Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Statue Marks CCC Campsite in Wisconsin-- Part 1: FDR's New Deal

From the October 1, 2015, Kenosha News by Deneen Smith.

Located in Salem, Wisconsin, near the Illinois border, is Fox River Park.  It was built by young men looking for a lifeline in a time of crisis during the Great Depression.

The park was home to the first Wisconsin Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It provided a home and work for as many as 472 men.

The corps was an initiative by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his New Deal where men were paid to improve the nation's parks, forests and natural areas.

In Silver Lake Park there was a CCC barracks from August 1934 to October 1937.  Workers there leveled hills, filled a swamp using hand tools, stabilized the banks of the Fox River and planted more than 130,000 trees.

They also built stone walls, wash rooms and picnic shelters-- including beautifully crafted fireplaces.  This was all done by hand, using field stone they collected on the property.

The buildings are still in use today.

--DaCootCCC

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