Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular.
@@mikerobertson9787 they did. Japanese sometimes captured other Navajo, and they could not understand it either. Most of the military jargon was replaced with code words, so it was still a fast effective code that could be delivered spoken. The most they would get was like "There are ----- ---- at ---, requesting ---- and ----." Not enough to provide information without the secondary code. And in frustration the would kill the few native speakers they did capture, before any attempt could be made to solve the secondary code.
1st comment. My father was in the CCCs in the 30's building camping and picnic areas for the forest service. In the 50's we camped and picnicked at tables that he had built. Cool!
One of the only pictures I have of my dad when he was young was taken while sitting on a horse in Colorado. He was quite a bit older than me and I never pictured him riding a horse till we were going though his things after he and mom died.and found that picture.
Very nice personal link with history, and while I thank you for sharing your story. Not only were you not "first", the "FIRST!" comments are no longer cool, in fact they never were. Just FYI. Cheers. :)
We stayed at a beautiful CCC built hotel in Texas and it had hand hewn wooden furniture by the CCC too! The 3 legged desk chair was one to be careful on. I just wished Simon showed some of the beautiful CCC architecture and furnishings that were created. Like your dad's picnic tables!
My Dad was as in the CCC. He was sent to Colorado from Connecticut after he graduated in 1937. He contacted TB while he was there and when he went to join the service after Pearl Harbor they wouldn’t take him because of it. He ended up working at an aircraft engine plant till he retired.
I hope you’re father was proud of the work he did. It must have been hard to work while most of his peers were off fighting the war and later so defined by it
@@Matt02341 in his defence, he survived and it was probably easier than facing mortal peril. Not discrediting him. It would be ridiculous or nationalistic to want to be in the situation that nobody wanted to be in.
Hi! I wanted to ask, i heard someone say once that the people that worked in the aeronautical industry of the WWII USA, were paid well, and that they came out of the war rather well off... Does that seem correct to you?
Nice presentation. My father was a participant in the CCC program in Montana and he credits it with "saving him from becoming a flat-broke farmer". He got three squares a day and learned how to survey in the CCC. It gave him a skill that he could take in to the wider world of work and help work himself in to an engineering technical school. He dropped out of that to join a survey team on the Al-Can Highway in northern British Columbia and Yukon....because the armed services wouldn't take his 4F carcass to fight in the world war. Again, it was because of his time with the CCC, which set his future lifetime career of surveyor, construction laborer, and on-site construction inspector. FDR, the WPA, and the CCC were sacrosanct in my household when I was growing up. The generation which knew the CCC first hand is disappearing fast. Those of us who grew up hearing about it from actual participants are fading and losing our memories to inattentiveness, but I've run in to several folks my age who cite the CCC as a worthy exemplar for mandatory public service, to be focused upon rebuilding our crumbling national infrastructure. Too many hear this commentary and dismiss it with, "Yeah, riiiiight, Boomer."
There is some danger to a modern equivalent. You may run out of projects, or disrupt too many ecosystems that it has a negative effect. The program as a wholly voluntary program sounds great. The program I think is most effective would be directed cash assistance to needy people, as usually they are the people who know what they need.
Kelly Wellington I think that would actually be a really good idea. Especially for today’s youth. I think it would give them a sense of pride in something they’ve helped accomplish that was fine the good of society and themselves. Plus it would be a fantastic way to help them learn a trade they could make into a career. I know when I was in school if you didn’t get a scholarship and your family didn’t have much money, you didn’t have a lot of hope of an actual career. This was the early 90s do not so long ago really. I would have loved to have a chance at something like this. And I see nothing wrong with mandatory public service. Here in Illinois all the schools, at least local ones, have to have so many hours of volunteering public service as part of their graduation requirements.
@@dongiovanni4331 the national park service has a huge backlog of projects. Could make money, get credit and learn a skill all at the same time. SCA doors it today, however a bigger group could be utilized to great effect.
Holy crap, thanks for this. I’ve actually got a personal connection to this one. My first job was with Northwoods Stewardship Center in Vermont. Which was part of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. Born from the CCC. We would spend 5 days a week camping on mountains maintaining hiking trails for the summer, and adjusted for inflation, it was basically the same pay
I was in the California Conservation Corps not back in the day but back in 13-14. I was an arborist in Crew 2. South Lake Tahoe. The CCC’s motto was “Hard work, Low pay, Miserable conditions and more.....”. Couldn’t be more true. But the best time of my life. ✊🏽👌🏽👍🏽
In Illinois, our beautiful Shawnee National Forest, and most of our State Parks were built by the CCC. In Giant City State Park there is a beautiful monument statue in the Lodge courtyard.
Something touched upon but not fully fleshed out is that all these projects have given todays citizens amazing access to public lands which most assuredly would not have happened post EPA. Every time I hike In a state or national forest, state or federal parks I am grateful for the ccc.
Some of the work of the CCC was well known to and much commented on by the adults when I was a child in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Utah, where I grew up, was (and is) predominantly owned by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service or the Department of Defense (DOD), so the CCC had a broad canvas on which to paint. When we youngsters took our recreation by hiking, skiing, fishing or hunting on those public lands, works attributed to the CCC would often be pointed out to us by adult relatives or Boy Scout leaders. The soil conservation terracing and stream-bed projects, all-weather roads built over high altitude passes, small dams and associated reservoirs were all greatly appreciated. In that politically very conservative region, the educational aspects of the CCC programs and their effects on the participants and their families met with general approval. The only grumbling I ever heard was from strong labor union folks who would point out that twenty well-paid union men with powerful equipment could have done many of the projects much more efficiently than two hundred CCC boys. Of course, by the time I was made aware of all this a quarter of a century had passed, and the memories of those who were much older than I was had to have been affected by other events and by later evaluation of outcomes.
Dominic. You don't know what you're talking about. You think if all unions went by the wayside that Corporation went start taking advantage of the workers we would start losing our benefits that were hard fought fot little by little (BTW). Granite there some unions that had too much power particularly in the government such as the police Union
@@maxwill6408 Many of the abuses of workers we see on the 21st century are due to the loss of union representation. Do you really think it was the workers that wanted to end unions? Businesses were behind the call to gut them so that they would have more free rein to hire and fire as they please, as well as get by paying as little as possible. The eight hour day, insurance, pay a working wage...these were just some of the tings unions brought about. With the end of many of them, we see arising a vast robber baron class like existed in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. And it didn't arise by accident.
@Dominic no. The fact is that barely any unions remain after being dismantled by capitalist oligarchs. And no prices are jacked up by unions because all of our products are made in different countries. Unions don't control prices. They exist only to allow workers to communicate and collectively bargain for a proper income and necessary benefits and to protect each other from abuse by the companies they work for and the management who are so keen to use people for even minute personal gain. The only unions that are truly abusive are police unions, because the consist of abusive people. Police must be subject to the just consequences of their actions, but instead they act as a mob and use threats and violence to protect themselves.
Oh I LOVE the Black Red and Gold "Atlantean" style architecture. Wouldve loved to see it in its full glory. Simon, can your team please invent or covertly get access to a secret military time machine. I'm sure it's classified, but it probably exists. Or at least a rebuilt UFO at Wright-Patt with one baked into the framework. If you need an infiltration team. I'm middle aged, clumsy and ready to go.. and live nearby to Wright-Patt in Cincinnati, OH. LOL
Seen the relics of the Minoan empire for the past two years while on holiday to Crete. When you consider so much survived it's fall, another 3000 year's and the locals still leave the sites alone, then came the Germans in WWII and caused untold damage and harm, looting sites and the Muesums. You can still see bullet holes where they executed locals to maintain a reign of terror at Knossos and Malia.
Dad was in N.Mich. planting trees, building campgrounds, went straight from there to Army. Said that it made adjusting to Army life a lot easier, He was used to living and working in large groups, he said they ran it like the Army, only you didn't get shot at in the C.C.C. Still the life was rough, lots of fights, it was a different time then.
@Dominic All the more reason to bring them back. Shame the wimps and make real-men of the strong-willed survivors with potential. Everyone wins. Especially America.
my granddad was part of the conversation corps. jackson hole wy here in Kansas many many of the public pools is little towns were built in programs like this. not necessarily the ccc. i think it was called pwa or jwa. this pools were build in little towns of like 2000 ppl. they also built activities and shelter houses around public ponds and lakes most are still in use. they used native sandstone. a zoo built in independence ks. still holds animals. they also made outhouses and chicken coops and things like that. they build walls, band shells, auditoriums and small bridges out on county roads that frequently flooded. so much of southeast kansas still has and uses these.
The CCC did a lot of great work in my state park decades ago, the trails they built are still in great condition! Thank you to the CCC and leaders who walk the walk when it comes to actually caring about their community.
Amen! It seems almost every county has a park that can trace its roots to the CCC. The State Parks in South Carolina are a testament to the hard work of these folks and are a great legacy we still enjoy today. Money well spent
@@profwaldone this is what I did as well. I was worried for this channels affiliations for moment. hmm... MegaProjects new video is out, about... civilian concentration camps?.. hmm ***clicks anyway***
What perfect timing. I was speaking with my my mother about my grandfather because it would have been his birthday other day ( born in 1904). She told me he was part of the CCC during WW2. She didn’t know exactly what he did since she was born in 1944 but he was a machinist for ages with GE. Perhaps he acquired these skills at the CCC? I passed it on for her to watch. Thank you so much! Love your shows.🙂
Cool video! The WPA would be another interesting relief program to cover. As I understand, that program was responsible for several major construction projects in the US at that time
My wife asked me to ‘Please send to Simon’. ‘I just watched your video while taking a break at work on a “CCC” site that is still going today! The CCC’s today are all run under the USDA / Forest Service as Job Corps Centers. The Job Corps program is overseen by the Department of Labor. There are centers in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico. We still work with disadvantaged youth ages 16 to 24, but now serves both male and female students. They come here to complete both their high school or equivalent education all while learning a trade. The CCC’s still have a Forestry program where the students go out and learn Wildland Firefighting. The program has really evolved and has had a-lot of success. One notable Job Corps graduate is George Forman. Many of our students come to Job Corps because family members have also gone through the program. I just thought you needed an update to your story.’
I always get the CCC and the WPA (Works Progress Administration) mixed up. Where I grew up all the projects were WPA, schools, community buildings, Libraries and that sort of thing. Another wonderful program.
Absolutely loved this video! And I'm a huge supporter of the national/state parks service.. I would love to see a video about job corps and amricorps.also I greatly enjoy all of you videos of from mega projects,biographies and the blaze. Keep it up! 👍
My grandfather was so proud of the time he spent in the CCC. One thing his group got to do was visit the Boulder/Hoover dam while it was being constructed.
Americans wouldn't know socialism if it fed them, housed them, and let them go to the hospital without going bankrupt. (source: am american, unfortunately.)
Thanks Simon, Ollie, and Megaprojects team for doing this great video! As other comments have said, as a hiker and nature lover I am very appreciative of the work done by the CCC that I get to enjoy today. Just some numbers on the results of their work in my home state of Michigan: Michigan enrollees planted 484 million trees, spent 140,000 man-days fighting forest fires, released 156 million fish, and constructed 7,000 miles of truck trails, 504 bridges and 222 buildings among other things.
All that radio active material is coming down here to southern New Mexico to what is know as the WIPP Project (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant ) . That is another show too. The WIPP project takes all US Nuclear wast now .
Still a big pile of Manhattan project material buried in a landfill in Bridgeton MO. There is an underground fire smouldering in another part of the same landfill. Much discussion as to the safes way to deal with the material in case the fire moves toward it.
My grandfather worked with the WPA to build trails and buildings at a state park in MN. The buildings and trails are still in use to this day. He was always very proud of the work he’d done, and would show us the exact projects he had been involved with.
My great grandfather and grandfather both worked on this project. They built stone walls on steep slopes above roads in Indiana county, Pa. The walls are still standing strong today.
I live in East TN. The TVA saved this area, but also destroyed a lot. My grandma had to move when she was a kid cause the newly built dam was going to flood their hollow. I got pics of her and her sisters in front of a church and houses where it’s now ~30ft of water. Crazy to think of. But without those jobs and electricity this area would likely be dead
40 years ago as a 9th grade class project I had to interview somebody who lived through the Great Depression and of course I chose my grandfather and he told me all about his time in the CCC. He was at Mineral, WA. It was the only A+ I ever got in school.
Everytime I’m in Yosemite I find myself thanking the CCC almost hourly in my head, they have enabled so many people to see amazing things in our Parks. Some of my best memories with my father were on trails they built.
Every time people say "Name just one country where socialism worked", the US comes to mind. Social Security. Medicare. CCC. TVA. WPA. I'm not suggesting everyone work for one big company called the gubmint. Rather, note that the core of socialism is NOT what Stalin and Mao set up, which is basically state capitalism. The core is that the people doing the work run the company and share the profit (yes, there is profit), like with a family farm, a mom&pop shop, or a co-op. Such a company doesn't turn one dude into a bazillionaire while workers are told to pee in their pants because potty breaks cut into 'his' profit.
There are quit a few socialist countries, particularly in Europe, that are not communist. Socialist in this case is that the government provide programs that care for their citizens: universal healthcare, family leave programs so people can care for themselves (in the case of illness or injury) or family members, parental leave programs that ensure that both women and men can spend time with their newborns, a guaranteed living wage, social programs for the retired and elderly so they don't starve or go homeless, things like that. Sure, the citizens my pay more in taxes, but then they get more for their tax dollars (things we have to pay for out of pocket in the US). Their citizens are productive, businesses thrive. In the US, our political parties have twisted the meaning of socialism and communism to a point that people believe they are the same thing. But in the end, who actually ends up benefiting for that confusion? Generally not the poor or middle class.
Fucking _thank you_ for saying that, eric moss. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fucking thank you. About time someone in this comments section knew what the hell they were talking about.
The CCC came through the area of my family farm, building small hills following the hillside to reduce erosion and make more land plant-able. Those are still there today and still being used. I think it took them 2 days to process our 27 acre farm. My grandma told us about it all the time. our farm switched over to cattle back in the 70s, so no crop have grown on the property in some time. We kept walking paths cleared so we could walk the property to the various key sites. During those walks, my grandmother would tell us tales of the process of the CCC coming through, as well as other family history (the family has extensive history in the Texas oil industry). The CCC came through to do other things other than erosion control, and every time they came through my family would gift them items such as new tools from our blacksmith shop, eggs from the chickens, and fresh veggies from the garden. The supplies were much appreciated.
A video on Ajanta & Ellora caves in India. They are rock cut structures & took about 700 & 400 yrs to build respectively I'll keep on pestering you until you make a video
Hey Simon..Kailasa Temple the granite rock cut temple (top to bottom cut) monolith bigger than Greek Pantheon is located in Ellora caves ..more incentive for you to make a video
Didn't Simon put out a poll a while back asking if people wanted a new channel that concentrated on ancient megaprojects or something similar? And he's been hinting recently about a new channel.....
One of the best things about "Simon Channels" is the genuine feel of Simon and staff wanting to help inspire improvement of the world..... (and have a good time doing it.)
I was thinking, "Simon, you're wearing a jacket with lapels, isn't that what a lapel mike is supposed to be clipped to? And you've worn a jacket over T-shirts before, so..." but it's his show, he can play it any way he wants to to get people to buy the merch. :-)
We SERIOUSLY need this program to come back. The CCC built infrastructure, planted millions of trees, gave young men a job/training, 3 squares, and money to help their families. It’s the best program we’ve ever had, in my opinion.
Thank you, Simon. CCC was a big deal here. I’m Lakota and Nakoda. It was, absolutely, a Megaproject. One overlooked aspect is that the project destroyed nearly every sacred site we had.
What I like about the CCC is that it actually put people to work and paid them for that work. Modern social programs seem to primarily focus on just handing out money with no real attached responsibility.
Welfare was still a thing back then. The social program that hands out the most money with nothing to show is the DOD. Whose current budget is three quarters of a TRILLION dollars. A decent percentage of that goes to ridiculous black projects, with zero congressional oversight, and projects with cronyism written all over them. Social safety nets have been gutted for years. This whole "lazy welfare recipient" propaganda you've been hearing is the elites making sure the rest of us continue to infight instead of looking towards them as the root of all issues. The greatest con ever played is people who make $2000 an hour making people who make $25 an hour think all their problems are caused by the people who make $8 or less an hour.
This was really interesting! I’ve seen the “CCC Worker” statues in a few state parks around the east coast, and I’ve always wanted to learn more about the program. The CCC might have been born out of necessity, to give men much-needed jobs during the Great Depression, but even today, we continue to benefit from a lot of the work they did back then!
Hey,, one can be capitalistic and socialistic at the same time... Just look at us scandinavians... (Especially my rich neighbours the Norwegians) The two do not have to cancel eachother out..
Sitting on massive fucking gas reserves and having your entire economy backed up by Oil is the only reason their retarded ass policies work. Norweigians got it so easy they actually think their success is because of their amazing socialist polciies and totally not because of the gas.
Peter, really well done on letting everyone know how little you know about Socialism. It's always the way. Socialists clueless on Socialism. That strange old irony. Read a book before you open your gob in the future. Lol.
My Grand father was a member of the CCC. In Northern Utah along the road from Ogden, up through the canyon to Pineview Reservoir, there used to be a 3 to 4 foot high rock wall built by the CCC. My grand father worked on that wall. Thank you for doing this story.
I am basically conservative, but I could get around a new version of the CCC. Address many of the same issues, basic education to bring people up to 'par' or even help get GED's (high school equivalency certificates), making the voting populace more literate for a generation to come AND update some old CCC work, plus address some conservation / global warming type projects. Recovery and reclamation of wild file lands, etc. Hard work and many people can be used instead of heavy machinery in many situations, and sometimes more effectively, but it does take people being willing to work. That would be a hard sell for a new CCC. ... As a taxpayer, I could see it paying off for years to come. Even having a standing enactment whenever unemployment was over a given level (say 8%) for 2 years or more, that it could 'automatically kick in'.
I couldn't ever see enough 18 to 30 year old's doing that work today, many dont have the work ethic that would be required to undertake such tasks. Im Aussie, and would be open to it been done in aus, but only as a short term fix to unemployment, not as a permanent program.
The CCC was a fantastic program in my part of the country - North Florida. Many projects - I attended a first to twelfth grade school in a coral rock school house that was built by the CCC. The building now serves as an administrative facility. I am now 83 and have good memories of my years there. Thanks for a very good video.
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
So to clarify a few things. First CCC works still exist under numerous states mostly in the West and South during the summer. Second the little "military training" done by the CCC was usually jokingly called boy scouts with guns so it was of no real use in WW II and did not qualify as basic training but it was used to find military astute trainees and the camps created were of some help during mobilization. MacArthur hated the CCC but George Marshall liked. I have always thought we could have increased the size of the Army in the 1930s by a couple of hundred thousand men and had a really good Army at the start of WW II instead of having the 28th largest Army in 1941 and the military debacles in 1941-42.
I've stayed in several CCC cabins and visited several of the former camps. Many of them have been converted into camping areas in state and national parks. It's a fascinating part of American history.... One that we frankly need to repeat.
mega projects suggestion pls.. The Big Hole, Open Mine, Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine ( Afrikaans : Groot Gat) is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the deepest hole excavated by hand, thanks alot
My grandfather was in the CCC in Palestine Texas. It was good for him and his family. He'd often say "It was a dollar a day, and the work wasn't hard." Thanks for doing a video on this.
My father, now 88 years old, as a kid watched the CCC and WPA (another video?) build roads, bridges etc in our very rural part of Missouri. To this day he compliments them on the excellent quality of the roads especially and bemoans the lack of anything similar or adequate maintenance since. Great video as usual sir. Thank you.
I would love a video on the US development and production of the B-29. And one on the steeling, reverse engineering and production of the Soviet version.
CCC one of best things US ever achieved, and we need it to be reintroduced now. (sans segregation). Of course under current administration & congress chances of that = nil
My Great Grandfather was a part of the CCC during the depression, and in the Summer of 2019, I worked as a member of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) in 4 locations over 4 weeks. My crew planted a rain garden and diverted parking lot runoff away from the river and into the garden, eliminated over 7,000+ invasive buckthorn trees, and installed "water bars" on a soon to be hiking trail as a soil erosion countermeasure. All in the span of 20 days
Mega project suggestion. CN railway. It was built in 1899 and it’s crosses all of Canada and had some really neat but also sad problems and challenges such as trying to cross the Rocky Mountains and the use of Chinese workers. I think it would be interesting to watch
My father was in the CCC. He said it was a Godsend for his family. He and his older brother were in separate camps and the money sent home kept the family from starvation. He planted trees, paved mountain roads in Colorado, and harvested grass seed. The grass seed work was the worst job he ever had...he came from Texas and the family were share croppers...cotton pickin' share croppers! He retired at age 57 as upper management in a glass mfg, corporation. He credits the CCC for his success. He said when things got tough he'd just think back to that miserable 'seed work' and that would smooth out all problems. He was a great guy. I miss him and mom.
Sure... But my roads and schools suck. Firemen are alright though, but in my area they are mostly volunteer and often resort to coin donations beside the road... Whatever government might have achieved once upon a time, surely isnt worth the price we'll have to pay down the road.. someone's gonna have to take care of the national debt...
@@Theggman83 LOL to think that the national debt stemmed from funding fire, police, schools, and public hospitals and not decades of war halfway across the world or an outrageous military spending budget in general. It's gotta be the services provided to the citizens (who pay taxes for those services) and surely NOT the billions upon billions spent on bombs and tanks or what about the multi-hundred-billion-dollar bailouts of the automotive industry and big banker fat cats? Nah it's probably that free lunch that poor liittle timmy is eating because his mom can't find a decent job in this shithole. That's probably it.
@@smoothkid765 lol I'm under no illusions as to how our national debt came to be, and you can't tell me that entitlement programs didnt help.... but since we didn't pay for those projects back then, and have only compounded the spending since... I think the overall point I was trying to make is that we are broke. No one wants to admit that, and everyone keeps acting like government is/has a neverending supply of cash... But that's just not how it works. And frankly I'm kinda worried how my kids will be asked to pay for it....someday....
@@smoothkid765 oh yeah, lol, as a veteran all I can say is that uncle sam has a job for anyone that wants to serve.... Everyone wants the cars and houses but no one wants to work for it. 👍 🤡
The New Deal included the Works Project Administration. Among the projects were arts projects and documentation of city histories. I read the history of my hometown (Muscatine Iowa), which was written by a previously unemployed writer. WPA projects included flood control works (dams, weirs, floodwalls) and roads, school buildings and other public buildings (libraries, schools, court houses etc). There were other programs as well. The whole soil conservation service started as part of the New Deal.
Lots of state parks in Texas still have CCC built structures still in use today, almost 90 years later. That's guvment assistance put to good use. Not paying peeps to sit at home and breed.
Great work Simon and crew! I've been a part of the Megaprojects core audience since the start. This video wasn't long enough, I could watch an hour of this. I'm happy to see the channel grow in subs, but then again (Based on your other channels) I knew you were gonna be a hit from the start.
More people need to realize that "socialism" can be a good thing. I hope many more people see this video. If I were a young man then I would have joined up. We desperately need this kind of program again today. Thank you so much.
IIn the 70s 2 programs that where based on the CCC came about . YCC the (Youth Conservation Corp) and YACC (Young Adult Conservation Corp) I worked for the YACC in 1979. Both programs where run Under the USFS (US Forests Service). I worked in Ocala National Forests in Florida. Both programs where smaller in scale. The qualifications where you had to be healthy between ages of 17 and 21 and it was open to both men and women . One of the rangers we worked with was with the CCC and told us all the stories and showed us Pictures from his day with the CCC. Great times ...
Simon, your aside about the Native American code talkers made me laugh! Was ist das??? I need my friends to want to watch and understand this lesson on Socialism!!! Alas, I can only like and share.:-) 💜
Triple c's. My great grandfather was in the ccc. I still have his old name card form those days. I can remember askin him about the depression days and he said they was so poor they couldn't really tell the difference.
I've heard the same from old timers here in the mountains northeast TN, some were better off than their kin that lived in the cities and took them in during the depression.
My great grandfather Milton Johnson was a member of the CCC. He helped build some of the buildings at Millersylvania State Park in Washington State. The park itself was established in 1921 but most of the structures came later. He later served in the US Navy during WW2. My family is very proud of him.
My father was in the CCC camps in Utah. He got his start in equipment maintenance as a young man and continued in the field until he retired at 62. Dad worked for several construction companies in Utah during his career and his Sons all worked construction for a time, A couple of us also retired from construction companies in Utah.
As a non socialist, I rather enjoyed this video. Thank you Simon. I wish for the for-profit American prison system to be sorted out and maybe there's a place for a CCClike entity to exist reforming some criminals especially/particularly forthat 17-23 age range the corps had.
This would be great but you know there will be hell to pay with political blow back because it would take money out of the pockets of elected officials' and the giant prison corp.
I don't know if it still exists, but California had it's own conservation corps which, in the late eighties, trained state prison inmates in fire control. I worked at a camp in the mountains and we had a crew assigned to help us cut fire line around the camp. Most of the inmates came from Los Angeles and many had never seen a forest before. They had to exhibit good behavior to qualify for the program and many spoke of their desire to continue working in nature upon their release.
Thanks for this video. I just got into my field, finally, and will now be helping to run a ccc museum. It was nice to see my favorite blaze boy had a video on the subject. Keep it up you legend.
My Grandfather (he adopted my father) worked on several of these projects, mostly in Oregon, including around Crater Lake. What really cool is how much of the original work is still in great condition.
My great grandfather was in the CCC. I don't remember where he was sent to but I do remember a story he told me a couple times. He was working demolition somewhere and was tasked with taking a truck of explosives down a hill (could have been into an open pit mine, I don't remember exactly) and about halfway down the hill... the truck's brakes failed. Well, my great grandfather, in a moment of quick thinking, steered the truck into the inside wall of the path down and managed to get himself down the hill in one piece. The right side of the truck was pretty much destroyed, but he had made it down safely.
There is Americorps and all of the Conservation Corps programs that fall under Americorps still to this day. There are the Washington Conservation Corps, Montana Conservation Corps, Youth Conservation Corps, and so many more. The crews in these programs build trails, help with restoration work, fire prevention, respond to natural disasters, and a bunch of other work.
Socialism is great if you want to create a society where all wealth production is destroyed, while personal and civil liberties are crushed under the jack boots of oppression. I don't even have to work hard to prove my point. Just look at EVERY Socialist nation that has ever existed. Highlights include (but are not limited to) The PRC, Cuba, Venezuela, and let us not forget those crazy Bolsheviks themselves, the USSR. Socialism is THE example of repeating the mistakes of forgotten history. Sure enough, there is always some group of ideologues that think that their brand of Socialism will be different. Everybody will all live happily together in mediocrity and nobody will get sent to the gulag for speaking against some injustice or another. They are inevitably proven wrong but by then, the Party has control and it is too late for anything but regrets.
@@nolgroth What you describe there is communism, not socialism. I know those countries called themselves socialist republics, but only because communism already had a bad reputation when they were formed. Socialism is about the state working for the people, communism is about controlling the people. To prove my point, you may notice that all the countries you mention were run like dictatorships. And that's why all of them failed. Compared to the US almost every European country is run like a proper socialist country. And while some of them are struggling, I wouldn't say any one of them is a failed nation. In socialism wealth production isn't destroyed, but the results of it are more or less equally distributed among the people.
The "Great Smoky Mountain national park" in East Tennessee was built by the CCC after the land was donated by the residents of the area. At the state border between TN an NC inside the park; is a rest area where Roosevelt gave a dedication speech to open the park to the public. Also the people who donated the land for the park said it would only be donated if the park always remained free so the public could enjoy it's beauty. An now it's the most visited national park in the U.S.
As someone who was privileged enough to learn about the CCC in high school, it’s always upsetted me that so many Americans, who probably didn’t get as good an education that I did at my school, just throw around the word “socialism” like it’s some evil thing. Not only did socialist programs save us during the Great Depression, but today we still rely on so many socialist things that we take for granted everyday in America like the interstate highways, public schools, and the military. I hate to be blunt, but a lot of Americans are blind and inept to the fact that they are in fact socialist to a degree because if you pay taxes, then you paying for these things. If the government pays for something, guess what? It’s socialism. You’re a socialist. I’m a socialist. We’re all socialists.
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular.
@Logan Stone And the Old Ones
Seconded!
Sounds fun
cool suggest, very intresting
@@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567 I recall reading about that. Truth is stranger than fiction my friend
You briefly mentioned the Native Americans in WW2. Please please do a Biographics video on the Navajo Code Talkers.
That would be awesome!
Yes please do that on biographics!
Those were not Navajo. The Marines used them.
In Europe, the Army used the Comanche.
As I understand it, the Navajo code talkers didn't simply speak in Navajo, bit code as well.
@@mikerobertson9787 they did. Japanese sometimes captured other Navajo, and they could not understand it either. Most of the military jargon was replaced with code words, so it was still a fast effective code that could be delivered spoken.
The most they would get was like "There are ----- ---- at ---, requesting ---- and ----." Not enough to provide information without the secondary code.
And in frustration the would kill the few native speakers they did capture, before any attempt could be made to solve the secondary code.
1st comment. My father was in the CCCs in the 30's building camping and picnic areas for the forest service. In the 50's we camped and picnicked at tables that he had built. Cool!
not first but cool info!
One of the only pictures I have of my dad when he was young was taken while sitting on a horse in Colorado. He was quite a bit older than me and I never pictured him riding a horse till we were going though his things after he and mom died.and found that picture.
"i WaS tHe FiRsT cOmMeNt" grow up
Very nice personal link with history, and while I thank you for sharing your story. Not only were you not "first", the "FIRST!" comments are no longer cool, in fact they never were. Just FYI. Cheers. :)
We stayed at a beautiful CCC built hotel in Texas and it had hand hewn wooden furniture by the CCC too! The 3 legged desk chair was one to be careful on. I just wished Simon showed some of the beautiful CCC architecture and furnishings that were created. Like your dad's picnic tables!
My Dad was as in the CCC. He was sent to Colorado from Connecticut after he graduated in 1937. He contacted TB while he was there and when he went to join the service after Pearl Harbor they wouldn’t take him because of it. He ended up working at an aircraft engine plant till he retired.
I hope you’re father was proud of the work he did. It must have been hard to work while most of his peers were off fighting the war and later so defined by it
@@Matt02341 in his defence, he survived and it was probably easier than facing mortal peril. Not discrediting him.
It would be ridiculous or nationalistic to want to be in the situation that nobody wanted to be in.
Hi! I wanted to ask, i heard someone say once that the people that worked in the aeronautical industry of the WWII USA, were paid well, and that they came out of the war rather well off... Does that seem correct to you?
@@purpleldv966 Yes. Absolutely.
@@dobypilgrim6160 Chris didn't answer, so i'll wait for his opinion also...
As someone who enjoys hiking quite a bit , the people of the CCC are some of my personal Heroes
Nice presentation. My father was a participant in the CCC program in Montana and he credits it with "saving him from becoming a flat-broke farmer". He got three squares a day and learned how to survey in the CCC. It gave him a skill that he could take in to the wider world of work and help work himself in to an engineering technical school. He dropped out of that to join a survey team on the Al-Can Highway in northern British Columbia and Yukon....because the armed services wouldn't take his 4F carcass to fight in the world war. Again, it was because of his time with the CCC, which set his future lifetime career of surveyor, construction laborer, and on-site construction inspector. FDR, the WPA, and the CCC were sacrosanct in my household when I was growing up.
The generation which knew the CCC first hand is disappearing fast. Those of us who grew up hearing about it from actual participants are fading and losing our memories to inattentiveness, but I've run in to several folks my age who cite the CCC as a worthy exemplar for mandatory public service, to be focused upon rebuilding our crumbling national infrastructure. Too many hear this commentary and dismiss it with, "Yeah, riiiiight, Boomer."
There is some danger to a modern equivalent. You may run out of projects, or disrupt too many ecosystems that it has a negative effect.
The program as a wholly voluntary program sounds great.
The program I think is most effective would be directed cash assistance to needy people, as usually they are the people who know what they need.
Kelly Wellington I think that would actually be a really good idea. Especially for today’s youth.
I think it would give them a sense of pride in something they’ve helped accomplish that was fine the good of society and themselves.
Plus it would be a fantastic way to help them learn a trade they could make into a career. I know when I was in school if you didn’t get a scholarship and your family didn’t have much money, you didn’t have a lot of hope of an actual career. This was the early 90s do not so long ago really.
I would have loved to have a chance at something like this. And I see nothing wrong with mandatory public service. Here in Illinois all the schools, at least local ones, have to have so many hours of volunteering public service as part of their graduation requirements.
@@dongiovanni4331 the national park service has a huge backlog of projects. Could make money, get credit and learn a skill all at the same time. SCA doors it today, however a bigger group could be utilized to great effect.
Holy crap, thanks for this.
I’ve actually got a personal connection to this one. My first job was with Northwoods Stewardship Center in Vermont. Which was part of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. Born from the CCC. We would spend 5 days a week camping on mountains maintaining hiking trails for the summer, and adjusted for inflation, it was basically the same pay
I was in the California Conservation Corps not back in the day but back in 13-14. I was an arborist in Crew 2. South Lake Tahoe. The CCC’s motto was “Hard work, Low pay, Miserable conditions and more.....”. Couldn’t be more true. But the best time of my life. ✊🏽👌🏽👍🏽
In Illinois, our beautiful Shawnee National Forest, and most of our State Parks were built by the CCC. In Giant City State Park there is a beautiful monument statue in the Lodge courtyard.
My grandfather worked on that
Starved Rock
Something touched upon but not fully fleshed out is that all these projects have given todays citizens amazing access to public lands which most assuredly would not have happened post EPA. Every time I hike In a state or national forest, state or federal parks I am grateful for the ccc.
Some of the work of the CCC was well known to and much commented on by the adults when I was a child in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Utah, where I grew up, was (and is) predominantly owned by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service or the Department of Defense (DOD), so the CCC had a broad canvas on which to paint. When we youngsters took our recreation by hiking, skiing, fishing or hunting on those public lands, works attributed to the CCC would often be pointed out to us by adult relatives or Boy Scout leaders. The soil conservation terracing and stream-bed projects, all-weather roads built over high altitude passes, small dams and associated reservoirs were all greatly appreciated. In that politically very conservative region, the educational aspects of the CCC programs and their effects on the participants and their families met with general approval. The only grumbling I ever heard was from strong labor union folks who would point out that twenty well-paid union men with powerful equipment could have done many of the projects much more efficiently than two hundred CCC boys. Of course, by the time I was made aware of all this a quarter of a century had passed, and the memories of those who were much older than I was had to have been affected by other events and by later evaluation of outcomes.
Dominic You don't know what you're talkin about
Dominic. You don't know what you're talking about. You think if all unions went by the wayside that Corporation went start taking advantage of the workers we would start losing our benefits that were hard fought fot little by little (BTW). Granite there some unions that had too much power particularly in the government such as the police Union
The old BLM...😏
@@maxwill6408 Many of the abuses of workers we see on the 21st century are due to the loss of union representation. Do you really think it was the workers that wanted to end unions? Businesses were behind the call to gut them so that they would have more free rein to hire and fire as they please, as well as get by paying as little as possible. The eight hour day, insurance, pay a working wage...these were just some of the tings unions brought about. With the end of many of them, we see arising a vast robber baron class like existed in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. And it didn't arise by accident.
@Dominic no. The fact is that barely any unions remain after being dismantled by capitalist oligarchs.
And no prices are jacked up by unions because all of our products are made in different countries.
Unions don't control prices. They exist only to allow workers to communicate and collectively bargain for a proper income and necessary benefits and to protect each other from abuse by the companies they work for and the management who are so keen to use people for even minute personal gain.
The only unions that are truly abusive are police unions, because the consist of abusive people. Police must be subject to the just consequences of their actions, but instead they act as a mob and use threats and violence to protect themselves.
My father, as a young man prior to entering the USAAF in WW2, was in the CCC.
Thanks Simon and crew for doing this.
At that time it would have been army air corp or navy air Corp, the airforce wouldn’t come into existence until after wwii
@@nathancox7509 That's why I put USAAF. My father worked under General LeMay in Burma from 1942-44.
my father was in the ccc's . the money he made allowed my grandfather to keep his house and make the house payments
What a great personal link to history. Thanks for sharing your story!
Nice John. Why don’t we bring back the CCC to help clean up cities and parks and provide money and training to new generations?
@@philipcone357 california already has that since 1976. ccc.ca.gov/
You should cover the Minoan Palaces! Haven't had super ancient stuff in a bit
Oh I LOVE the Black Red and Gold "Atlantean" style architecture. Wouldve loved to see it in its full glory. Simon, can your team please invent or covertly get access to a secret military time machine. I'm sure it's classified, but it probably exists. Or at least a rebuilt UFO at Wright-Patt with one baked into the framework. If you need an infiltration team. I'm middle aged, clumsy and ready to go.. and live nearby to Wright-Patt in Cincinnati, OH. LOL
Seen the relics of the Minoan empire for the past two years while on holiday to Crete. When you consider so much survived it's fall, another 3000 year's and the locals still leave the sites alone, then came the Germans in WWII and caused untold damage and harm, looting sites and the Muesums. You can still see bullet holes where they executed locals to maintain a reign of terror at Knossos and Malia.
Dad was in N.Mich. planting trees, building campgrounds, went straight from there to Army. Said that it made adjusting to Army life a lot easier, He was used to living and working in large groups, he said they ran it like the Army, only you didn't get shot at in the C.C.C. Still the life was rough, lots of fights, it was a different time then.
I used to live in northern Michigan. Lots of great history there.
My Grandfather grew up in the Upper Peninsula.
I remember my father talking about planting pine trees with the CCC during the 30s.
@Dominic nah, some would, while others would be fine...
@Dominic All the more reason to bring them back. Shame the wimps and make real-men of the strong-willed survivors with potential. Everyone wins. Especially America.
my granddad was part of the conversation corps. jackson hole wy
here in Kansas many many of the public pools is little towns were built in programs like this. not necessarily the ccc. i think it was called pwa or jwa. this pools were build in little towns of like 2000 ppl. they also built activities and shelter houses around public ponds and lakes
most are still in use. they used native sandstone. a zoo built in independence ks. still holds animals. they also made outhouses and chicken coops and things like that. they build walls, band shells, auditoriums and small bridges out on county roads that frequently flooded. so much of southeast kansas still has and uses these.
@@DJKinney ???
The CCC did a lot of great work in my state park decades ago, the trails they built are still in great condition! Thank you to the CCC and leaders who walk the walk when it comes to actually caring about their community.
Amen! It seems almost every county has a park that can trace its roots to the CCC. The State Parks in South Carolina are a testament to the hard work of these folks and are a great legacy we still enjoy today. Money well spent
With the power of dyslexia my first read through of the title yelded "The Chilean Concentration Camps", the second read through was much more pleasant
Qhahahahah
I got to Civilian Concentration camps and got very worryied
😂😂🍻
@@profwaldone this is what I did as well. I was worried for this channels affiliations for moment. hmm... MegaProjects new video is out, about... civilian concentration camps?.. hmm ***clicks anyway***
Peigeot , lovely! I read it first as Conservative Vaccination Corps!
In Wisconsin, you cant go to a state park without seeing a project done by the CCC. Well done, well done.
What perfect timing. I was speaking with my my mother about my grandfather because it would have been his birthday other day ( born in 1904). She told me he was part of the CCC during WW2. She didn’t know exactly what he did since she was born in 1944 but he was a machinist for ages with GE. Perhaps he acquired these skills at the CCC? I passed it on for her to watch. Thank you so much! Love your shows.🙂
i hope your mummy enjoys the video! and well done to your grandfather too. 🙂
Cool video! The WPA would be another interesting relief program to cover. As I understand, that program was responsible for several major construction projects in the US at that time
My wife asked me to ‘Please send to Simon’.
‘I just watched your video while taking a break at work on a “CCC” site that is still going today! The CCC’s today are all run under the USDA / Forest Service as Job Corps Centers. The Job Corps program is overseen by the Department of Labor. There are centers in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico. We still work with disadvantaged youth ages 16 to 24, but now serves both male and female students. They come here to complete both their high school or equivalent education all while learning a trade. The CCC’s still have a Forestry program where the students go out and learn Wildland Firefighting. The program has really evolved and has had a-lot of success. One notable Job Corps graduate is George Forman.
Many of our students come to Job Corps because family members have also gone through the program.
I just thought you needed an update to your story.’
I'm surprised only a few people are mentioning job corps. I went through job corps and it helped me get a job at general dynamics.
I always get the CCC and the WPA (Works Progress Administration) mixed up. Where I grew up all the projects were WPA, schools, community buildings, Libraries and that sort of thing. Another wonderful program.
If you go to the Pittsburgh zoo and visit the bear enclosure it still has WPA carved into the large cut stone it's made of. Pretty darn cool.
I’m currently doing a road trip around the US and noticed CCC comes up everywhere. Great timing!
Absolutely loved this video! And I'm a huge supporter of the national/state parks service.. I would love to see a video about job corps and amricorps.also I greatly enjoy all of you videos of from mega projects,biographies and the blaze. Keep it up! 👍
My grandfather was so proud of the time he spent in the CCC. One thing his group got to do was visit the Boulder/Hoover dam while it was being constructed.
Simon: I’m going to talk about a socialist program please don’t kill me!
America: Aw! He’s doing a video about the CCC! Isn’t he just the best?
Americans wouldn't know socialism if it fed them, housed them, and let them go to the hospital without going bankrupt.
(source: am american, unfortunately.)
Alexis so does that mean you don’t know Socialism?
Thanks Simon, Ollie, and Megaprojects team for doing this great video! As other comments have said, as a hiker and nature lover I am very appreciative of the work done by the CCC that I get to enjoy today. Just some numbers on the results of their work in my home state of Michigan:
Michigan enrollees planted 484 million trees, spent 140,000 man-days fighting forest fires, released 156 million fish, and constructed 7,000 miles of truck trails, 504 bridges and 222 buildings among other things.
Please do one on the hanford cleanup project. People need to hear about the aftermath of the manhattan project
Man, that's a good one.
All that radio active material is coming down here to southern New Mexico to what is know as the WIPP Project (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant ) . That is another show too. The WIPP project takes all US Nuclear wast now .
Well if you're not American you learn about it in school a bit
@@123brendan100 Depends on how long ago and where you went to school
Still a big pile of Manhattan project material buried in a landfill in Bridgeton MO. There is an underground fire smouldering in another part of the same landfill. Much discussion as to the safes way to deal with the material in case the fire moves toward it.
My grandfather worked with the WPA to build trails and buildings at a state park in MN. The buildings and trails are still in use to this day. He was always very proud of the work he’d done, and would show us the exact projects he had been involved with.
The sanitation movement. How the developed world conquered cholera.
Helena Farkas I’m still shipping for the London sewer system.
My great grandfather and grandfather both worked on this project. They built stone walls on steep slopes above roads in Indiana county, Pa.
The walls are still standing strong today.
If you’re going to do the CCC, you have to do the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
I live in East TN. The TVA saved this area, but also destroyed a lot. My grandma had to move when she was a kid cause the newly built dam was going to flood their hollow. I got pics of her and her sisters in front of a church and houses where it’s now ~30ft of water. Crazy to think of. But without those jobs and electricity this area would likely be dead
Yes, the TVA would be a great Megaprojects suggestion !
Yes! I've heard of the TVA occasionally, but I have no idea what it is.
40 years ago as a 9th grade class project I had to interview somebody who lived through the Great Depression and of course I chose my grandfather and he told me all about his time in the CCC. He was at Mineral, WA. It was the only A+ I ever got in school.
Navajo Code Talkers!!
Chris Stokes It’d be cool to get a full video on this. I guess on maybe ‘Today I Found Out’?
me too! i wanna know about that also, it sounds so fun. big props to them all for all of their help
Wrong, that was the Marine Corps.
The Army used Comanche.
0311Mushroom Maybe an episode on Today I Found Out about all the indigenous languages used in the war....??
Remember my friend Johnny George.
Everytime I’m in Yosemite I find myself thanking the CCC almost hourly in my head, they have enabled so many people to see amazing things in our Parks. Some of my best memories with my father were on trails they built.
Every time people say "Name just one country where socialism worked", the US comes to mind. Social Security. Medicare. CCC. TVA. WPA. I'm not suggesting everyone work for one big company called the gubmint. Rather, note that the core of socialism is NOT what Stalin and Mao set up, which is basically state capitalism. The core is that the people doing the work run the company and share the profit (yes, there is profit), like with a family farm, a mom&pop shop, or a co-op. Such a company doesn't turn one dude into a bazillionaire while workers are told to pee in their pants because potty breaks cut into 'his' profit.
There are quit a few socialist countries, particularly in Europe, that are not communist. Socialist in this case is that the government provide programs that care for their citizens: universal healthcare, family leave programs so people can care for themselves (in the case of illness or injury) or family members, parental leave programs that ensure that both women and men can spend time with their newborns, a guaranteed living wage, social programs for the retired and elderly so they don't starve or go homeless, things like that. Sure, the citizens my pay more in taxes, but then they get more for their tax dollars (things we have to pay for out of pocket in the US). Their citizens are productive, businesses thrive. In the US, our political parties have twisted the meaning of socialism and communism to a point that people believe they are the same thing. But in the end, who actually ends up benefiting for that confusion? Generally not the poor or middle class.
Fucking _thank you_ for saying that, eric moss. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fucking thank you. About time someone in this comments section knew what the hell they were talking about.
The CCC came through the area of my family farm, building small hills following the hillside to reduce erosion and make more land plant-able. Those are still there today and still being used. I think it took them 2 days to process our 27 acre farm. My grandma told us about it all the time. our farm switched over to cattle back in the 70s, so no crop have grown on the property in some time. We kept walking paths cleared so we could walk the property to the various key sites. During those walks, my grandmother would tell us tales of the process of the CCC coming through, as well as other family history (the family has extensive history in the Texas oil industry). The CCC came through to do other things other than erosion control, and every time they came through my family would gift them items such as new tools from our blacksmith shop, eggs from the chickens, and fresh veggies from the garden. The supplies were much appreciated.
A video on Ajanta & Ellora caves in India. They are rock cut structures & took about 700 & 400 yrs to build respectively
I'll keep on pestering you until you make a video
Yep, I agree. Those structures are the most impressive ancient work imo and not a lot of content on YT. What I would give to visit in person!
Hey Simon..Kailasa Temple the granite rock cut temple (top to bottom cut) monolith bigger than Greek Pantheon is located in Ellora caves ..more incentive for you to make a video
yes..this would be brilliant
Didn't Simon put out a poll a while back asking if people wanted a new channel that concentrated on ancient megaprojects or something similar? And he's been hinting recently about a new channel.....
One of the best things about "Simon Channels" is the genuine feel of Simon and staff wanting to help inspire improvement of the world..... (and have a good time doing it.)
Sounds like you need some button up Megaprojects shirts.
Mega Projects flannels
Megaproject henleys?
I was thinking, "Simon, you're wearing a jacket with lapels, isn't that what a lapel mike is supposed to be clipped to? And you've worn a jacket over T-shirts before, so..." but it's his show, he can play it any way he wants to to get people to buy the merch. :-)
2:50 - Chapter 1 - Origins
4:05 - Chapter 2 - The beginning
5:45 - Chapter 3 - Rebuilding morale
6:40 - Chapter 4 - The enrollees
8:50 - Chapter 5 - The camps
10:00 - Chapter 6 - The work
11:00 - Chapter 7 - Minority camps
13:05 - Chapter 8 - Expansion
13:55 - Chapter 9 - A new direction
15:10 - Chapter 10 - Decline
16:35 - Chapter 11 - Rebuilding america
- Chapter 12 -
We SERIOUSLY need this program to come back. The CCC built infrastructure, planted millions of trees, gave young men a job/training, 3 squares, and money to help their families. It’s the best program we’ve ever had, in my opinion.
Also, these men learned discipline, useful in WW2.
Thank you, Simon. CCC was a big deal here. I’m Lakota and Nakoda. It was, absolutely, a Megaproject. One overlooked aspect is that the project destroyed nearly every sacred site we had.
Sorry.
Sacred sites are the past. Dwell on the past, you have no future. Harsh, perhaps, but your grandfather can’t help you, much as you revere his memory
Native peoples in the US have always gotten the short end sadly. Progress can be brutal too bad a middle ground can't be found.
@@dewiz9596 So much for sympathy you sour old goat.
@@dewiz9596 Bram, you are being a bit of a dick... maybe empathize with someone else's believe and heritage...
What I like about the CCC is that it actually put people to work and paid them for that work. Modern social programs seem to primarily focus on just handing out money with no real attached responsibility.
Welfare was still a thing back then. The social program that hands out the most money with nothing to show is the DOD. Whose current budget is three quarters of a TRILLION dollars. A decent percentage of that goes to ridiculous black projects, with zero congressional oversight, and projects with cronyism written all over them. Social safety nets have been gutted for years. This whole "lazy welfare recipient" propaganda you've been hearing is the elites making sure the rest of us continue to infight instead of looking towards them as the root of all issues. The greatest con ever played is people who make $2000 an hour making people who make $25 an hour think all their problems are caused by the people who make $8 or less an hour.
@@justinpipes85 I couldn't have said it better.
Bingo. And that’s why it actually was successful
This was really interesting! I’ve seen the “CCC Worker” statues in a few state parks around the east coast, and I’ve always wanted to learn more about the program. The CCC might have been born out of necessity, to give men much-needed jobs during the Great Depression, but even today, we continue to benefit from a lot of the work they did back then!
Hey,, one can be capitalistic and socialistic at the same time... Just look at us scandinavians... (Especially my rich neighbours the Norwegians) The two do not have to cancel eachother out..
Sitting on a massive state-owned gas reserve helps...
Sitting on massive fucking gas reserves and having your entire economy backed up by Oil is the only reason their retarded ass policies work.
Norweigians got it so easy they actually think their success is because of their amazing socialist polciies and totally not because of the gas.
Most countries other than the US mix the two, but sure.
There is little to no socialism in the Nordic countries.
Where's the worker control of the means of production?
Peter, really well done on letting everyone know how little you know about Socialism. It's always the way. Socialists clueless on Socialism. That strange old irony. Read a book before you open your gob in the future. Lol.
My Grand father was a member of the CCC. In Northern Utah along the road from Ogden, up through the canyon to Pineview Reservoir, there used to be a 3 to 4 foot high rock wall built by the CCC. My grand father worked on that wall.
Thank you for doing this story.
PENTAGON
JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE
Also, I liked your black and white gingham so much I bought one and I love it. Anyways, good job and blaze on!
Here in Pennsylvania, many State Park and State Forest picnic and camping areas and dams were built. Most of them survive and are used to this day.
Ik i live in a town in the Allegheny national park
I am basically conservative, but I could get around a new version of the CCC. Address many of the same issues, basic education to bring people up to 'par' or even help get GED's (high school equivalency certificates), making the voting populace more literate for a generation to come AND update some old CCC work, plus address some conservation / global warming type projects. Recovery and reclamation of wild file lands, etc. Hard work and many people can be used instead of heavy machinery in many situations, and sometimes more effectively, but it does take people being willing to work. That would be a hard sell for a new CCC. ... As a taxpayer, I could see it paying off for years to come. Even having a standing enactment whenever unemployment was over a given level (say 8%) for 2 years or more, that it could 'automatically kick in'.
Check out AOC’s Green New Deal Bill
So you want the government to fix government education.
I couldn't ever see enough 18 to 30 year old's doing that work today, many dont have the work ethic that would be required to undertake such tasks.
Im Aussie, and would be open to it been done in aus, but only as a short term fix to unemployment, not as a permanent program.
@@samanthaweekley2622 lol, that bill is as bonkers and as racist as it can be
one big hurdle is federal public employee unionization, something that didn't exist at the time and FDR vehemently opposed.
The CCC was a fantastic program in my part of the country - North Florida. Many projects - I attended a first to twelfth grade school in a coral rock school house that was built by the CCC. The building now serves as an administrative facility. I am now 83 and have good memories of my years there. Thanks for a very good video.
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
So to clarify a few things. First CCC works still exist under numerous states mostly in the West and South during the summer. Second the little "military training" done by the CCC was usually jokingly called boy scouts with guns so it was of no real use in WW II and did not qualify as basic training but it was used to find military astute trainees and the camps created were of some help during mobilization. MacArthur hated the CCC but George Marshall liked. I have always thought we could have increased the size of the Army in the 1930s by a couple of hundred thousand men and had a really good Army at the start of WW II instead of having the 28th largest Army in 1941 and the military debacles in 1941-42.
The AN-2. The tractor of the sky and most produced aircraft of all time
I've stayed in several CCC cabins and visited several of the former camps. Many of them have been converted into camping areas in state and national parks. It's a fascinating part of American history.... One that we frankly need to repeat.
mega projects suggestion pls.. The Big Hole, Open Mine, Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine ( Afrikaans : Groot Gat) is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the deepest hole excavated by hand, thanks alot
My grandfather was in the CCC in Palestine Texas. It was good for him and his family. He'd often say "It was a dollar a day, and the work wasn't hard." Thanks for doing a video on this.
Can you do a story on The Berlin Airlift. It is fascinating. It almost started World War III.
I would love to see this one too
Mark Felton has a video on that
There is a video about it on xplrd (another Simon channel)
My father, now 88 years old, as a kid watched the CCC and WPA (another video?) build roads, bridges etc in our very rural part of Missouri. To this day he compliments them on the excellent quality of the roads especially and bemoans the lack of anything similar or adequate maintenance since. Great video as usual sir. Thank you.
Suggestion: the US interstate system or perhaps more relevantly, the US voting system and how it came to be
Yes! The interstate would be a great video. Plus the hilarious irony of Hawaii having an interstate lol
I would love a video on the US development and production of the B-29. And one on the steeling, reverse engineering and production of the Soviet version.
CCC one of best things US ever achieved, and we need it to be reintroduced now. (sans segregation). Of course under current administration & congress chances of that = nil
My Great Grandfather was a part of the CCC during the depression, and in the Summer of 2019, I worked as a member of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) in 4 locations over 4 weeks. My crew planted a rain garden and diverted parking lot runoff away from the river and into the garden, eliminated over 7,000+ invasive buckthorn trees, and installed "water bars" on a soon to be hiking trail as a soil erosion countermeasure. All in the span of 20 days
Megaprojects Suggestion: UA-cam channel Business Blaze. We need to know ! 🤔
Mega project suggestion. CN railway. It was built in 1899 and it’s crosses all of Canada and had some really neat but also sad problems and challenges such as trying to cross the Rocky Mountains and the use of Chinese workers. I think it would be interesting to watch
Came early for the beard. Mission accomplished.
Do you usually come early for beards?
It happens to all of us some times...
So did Simon's wife.
That's some kinky shit
My father was in the CCC. He said it was a Godsend for his family. He and his older brother were in separate camps and the money sent home kept the family from starvation. He planted trees, paved mountain roads in Colorado, and harvested grass seed. The grass seed work was the worst job he ever had...he came from Texas and the family were share croppers...cotton pickin' share croppers! He retired at age 57 as upper management in a glass mfg, corporation. He credits the CCC for his success. He said when things got tough he'd just think back to that miserable 'seed work' and that would smooth out all problems. He was a great guy. I miss him and mom.
I like having roads, and fire department, and schools, etc. A little socialism is OK with me.
Sure... But my roads and schools suck. Firemen are alright though, but in my area they are mostly volunteer and often resort to coin donations beside the road... Whatever government might have achieved once upon a time, surely isnt worth the price we'll have to pay down the road.. someone's gonna have to take care of the national debt...
@@Theggman83 LOL to think that the national debt stemmed from funding fire, police, schools, and public hospitals and not decades of war halfway across the world or an outrageous military spending budget in general. It's gotta be the services provided to the citizens (who pay taxes for those services) and surely NOT the billions upon billions spent on bombs and tanks or what about the multi-hundred-billion-dollar bailouts of the automotive industry and big banker fat cats? Nah it's probably that free lunch that poor liittle timmy is eating because his mom can't find a decent job in this shithole. That's probably it.
@@smoothkid765 lol I'm under no illusions as to how our national debt came to be, and you can't tell me that entitlement programs didnt help.... but since we didn't pay for those projects back then, and have only compounded the spending since... I think the overall point I was trying to make is that we are broke. No one wants to admit that, and everyone keeps acting like government is/has a neverending supply of cash... But that's just not how it works. And frankly I'm kinda worried how my kids will be asked to pay for it....someday....
@@smoothkid765 oh yeah, lol, as a veteran all I can say is that uncle sam has a job for anyone that wants to serve.... Everyone wants the cars and houses but no one wants to work for it. 👍 🤡
Communist Revolution?
The New Deal included the Works Project Administration. Among the projects were arts projects and documentation of city histories. I read the history of my hometown (Muscatine Iowa), which was written by a previously unemployed writer. WPA projects included flood control works (dams, weirs, floodwalls) and roads, school buildings and other public buildings (libraries, schools, court houses etc). There were other programs as well. The whole soil conservation service started as part of the New Deal.
Lots of state parks in Texas still have CCC built structures still in use today, almost 90 years later. That's guvment assistance put to good use. Not paying peeps to sit at home and breed.
The AmeriCorps Program modeled one of its programs after the CCC. It is called AmeriCorps*NCCC. National Civilian Community Corps.
the wife's grandfather ran several CCC camps during the depression for the forest service
Great work Simon and crew! I've been a part of the Megaprojects core audience since the start. This video wasn't long enough, I could watch an hour of this. I'm happy to see the channel grow in subs, but then again (Based on your other channels) I knew you were gonna be a hit from the start.
More people need to realize that "socialism" can be a good thing. I hope many more people see this video. If I were a young man then I would have joined up. We desperately need this kind of program again today. Thank you so much.
Resource: the crowdsourced Living New Deal project is documenting New Deal works - CCC, WPA, etc. - like trails, roads, buildings, murals, sculptures.
Overseas highway in Florida it's 113 miles of bridges should be interesting.
We need it now or something simular. That program was great in so many ways.
space shuttle video maybe?
Yes
And the Soviet version as well.
Simon Whistler: Mission Control...he needs a new channel all about space missions.
IIn the 70s 2 programs that where based on the CCC came about . YCC the (Youth Conservation Corp) and YACC (Young Adult Conservation Corp) I worked for the YACC in 1979. Both programs where run Under the USFS (US Forests Service). I worked in Ocala National Forests in Florida. Both programs where smaller in scale. The qualifications where you had to be healthy between ages of 17 and 21 and it was open to both men and women . One of the rangers we worked with was with the CCC and told us all the stories and showed us Pictures from his day with the CCC. Great times ...
Simon, your aside about the Native American code talkers made me laugh!
Was ist das???
I need my friends to want to watch and understand this lesson on Socialism!!! Alas, I can only like and share.:-) 💜
Dad was in the CCC at a camp in Skull Creek, Colorado. When the CCC closed down in 1942, he moved into the Army Air Corps.
Triple c's. My great grandfather was in the ccc. I still have his old name card form those days. I can remember askin him about the depression days and he said they was so poor they couldn't really tell the difference.
I've heard the same from old timers here in the mountains northeast TN, some were better off than their kin that lived in the cities and took them in during the depression.
My great grandfather Milton Johnson was a member of the CCC. He helped build some of the buildings at Millersylvania State Park in Washington State. The park itself was established in 1921 but most of the structures came later. He later served in the US Navy during WW2. My family is very proud of him.
Can you do one on the boeing super factory in Everett Washington. Supposedly you could fit magic Kingdom in side of it.
Awesome video Simon. My grandfather worked in the CCC camps in the 30s, but I never knew much about them. Thanks
Simon I’ve been watching this channel since its beginning by far that was your best episode thank you
My father was in the CCC camps in Utah. He got his start in equipment maintenance as a young man and continued in the field until he retired at 62. Dad worked for several construction companies in Utah during his career and his Sons all worked construction for a time, A couple of us also retired from construction companies in Utah.
As a non socialist, I rather enjoyed this video. Thank you Simon. I wish for the for-profit American prison system to be sorted out and maybe there's a place for a CCClike entity to exist reforming some criminals especially/particularly forthat 17-23 age range the corps had.
This would be great but you know there will be hell to pay with political blow back because it would take money out of the pockets of elected officials' and the giant prison corp.
@@thomascomeau2961Sadly true... Also, the revolution will not be televised.
I don't know if it still exists, but California had it's own conservation corps which, in the late eighties, trained state prison inmates in fire control. I worked at a camp in the mountains and we had a crew assigned to help us cut fire line around the camp. Most of the inmates came from Los Angeles and many had never seen a forest before. They had to exhibit good behavior to qualify for the program and many spoke of their desire to continue working in nature upon their release.
Thanks for this video. I just got into my field, finally, and will now be helping to run a ccc museum. It was nice to see my favorite blaze boy had a video on the subject. Keep it up you legend.
ThrustSSC Land Speed Record holder please
He should be excited and proud to tell it, as it's a British accomplishment.
I love how Simon's passion for history comes through in his presentations
Berlin Airlift!
My Grandfather (he adopted my father) worked on several of these projects, mostly in Oregon, including around Crater Lake.
What really cool is how much of the original work is still in great condition.
careful, Ollie, sounds like you are close to joining Danny in the basement
My great grandfather was in the CCC. I don't remember where he was sent to but I do remember a story he told me a couple times. He was working demolition somewhere and was tasked with taking a truck of explosives down a hill (could have been into an open pit mine, I don't remember exactly) and about halfway down the hill... the truck's brakes failed. Well, my great grandfather, in a moment of quick thinking, steered the truck into the inside wall of the path down and managed to get himself down the hill in one piece. The right side of the truck was pretty much destroyed, but he had made it down safely.
There is Americorps and all of the Conservation Corps programs that fall under Americorps still to this day. There are the Washington Conservation Corps, Montana Conservation Corps, Youth Conservation Corps, and so many more. The crews in these programs build trails, help with restoration work, fire prevention, respond to natural disasters, and a bunch of other work.
Truman in 1950:
". Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years.
It also killed a hunded million people in the 20th century...
Socialism is great if you want to create a society where all wealth production is destroyed, while personal and civil liberties are crushed under the jack boots of oppression.
I don't even have to work hard to prove my point. Just look at EVERY Socialist nation that has ever existed. Highlights include (but are not limited to) The PRC, Cuba, Venezuela, and let us not forget those crazy Bolsheviks themselves, the USSR.
Socialism is THE example of repeating the mistakes of forgotten history. Sure enough, there is always some group of ideologues that think that their brand of Socialism will be different. Everybody will all live happily together in mediocrity and nobody will get sent to the gulag for speaking against some injustice or another. They are inevitably proven wrong but by then, the Party has control and it is too late for anything but regrets.
so currently its the last 90 years.
Socialism is all about how you spend money, nothing about how it’s made !
@@nolgroth What you describe there is communism, not socialism. I know those countries called themselves socialist republics, but only because communism already had a bad reputation when they were formed. Socialism is about the state working for the people, communism is about controlling the people.
To prove my point, you may notice that all the countries you mention were run like dictatorships. And that's why all of them failed.
Compared to the US almost every European country is run like a proper socialist country. And while some of them are struggling, I wouldn't say any one of them is a failed nation.
In socialism wealth production isn't destroyed, but the results of it are more or less equally distributed among the people.
The "Great Smoky Mountain national park" in East Tennessee was built by the CCC after the land was donated by the residents of the area. At the state border between TN an NC inside the park; is a rest area where Roosevelt gave a dedication speech to open the park to the public. Also the people who donated the land for the park said it would only be donated if the park always remained free so the public could enjoy it's beauty. An now it's the most visited national park in the U.S.
As someone who was privileged enough to learn about the CCC in high school, it’s always upsetted me that so many Americans, who probably didn’t get as good an education that I did at my school, just throw around the word “socialism” like it’s some evil thing. Not only did socialist programs save us during the Great Depression, but today we still rely on so many socialist things that we take for granted everyday in America like the interstate highways, public schools, and the military. I hate to be blunt, but a lot of Americans are blind and inept to the fact that they are in fact socialist to a degree because if you pay taxes, then you paying for these things. If the government pays for something, guess what? It’s socialism. You’re a socialist. I’m a socialist. We’re all socialists.