Roosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 7 of 14 · 49 min
How the CCC Invented the American Outdoor Weekend
The lake you swim in, the campground you pull into, the state park down the road: the CCC probably built it. The episode covers the water projects, wildlife restocking, and recreation facilities that helped invent mass outdoor recreation, with an honest note on the ecological costs of dams, drainage, and predator control.
Who's who
- Jay N. 'Ding' DarlingCartoonist and Biological Survey chief who designed the first Duck Stamp
- Theodore Roosevelt+14 more episodesPresident who established the first federal bird reservation
Where it happens
- Pelican Island, FloridaFirst federal bird reservation, set up in 1903
- Cheraw, South CarolinaEarly state park built with CCC labor
Timeline
- 1903Pelican Island becomes the first federal bird reservation
- March 1934Duck Stamp Act signed; Darling designs the first stamp
- 1936-1939Peak years of CCC state-park construction
- 1940Bureau of Fisheries and Biological Survey merge into the Fish and Wildlife Service
- 1942Congress ends CCC funding
Still debated
The documented national fish total is about 636 million, not the often-repeated one billion. Dam counts vary by definition, credit for park building was shared among agencies, and historians still weigh recreational and habitat gains against ecological harm.
← PreviousHow the CCC Fought the Dust BowlNext →How the CCC Put a Library, a Newspaper, and an Artist in Every Camp
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