The Triple C's of Gettysburg

Unless otherwise noted, photos below are from C.C.C. Annual, 1936, District No. 1, Third Corps Area (Direct Advertising Co., Baton Rouge, LA) and are used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: Enrollees of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1355, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1936. Companies 1355 and 385, in partnership with the National Park Service, restored, developed, and maintained Gettysburg National Military Park, 1933-1942.

Above: Music recreation at CCC Company 385, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Above: Company 385's band. Many enrollees came to the CCC with existing skills, such as music, athletics, carpentry, and farming. 

Above: Members of Company 1355 constructing a fence at Gettysburg National Military Park. The CCC and the National Park Service endeavored to restore the battlefield to its 1863 appearance.

Above: Company 385 on their way to a work site. Much of the CCC's work at the park centered around landscape architecture, such as lawn maintenance, transplanting trees, trail construction, and rebuilding at least one Union fortification (Culp's Hill). And the work was voluminous. For example, during their first four years at the park, CCC workers removed 1,341 tree stumps (Renaissance News, March 1937, p. 6).

Above: Classroom instruction at Company 385. Educational opportunities in the CCC were numerous.

Above: "Many athletic activities are carried on in [Company 385's] camp, such as baseball, boxing, quoits [similar to horseshoes], basket ball, volley ball and ping pong" (C.C.C. Annual, 1936, District No. 1, Third Corps Area, p. 199 (Direct Advertising Co., Baton Rouge, LA)).

Above: Boxers from Company 1355. Athletics, recreation, work projects, and good meals created fit bodies for the 3 million who served in the CCC.

Above: The cover of Renaissance News, Company 385's camp newspaper, December 1935 edition. The newspaper--created by the enrollees--contained poetry, humor, announcements, camp happenings, and more. Image courtesy of Center for Research Libraries.

Above: Part of Company 385. How was the quality of the CCC's work? In 1938, the National Park Service said that they wanted their Triple C's for another 10 years (“Lists Enough C.C.C. Work Here To Last 10 Years,” The Gettysburg Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 6, 1938, p. 3).