Photo By Michael Strasser | During the Pine Camp era, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established in...... read more read more
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (May 2, 2025) -- As long as there have been Soldiers assigned to Fort Drum, civilian employees have been working alongside them, providing the support needed to strengthen military readiness.
In the 1930s, there was a different group of civilians employed here as part of a national work relief program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) sought to counter high unemployment caused by the Great Depression by hiring young, unmarried citizens for nationwide conservation projects on public lands.
The Department of Labor oversaw the certification of enrollees at Army recruiting stations where they had to pass a physical fitness examination before being accepted into the program and then stationed throughout the country.
The CCC camps were run by the U.S. Army, and there were 75 facilities throughout New York and New Jersey that represented the Second Corps Area. The men who served in these camps were sometimes referred to as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army” for the numerous forestry and natural resources projects assigned to them.
At Pine Camp (today’s Fort Drum), the CCC planted hundreds of acres of pine trees and helped construct a recreation area and dam on Buck Creek. The camp was located in the vicinity of Munns Corner Road, a main stretch of road that runs through Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield.
Workers in camps around the North Country built the Green Lakes golf course, reconstructed a dam in the Tupper Lake area, and created a swimming beach and public campsites at Selkirk Shores State Park.
By 1936, 1.5 million men were serving in the CCC camps, and President Roosevelt acknowledged the success of the program during a radio address.
“The promptness with which you seized the opportunity to engage in honest work, the willingness with which you have performed your daily tasks and the fine spirit you have shown in winning the respect of the communities in which your camps have been located, merits the admiration of the entire country,” he said.
“Our records show that the results achieved in the protection and improvement of our timbered domain, in the arrest of soil wastage, in the development of needed recreational areas, in wildlife conservation and in flood control have been as impressive as the results achieved in the rehabilitation of youth,” Roosevelt continued.
Maj. Gen. Fox Conner, who famously mentored Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. George Patton when they were young officers, oversaw military and CCC operations across the northeast as First Corps Area commander. In 1936, he was assigned to command the First Army.
Upon his retirement in 1938, Conner’s successor was Maj. Gen. Hugh A. Drum. In 1951, Pine Camp was redesignated as Camp Drum in his honor, which changed to Fort Drum in 1974 when it became a permanent U.S. Army installation.
From 1935 to 1939, Maj. David Ruffner served as a CCC district commander in Wisconsin, before he joined the 10th Mountain Division as artillery commander during World War II.
Charles Smith was among a group of Dartmouth and Harvard students who had enlisted in the CCC with the idea of making it a permanent federal agency to promote peacetime service. They sought to recruit CCC enrollees for leadership training, but their efforts were short-lived because the war draft led to the closing of the camps.
Most CCC camp officers – Army Reservists who had fought in World War I – were called to active duty. Smith eventually found his way into the 85th Mountain Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, where he would command C Company in the Italian campaign during World War II. He was severely wounded on the night of the assault on Mount Belvedere on Feb. 18, 1945.
Another CCC alumni, Charles Leggiero enlisted in the Army and joined the 10th Mountain Division because he was a skilled skier. The New York native received the Bronze Star for his service during the war and left the 10th Mountain Division as a regimental sergeant major.
The legacy of the CCC in the North Country, and across the U.S., can be seen in many state and national forests and parks. Although every state had participated in the CCC program, New York was the largest contributor with 208 camps between 1933 and 1942.
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2025 09:55 |
| Story ID: | 496811 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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