ShareThisGATLINBURG, Tenn. -- The last time America was gripped by the fear of a staggering economic crisis and losing itself down a black hole of despair, teenagers from across the country answered the call from their president and helped lift the U.S. out of the abyss.
Seventy-five years later, some of those men, gray, stooped, slowed by age, arrived at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park recently to relive memories made so long ago. Some said it was the greatest time of their lives as they recalled the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The National Park Service sponsored a special day of commemorative activities last weekend for the former boys of the CCC, who built the building still used as the park service's headquarters there.
Some 16 former CCC workers, now in their mid- to late 80s, recalled the days when they left their homes, mountain farms and families to join the corps. Many were underage and undernourished.
The CCC was established in 1933 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of his alphabet soup of social programs to help lift the nation out of the Great Depression, which began with the stock market crash of 1929 and resulting financial panic.
"People were without money. People were without jobs. People were without food. People were without hope. People were just without," said Harley Jolley, retired professor emeritus of history from Mars Hill College outside Asheville, N.C., an expert and author on the CCC, as it became known across the nation.
He spoke to a filled auditorium of former CCC workers, family, park employees and those interested in learning about the public-works program that practically built the park from its timbered and forest fire-gutted skeleton.
"What was the impact of the CCC?" asked Ditmanson, repeating a reporter's question.
"I don't think you can walk anywhere in this park and not see the CCC's impact," he said.
Arriving by the hundreds, the youngsters were separated by states: Northern boys with Northerners, and Southern boys with Southerners, Jolley said. They were put into camps across the park, made up of about 200 boys per camp.
Edgar Williamson, 85, from Seymour was one of those youngsters. The law at first included youth ages 18-25 and was later changed to 17-25.
He said that when he arrived at the Smokemont Camp, "I weighed 155 pounds. Soon, I weighed 235 pounds."
The camps, as set up by law, were under the control and direction of the U.S. Army. They were run just like an army.
The foundation of the CCC was conservation work, and in the national park, corps workers built trails, fire towers, roads, bridges, back-country shelters and the park centers at Sugarlands and Oconaluftee.
The park had as many as 4,000 enrollees in 22 camps beginning in 1933. The camps lasted nine years.
Fred Weaver of Knoxville worked at the Tremont Camp. From there, he said, he helped construct bridges, build roads and even pulled guard duty.
He recalled one night about 3 a.m. as he was checking the camp mess hall.
"I walked through the mess hall and was going out the back. The doors locked behind you, so when you went out you had to be careful."
Just as he went out the back, the door shut on him, and Weaver said he was staring into the gaping mouth of a black bear, standing on its hind legs.
"He growled. I hollered. He ran one way and I went the other. I picked up a garbage can lid and banged it on the side of the mess hall just to keep him going."
(E-mail Fred Brown at brownf08(at)gmail.com.
