NATIONAL PARKS AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY: PARK VETERANS IDENTIFY 6 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC)

TUCSON, AZ. – May 4, 2009 – As the U.S. Department of Interior finalizes its plans to spend $750 million as as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the 715-member Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) is urging Americans to honor the memory of the original U.S. parks economic stimulus and jobs program: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and its predecessor programs.

Rick Smith, former superintendent of Carlsbad Caverns and a CNPSR member said: “Since many of today’s park projects will put the unemployed and young Americans back to work, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees believes it is fitting to pause for a moment to remember the last great citizen effort to preserve and protect the National Park System: the Civilian Conservation Corps, and its predecessors, the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) and the National Park Service Work Camps (NPSWC).” Smith noted that it wasn’t until 1937 that all of these park-related projects were bundled together under the CCC title.

Becky Mills, who is a member of the Executive Council with the Coalition and former superintendent of Great Basin National Park, said: “In the 1930s and 1940s, scores of national park areas were improved by the work of the CCC enrollees. Now, the Recovery Act will generate a new legacy of projects that will help to preserve and protect America’s national parks. If, as some scholars have declared, the national park idea is our nation’s greatest contribution to world culture, we are showing once again as a nation that we believe that our national parks deserve our upmost care. That’s what the National Park Service’s share of the stimulus package is all about.”

Under the current stimulus bills, park-specific projects range from replacing the Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah to renovating the 352-foot monument that commemorates Oliver Hazard Perry's naval victory during the War of 1812 at Perry's Victory and International and Peace Memorial in Ohio. Other projects include preparing for the removal of the Elwha Dam and restoration of the Elwha River basin at Olympic National Park in Washington, replacing more than five miles of water lines at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, rehabilitating the Independence Hall Tower at Independence National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, and repairing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in the nation’s capital.

In looking back at the rich legacy of the CCC and its predecessor jobs programs, the Coalition pointed to these as examples of their major achievements:

• Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. The work completed in Frijoles Canyon, the most-visited site in the monument, consists of a series of buildings that are remarkably sensitive to landscape and culture, are of very high quality, and are still in use. Between 1934 and 1941, enrollees worked out of a camp in the Canyon. They built the current road that descends into Frijoles Canyon, the visitor center, a new lodge and miles of trails. While contemporary visitors may visit Bandelier to understand the Pueblo Indian cultures that inhabited what is now the monument, they also have a chance to admire one of the most significant contributions made by the CCC to our parks.

• Prince William Forest, Virginia. The park is a left-over product of the Depression - one of the two Recreation Demonstration Areas (along with Catoctin Mountain Park (Camp David) that were retained by NPS after most were turned over to the states and local governments after the Depression era. Most of Prince William was built by the CCC, including the Cabin Camps that remain in use today. Also the park's maintenance facility is one of the CCC base camps and housing units. Some have suggested that this area be re-designated as a park to represent the history and significance of the CCC.

• Sitka National Historical Park, Alaska. The park’s famous totem poles did not stand along the park’s wooded trails until 1906. Between 1901 and 1903, several Native leaders from villages in southeast Alaska agreed to donate poles to Alaska’s District Governor John G. Brady for the people of Alaska. After exhibiting the poles at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, Governor Brady sent the poles to Sitka where they were erected in the “government park.” The CCC employed Native carvers/craftsmen in the late 1930s to repair and re-carve (they replicated four) several of the original totem poles that had been at the 1904 and 1905 Expositions in St. Louis and Portland. The poles had sustained damage and deterioration while traveling south and after being placed at Sitka National Monument, later re-designated as a historical park, the NPS began a totem pole preservation program. These CCC-era poles still stand in Sitka today.

• Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia. The CCC was segregated in the south and Richmond NBP was home to what was called a "colored camp” in the 1930s. Activities included clearing Fort Harrison of brush, grading and paving Battlefield Park Road, and some interpretive services at Cold Harbor. CCC workers built their own camp, including a water tower that had to be relocated when soil beneath it began to settle, and their own quarters. They had a photography studio in camp and took courses of their own choosing as well as worked towards high school diplomas.

• Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Painted Desert Inn, a National Historic Landmark within Petrified Forest National Park, opened May 24, 2006 after 18 months of much needed rehabilitation. From 1935-1940, CCC workers put in the original electric wires, plumbing, and a heating system. Sleeping rooms, a new entryway, restrooms, a dining room and a shaded porch were built as additions to the original structure. Construction took three years, employing hundreds of young men. From the hard work of stuccoing the exterior to the delicate artwork creating panels of stained glass hammered-tin chandeliers, the Painted Desert Inn remains a monument to the work of the CCC.

• Old Santa Fe Trail Building, New Mexico. The Old Santa Fe Trail Building, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, once served as the headquarters for the former Southwest Region of the National Park Service. The building was lovingly constructed between 1937 and 1939 by the boys of the Civilian Conservation Corps, with furnishings, artwork and engineering features provided by the men and women of the Work Projects Administration. National Park Service architect Cecil Doty, taking counsel from John Gaw Meem, designed not only a magnificent Southwestern Spanish-Pueblo Revival-style masterpiece, but also designed furniture that was made in the building, for the building, and envisioned paintings and other works of art specifically for the building. Numerous works of art were acquired under the WPA Arts Program specifically to go in the building.

ABOUT CNPSR

The nearly 720 members of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees are all former employees of the National Park Service with a combined 21,500 years of stewardship of America’ most precious natural and cultural resources. In their personal lives, CNPSR members reflect the broad spectrum of political affiliations. CNPSR members now strive to apply their credibility and integrity as they speak out for national park solutions that uphold law and apply sound science. The Coalition counts among its members: former national park directors and deputy directors, regional directors, superintendents, rangers and other career professionals who devoted an average of nearly 30 years each to protecting and interpreting America’s national parks on behalf of the public. For more information, visit the CNPSR Web site at http://www.npsretirees.org.

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or .