About The Civilian Conversation Corps in Oregon
Amid the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt formulated a bold plan for putting millions of unemployed Americans to work and restoring the nation’s public lands. Between 1933 and 1942, over 86,000 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees worked on Oregon’s national forests, state parks, and tribal lands. Their labor transformed the landscape and created some of the state’s most beloved recreational areas.
The scale and scope of their accomplishments are staggering. In Oregon alone, the CCC built 50,000 miles of forest roads, 20,000 miles of trails, 3,000 acres of public campgrounds, 1,500 bridges, and hundreds of fire lookouts. CCC crews risked their lives fighting epic wildfires and restoring Oregon’s damaged forests.
Today, it’s almost impossible to travel around the state without encountering reminders of their legacy, from irrigation canals to ski lodges. This is the story of how they did it.
Glenn Voelz served as an intelligence officer for twenty-five years in the Army and spent over a decade living and working in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He held senior leadership positions at the Pentagon on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the White House Situation Room, and at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Glenn now lives in Central Oregon with his family.
During his career, Glenn served as an assistant professor of history at West Point. He has published over a dozen books and journal articles on history, government contracting, military innovation, and emergency management. Glenn is a professional ski patroller at the Mount Bachelor Nordic Center and a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue volunteer