Prairie Wanderings: CCC benefited our county lake
By PAUL G. JANTZEN
Contributing writer
During the depths of the great depression of the 1930s, New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats were searching for ways to end rampant unemployment and the poor economy that gripped the country. As soon as Roosevelt was inaugurated as U.S. President on March 4, 1933, he called the Congress into emergency session to authorize the Civilian Conservation Corps as a "peacetime army." The CCC eventually employed 3.5 million young men to combat the destruction of our natural resources. In Kansas, 38,163 young and military veterans were enrolled.
The first men were enrolled in April of 1933. They were paid $30 per month while their families were given $25 per month allotments. Small businesses in communities near CCC camps benefited from their existence. Now, even congressmen who originally opposed the program wanted camps in their states. By the end of 1935, there were more than 2,650 camps in operation.
Later, veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I were welcomed into the CCC.
The men of the CCC erected fire towers, built fire roads, built dams, planted millions of trees, and improved public parks. In the 500 camps under the supervision of the Soil Conservation Service, more than 200 million acres of land benefited from the establishment of soil conservation practices.
In Marion County, sportsmen initiated a bond election to buy land for a site on which to construct a lake and park. In November of 1934, the issue easily won approval. The federal government agreed to furnish CCC labor and supervision.
In February of 1936, a 300-man CCC crew began construction of this dam. The lake was completed by the end of 1937 and stocked with fish. Work on the park area continued for another two years. It opened officially on May of 1940 providing a 300-acre park including this 153-acre lake. Superintendent Dale and Loretta Snelling report about 100,000 visitors per year. There are also about 275 homes in the lake area with 235 year-round residents.
On Oct. 2, 2004, a crowd of about 300 gathered here at Marion County Lake to unveil and dedicate a 6-foot statue of a CCC worker facing the lake. With the front brim of his hat turned up, his shirt tucked under his arm, and a double-bladed ax at his side, he appears ready for a day's hard work. The men used axes, shovels, picks, and wheel barrows to dig through the rocky soil.
This statue, across the road south of Kingfisher's Inn, is the 28th statue honoring the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Lake area residents Helen and Dwight Beckham initiated the campaign to locate this statue here.
While President Roosevelt hoped that the CCC would be a permanent program, the Congress considered it temporary and it was terminated in 1942.
