Building the roads, bridges, and trails for Kentucky

Stairway at Cabin - Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Kentucky

Kentucky once suffered from the Depression era damage to the countryside.  The landscape was worn out from over cultivation and forest clearing. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built service buildings, water reservoirs, roads, and campgrounds. Near Carrolton, Kentucky the CCC built the terraces, walkways and roads that became the General Butler State Resort Park.  The CCC planted trees.   The CCC restored damaged woods and pastures.  It ended up that the New Deal agencies planted 3 billion trees.  The CCC was at the forefront of the tree planting effort.  The landscape of Kentucky benefited from this work.

 

Franklin Roosevelt had the vision that that the landscape could be restored.  He had a confidence about him that made people want to be involved with him in making things better. He could speak in a way that proved to be enduring.  He set forth the concept that the land could be restored.

It is perhaps fitting that the words of a President could cause change for the good.  By contrast the words written by a person in a monastic order are little heard and quickly forgotten. One exception is a man that lived in a monastic order for twenty-seven years at a location south of Bardstown, Kentucky.

The monk and writer Thomas Merton lived in that monastery. Merton has produced challenging ideas that have been communicated around the world.  Merton wrote that the “plague” of the “modern age” was “intolerance, prejudice and hate.” Merton said the counter to this intolerance was rooted in personal and community labor; “the Christian must labor with inexhaustible patience and love, in silence, perhaps in repeated failure, seeking tirelessly to restore, wherever he can, and first of all in himself, the capacity of love and understanding which makes man the living image of God.”

It is that “capacity of love and understanding” that we want to have. This is that process that we work. 

As Kentuckians we are fortunate that the forests and pastures were restored from the awful situation of the Depression era. It took a long time for that process to have the look of a restored land.  As Kentuckians we are fortunate to have a world-renowned writer that produced his work while living in rolling green hills south of Bardstown. 

It is about the land and the people.   

This good earth

Canyon - Starved Rock State Park

This canyon is a canyon that be viewed after a short walk from the Starved Rock State Park Lodge.  After exiting the back of the lodge turn left and follow the signs to canyons in that direction. It is an inviting place.

Building, honoring and mending

Detail from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
Washington, DC

The CCC built the stone road bridge in Kentucky's Pine Mountain State Park.  The park had been established by the state in 1924, in Bell County Kentucky.   It was not until the CCC came to the park after 1933 that the gatehouse and other roads and buildings were made.   The CCC provided the design and construction of a gatehouse in the rustic style.  The CCC completed a custodian’s house, service buildings, a ranger station, a water reservoir and pump house, roads, campgrounds, and parking areas. 

In his youth in the Hudson River Valley Franklin Roosevelt came to appreciate the value of woods and pastures.  He had a close friend that farmed in the community.

After he became sick with polio Franklin Roosevelt found the water at Warm Springs, Georgia to be helpful to restore his body and spirit.  After others tried the Warm Springs water, he showed them how to benefit from moving and exercising in the water.   He was their informal doctor telling them what they could do to get better.  One of the things he urged was to be happy; that a happy attitude was a part of improving.   He had an unusual way about him that exuded confidence.  He was a person that people wanted to be around.

John James Audubon studied wildlife and painted birds.  He spent time at Louisville with William Croghan and he visited Locust Grove.  He studied and sketched wildlife at the Falls of the Ohio.   Later he moved to the town of Henderson, Kentucky.

His detailed study led to the publishing in 1838 of the four-volume set entitled The Birds of America  The set was renowned in Europe and across the world.

When the CCC was restoring damaged woods and pastures the work took them to wide ranging locations.  It ended up that the New Deal agencies planted 3 billion trees.  The CCC was at the forefront of the tree planting effort.

 

When Franklin Roosevelt was interested in getting the world’s longest cave set aside as a National Park he kept at the task.   Once the concept was to be implemented it was the CCC that took the idea from idea on paper to a place to get the park working for the community.  The enrollees surveyed trails in and out of the cave.  They quarried stone. They built trails.  Today that park in Edmonson County, Kentucky is one of the jewels in the National Park System.  

It turned out that Franklin Roosevelt had many ideas about places that would be beneficial to build and many of those places were in Kentucky. 

There was no place in Kentucky honoring the legacy of John James Audubon.  Franklin Roosevelt had it in mind to get a state park established to display Audubon’s art in a beautiful natural setting.   Two of the New Deal agencies, the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps moved to build the roads and buildings of the park in Henderson County, Kentucky.  That park stands today honoring the art of John James Audubon and serving as a place of natural beauty. 

Within the park there is a statue of a workman.  That statue honors the enrollees of the CCC.

The Audubon State Park is a tribute to the tenacious work of Franklin Roosevelt to get the park built and running.   It seems fitting that the park was built on a site where John James Audubon studied wildlife.  It also seems fitting that the labor of the CCC enrollees resulted in the park that Audubon would have felt was a wildlife sanctuary keeping a place for birds of Kentucky to thrive.  

The CCC slogan was “We can take it.”   The enrollees showed that they could do more than it was believed that they could do. 

“We can take it.”   Sometimes the work of someone benefits others long after the original work.  Even badly broken things or people can be brought back by the process of redemption.  People do better when they work together.  It is about community.

We Can Take It

Lodge - Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

The CCC built  rustic shelters in the woods in various locations in  rural America.

The CCC was perhaps the most popular of the New Deal programs brought out to stem the suffering of the Depression.   The legacy of the New Deal construction may be seen in Kentucky and in the Southeast.

The Levi Jackson State Park near Corbin, Kentucky rests on the alignment of the Wilderness Road. The Wilderness Road was key to the early settlement of the Kentucky area.  The CCC provided much of the roads and the parking areas at the park. 

The Pine Mountain State Park, was established in 1924, in Bell County Kentucky.   The CCC played an active role in constructing the Pine Mountain State Park.  The CCC provided the design and construction of a gatehouse in the rustic style.  The CCC completed a custodian’s house, service buildings, a ranger station, a water reservoir and pump house, roads, campgrounds, and parking areas.

The CCC consciously designed the Laurel Cove Amphitheater and grounds for the Pine Mountain State Park to be in harmony with the natural cove of the forest at that site.   The buildings and structures were blended into the natural landscape.  The enrollees built an amphitheater, stage, and reflecting pool. 

If the Laurel Cove Amphitheater is the crowning achievement of the CCC at the Pine Mountain Park, the Arch Bridge on Upper Park Road is a close second accomplishment.   The stone bridge is essentially hand made.  This bridge is one the region’s beautiful stone bridges.  This bridge spans a sixty two foot gap between two hills in the park road system.     

Part of the basis for the CCC was that the Corps gave unemployed people work to do.  Many young people had been in situations of impoverishment and malnourishment.  In addition some provision was made for older men who were out of work World War I veterans.   The CCC provided nourishing food and more for its enrollees.  The CCC provided essential education of reading and writing for enrollees that needed this basic schooling.  More advanced schooling was available for those enrollees that could handle the coursework.  The CCC slogan was “We can take it.”   The enrollees showed that they could do more than it was believed that they could do.

The CCC enrollees had a big task set before them.   Woodlots and pastures in the East had been ruined from years of timbering without proper control of erosion.  Great areas of land could be bought for almost nothing after the destruction of the natural features of the landscapes.   The CCC planted and built to try to foster the redemption of the damaged lands.  The sense of the CCC work to restore the natural functioning of the countryside was borne out over the succeeding decades.

The lodge at De Soto State Park in Alabama was built by the CCC.  The building has since been remodeled to be used for a kitchen and restaurant. 

The CCC enrollees left quite a record in Indiana.  The CCC built in Brown County State Park, Clifty Falls State Park, Salamonie Lake State Forest, Spring Mill State Park, and Turkey Run State Park.  The village area at Spring Mill State Park is largely a product of CCC construction. 

The CCC built the lodge at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois and a contractor built the wing with the guest rooms adjoining the lodge.   The huge timbers at the lodge at Starved Rock are a model of the craftsmanship done by the CCC.

“We can take it.” The CCC has been popular because of the organization’s record of accomplishment.  Sometimes the work of someone benefits others long after the original work. People do better when they work together.   Better together;  sounds like an idea for making things better.

Restoring lands and people

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park - Whitley County, Kentucky

The CCC was established in April 1933 and continued serving until 1942 when the US was entangled in World War II.  Although not without its critics the CCC was a success in its efforts to restore cleared forest lands and the polluted lakes and rivers that were downstream from the damaged lands.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mother had a brother named Frederic.  Young Franklin and Frederic got along well and one of their favorite pursuits was to visit a large eastern cottonwood tree in the hamlet of Balmville, New York.  The tree was formerly thought to be a Balm of Gilead tree and the hamlet took its name from the tree.  Estimates put the tree’s beginning to before 1699. Franklin became adept in the understanding of water resources, trees, forests, fish and wildlife. 

Much later in the stark economic conditions of 1933 President Roosevelt brought the needs of unemployed workers and the needs of the nation for healthy forests and pastures together to the successful creation that became the CCC.  In public life he looked about him and saw blessings. People were drawn to him by a spark that he exhibited that was contagious.  His personal way of seeing the blessings inside mixed and difficult situations was probably essential to getting the CCC started.  

Overcoming difficulties, the CCC was started.  It gave unemployed people work to do.  Many young people had been in situations of impoverishment and malnourishment.  The CCC provided nourishing food and more for its enrollees.  The CCC provided essential education of reading and writing for enrollees that needed this basic schooling.  More advanced schooling was available for those enrollees that could handle the coursework.  

The CCC built campgrounds, drinking fountains, fire pits, community kitchens, picnic shelters, tables, restrooms, bathhouses, swimming pools and lakes, beach areas, paths, and footbridges. The enrollees built organizational camps, mess halls, barracks, concession buildings, showers, and playing fields.  Additionally they built trail shelters, trails, ski lodges, and warming huts.  In some places they built ranger stations, ranger's residences, crew residences, bunkhouses, offices, pump houses, garages, barns, blacksmith shops, machine shops, lookout towers and houses, and guard stations.

In wooded areas the buildings were made of treated pine, fir or spruce logs.  In Alpine settings the buildings were made of a combination of stone and rough timber.  In grassland settings the construction was a ranch type construction.  In desert settings the construction was made in the pueblo style.  The style of CCC constructed buildings can be used to identify what buildings were made by the CCC workers.