Statue dedication set Saturday at Lacey park

Statue dedication set Saturday at Lacey park

By GLORIA MIELKE, Special to The Ledger

The first statue in Iowa honoring the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Saturday at the J-40 entrance of Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in Keosauqua.

Friends of Lacey State Park are hoping many CCC veterans and their families attend, as well as members of the public, to celebrate the accomplishments of the CCC at Lacey Keosauqua State Park.

Sharon Ewing of New London inherited her father?s Civilian Conservation Corps trunk containing personal items from his days as a CCC worker in the 1930s.

As a proud daughter would, she wanted to pay tribute to his memory. On the Internet, Ewing found a Web site for the United States CCC Legacy Organization and there is where she first saw ?The Statue,? a bronze, life-sized image of a CCC worker.

Joan Sharp, president of the national organization told Ewing the first step in securing a statue for an Iowa park would be to form an Iowa chapter ? she needed 10 members.

Her next step was a call to Department of Natural Resources Regional Director Tom Baston with her idea to place a CCC statue in Lacey-Keosauqua State Park, noting it would be the first statue in Iowa.

Lacey-Keosauqua State Park: Legacy of CCC

By KURT MIELKE, Special to The Ledger

The ?Great Depression? had a firm grip on the nation in the early 1930s when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. One out of every four workers was unemployed, and it was estimated 2.5 million men and women were drifting; homeless and hoping that perhaps the next freight train would carry them to some kind of work. There was no federal welfare system to step in and lessen the social upheaval that was threatening the country.

In addition to a social-economic catastrophe, the nation also was facing an environmental crisis. By 1932, 75 percent of the country?s forests had been cut and agricultural practices of the day were creating massive soil erosion problems. Drought, over-grazing, and intensive agriculture were destroying the grasslands. Nine million acres of farmland had been lost to erosion and considerably more was reported to be in danger of being lost according Donald Worster?s ?Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s.?

But within these two problems there was a solution ? The Civilian Conservation Corps.

March 9, 1933, the 73rd Congress was called into an emergency session and Senate Bill S. 598 was introduced March 27. The bill, which authorized emergency conservation work, was passed by both houses of Congress and ready for the president?s signature March 31, 1933. With this legislation, the CCC was born.

Only 29 days after the senate bill was introduced, on April 7, 1933, the first enrollee was inducted into the corps. Within a few weeks, CCC camps started springing up in Iowa. A few months later, 12,800 men were working at 34 Iowa CCC camps. By 1942, when the program ended, 46,000 men had participated in the CCC program in Iowa.

Besides age requirements, enrollees had to be single and in good heath. Initially 18- to 25-year-olds were admitted. Age requirements were later changed to allow 17- to 28-year-olds into the program.

New enrollees earned $30 per month, but were required to send $25 of the pay home. In addition to an income, the men received room and board, medical care as needed and some education. Reportedly the types and extent of educational opportunities varied from camp to camp. A typical enrollee is said to have been 20-years-old; to have had an eighth-grade education; and came from a family of six.

The CCC companies were commissioned to create artificial lakes, expand the state?s park and preserve system, create wildlife refuges and establish state forests. In only eight years, these men contributed to significant improvements in more than 80 state parks in Iowa. One of those parks was Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in Van Buren County.

Lacey Keosauqua State Park, originally called Big Bend Park. was officially dedicated in 1921, but most of the park?s improvements began in 1933.

For the complete articles and photos, see the Monday, July 26, 2010, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.