charles L., Jr. and Martin-Perdue Nancy J. "Appalachian Fables and Facts: A Case Study of the Shenandoah National Park Removals." Appalachian Journal. 7:1-2 (1979-80):84-104. Rogers, Edmund B., comp. History of Legislation Relating to the National Park System through the 82nd Congress. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of the Interior, 1958. Salmond, John A. The Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942: A New Deal Case Study. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967.