The CCC Although the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did not generally employ artists,* there were, regardless, CCC laborers who possessed a variety of talents. The “boy” mentioned in the letter to Superintendent Eakin was one W. Alan Youngblood. He was so bursting with pride over the bridges, roads, and trails that he and his fellow enrollees had created in the Greenbrier area, that he spent his leisure hours making sketches of them. Youngblood’s 1934 portfolio of original illustrations has been carefully preserved in the park archives for over 80 years. Likewise, the hand-hewn infrastructure created by Camp David C. Chapman has largely endured and is still serving hundreds of visitors every day. Between 1933 and 1942, as many as 4,000 CCC enrollees were stationed in the Smokies at any given time. All were single, unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 25. Their pay was $30 per month ($25 of which was sent home to dependents). *The depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed hundreds of artists.
Smokies Life
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