6th Annual CCC Day News Release

Date: March 16, 2015
Contact: Philip Brown, [phone]
Contact: Sharon Hunt

Tucson, AZ – Saguaro National Park is pleased to be hosting the 6^th Annual Civilian Conservation Corps Recognition Day event on Saturday, March 28, from 9am to 4pm in the park's west district.

The park invites visitors to step back in time with 1930s-era music as it plays on an old radio, while they explore displays of photos, newspapers, and memorabilia. CCC historians will speak; authors will mingle with guests and sign books. Films and documentaries will be shown. CCC alumni are among invited guests. A local food truck will be available in the parking lot over lunch hours to serve visitors.

Among the speakers this year will be Bill Gillespie, US Forest Service, who will present a program on the CCC in the Chiricahua Mountains; Michael Smith, CCC historian, whose program, "Not a Summer Camp for Boys," highlights hazards faced by these young men; Sharon Hunt, a camp newspaper program called in "In Their Own Words" and Philip Brown, who will talk about the CCC activities in the Tucson Mountains.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families particularly devastated by the poverty of The Great Depression. Originally for young men ages 18–23, it was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs to help with conservation or development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. In the Tucson area alone, CCC workers lived in temporary camps and created improvements in dozens of public land areas, including Saguaro National Park, Tucson Mountain Park, Sabino Canyon, and Colossal Cave Mountain Park.

Schedule of Event:

• 10:00 a.m.—Sharon Hunt, "In Their Own Words: CCC Camp Newspapers"
• 11:00 a.m.—Bill Gillespie, US Forest Service—"The CCC in the Chiricahua Mountains"
• 1:00 p.m.—Michael Smith—"Not a Summer Camp for Boys"
• 2:00 p.m.—Philip Brown—"The CCC in the Tucson Mountains"
• Tours of the Camp Pima site will meet at the Red Hills Visitor Center at 10am and 12 noon, space is limited, reservations are required. Contact the visitor center at 733-5158
• Film Screening of "Dollar-a-Day Boys" will begin at 12 noon.

The CCC Recognition Day event is offered free of charge, however regular entrance fees apply to other recreational activities in both districts of the park.

For more information about Saguaro National Park and programs, visit www.nps.gov/sagu