Civilian Conservation Corps in Cumberland County

In 1933, the newly elected president, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated a variety of steps to deal with the drastic effects of the Great Depression.  Collectively these initiatives were known as the “New Deal.”  One of those efforts was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

The CCC program was designed to provide jobs training and employment for young men aged 18-25.  The young men could apply for a six-month enlistment and then renew that enlistment three times for additional six month terms or until they reached the age of 26. 

Regionally, the program was run from the headquarters for District No. 1, Third Corps Area in New Cumberland.  Sites selected for the program were usually ones that had suffered environmental damage, usually due to industrial devastation.  The two sites used for this purpose in Cumberland County were both former iron industrial sites in the South Mountain. 

The first site was near Pine Grove Furnace which had been in operation as an iron-producing region since the eighteenth century.  The most devastating part of the operation was not the actual extraction of the ore from open pits, but from the extensive cutting of trees required to make the charcoal to fire the furnaces.  Parts of the 60 square miles that were owned by South Mountain Mining included several farms that supported the work of the industry.  One of those farms was known as Bunker Hill Farm, located about two miles from Pine Grove Furnace. 

Other than a farm house, no buildings existed at the site, so the initial work, beginning in May of 1933, was to erect a mess hall, barracks buildings, and garages to house the equipment that would be used in the work of the camp.  The camp, known as Camp S-51, Pine Grove Furnace CCC Camp, was organized by a group of leaders and young men known as Company 329.  During the years the camp was open, roads were built, including the road to the camp now known as Michaux Road, telephone and electric lines were installed, improvements were made to facilities at Pine Grove Furnace State Park, and millions of trees were planted throughout the denuded previously forested areas of South Mountain.

The second CCC camp was located at the former Big Pond Iron Furnace property.  The camp was also established in 1933 and continued until 1942.  It was known as the Shippensburg Camp, S-108, Company 3225.  Little remains of the former camp, although the breast works of the now breached dam are visible.  Also, the ruins of the iron furnace stack are nearby.  Work performed at the camp in addition to planting thousands of trees included building 55 miles of road, clearly marking state forest boundaries, and opening foot trails through the mountains.

Both camps closed in early 1942 with the beginning of WWII.