Out of the Dust: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Kansas

Abstract

This thesis explores the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Kansas. An “alphabet agency” of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program during the Great Depression, the CCC was designed to both temporarily employ unemployed men and improve the environment. Housed in camps during their enrollment in the Corps—each camp had approximately two hundred men—enrollees would perform conservation work, such as planting trees, erecting dams, building terraces, and developing lakes. Workers, who were typically eighteen to twenty-five years in age and single, were paid thirty dollars each month, with twenty-five dollars being sent to their families. Altogether, at least thirty-six Kansas counties benefited from one Civilian Conservation Corps camp from 1933 to 1942. By examining both the newspapers the CCC camps in Kansas produced and the documents stored at the Kansas Historical Society and National Archives and Records Administration, this thesis makes clear how the CCC operated in Kansas, the experiences of the enrollees, and the legacy of the organization. Chapter I will explore the background of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, as well as how the Corps was developed and functioned in Kansas; camp-life for enrollees will also be briefly detailed. Chapter II will describe the American Indian and African American camps that were created in Kansas and the experiences of these unique enrollees. Lastly, in Chapter III the legacy and memory of the CCC in the Sunflower State will be explored. In short, the collective memory of Kansans and the personal reminiscences of former enrollees have created a nostalgic legacy of the Corps.