It's extremely easy to get caught up in the day to day, the daily run and rush of things. It's in the Great Smoky Mountains, however, that you see how quickly the past becomes eaten up by the steady plod of the present. There are remnants of the 1930s and the 1940s strewn within the woods, speckling hiking trails and igniting imaginations across the whole of the eastern state. Curious? We were, too...
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camps were in large part thanks to FDR's New Deal, and provided work from 1933 to 1942 for unemployed, unmarried men. It was usually fairly hard and manual work, but the bridge builders and trailblazers also nurtured the implementation of fish hatcheries and nurseries in the Great Smoky Mountains. Here, you can see an old photo of the Greenbrier CCC camp.
This shot gives a face to the hardworking men who made a huge difference in our Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
Here you can see a fireplace, still standing, on the Kephart Prong Trail. Though most of the buildings have been razed, you can still see eerie bits of the past poking through the woods.
This is the last building standing from Camp Whitmore, located in Lawrenceburg. 195 men were once stationed here, though a majority were moved to California in later years. This little home now stands alone and apart.
As you can see here, the trail has multiple branches that make for a neat, history laden hike in the Great Smoky Mountains.
You can find this abandoned Cadillac off the Middle Prong Trail, beginning at Tremont Road. Legend has it that the supervisor of the old CCC camp pushed it to the side of the road after it quit running, and simply left it. Interesting, right? If it's broke I guess you don't fix it in the backwoods...?
Quite a few of the trails and bridges, any structure in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park has some kind of reference to the men of the CCC. Many of their structures stand even now, pushing four decades later.
Interesting bit of history, isn't it? We're in awe of the strong men that made up the CCC, and are continuing to love on the land they helped nurture even today. Keep an eye out for their handiwork the next time you're in East Tennessee!
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