On this day, April 10, 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an innovative federally funded organization that put thousands of Americans to work during the Great Depression. When Fort Laramie National Monument was proclaimed on July 16, 1938, the grounds of “Old” Fort Laramie did not resemble the Grand Old Post of historic photographs. After Fort Laramie was sold in 1890, the buildings that were not carted away for construction materials had been converted into buildings needed by homesteaders. In place of bakeries and powder magazines were granaries, cow-barns, pig-pens and chicken sheds. Some structures such as the Cavalry Barracks and Old Bedlam were on the verge of collapse from decades of weathering, alterations, and vandalism. With the addition of farm sheds, fences, feed troughs, windmills, piles of manure and layers of trash, Fort Laramie looked nothing like a US Army post. On August 4, 1938, Merrill Mattes, Historian and Acting Custodian for the newly established monument, was informed that the Bureau of Reclamation had approved a Fort Laramie Work Force of 20 enrollees from the Lake Guernsey CCC Camp (modern day Guernsey State Park) to work for 60 days beginning in mid-August. Men and equipment would be transported daily from Lake Guernsey. Archeologist G. Hubert Smith was dispatched on assignment from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, to supervise archeological investigations and coordinate clean-up work to ensure against the accidental destruction of historic features. Among the results of the CCC projects were removal of trash and debris to improve appearance, the first reliable map to accurately record all identifiable historic features, emergency stabilization of historic structures, and preliminary archeology which discovered long forgotten building sites. The next summer another crew of 20 CCC enrollees arrived at the fort to continue the previous year’s work. 5 enrollees also worked as interpretive guides to keep up with the increasing number of visitors.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:16:31 +0000
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