The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was instrumental in making Vermont’s mountains and forests accessible. The CCC was one of the federal public works programs set up under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. It employed thousands of young men who lived paramilitary style in camps they built around the country. More than 40,000 men, including 11,243 Vermonters, were employed in the state by the CCC between 1933 and 1942. Under the leadership of state forester Perry Merrill, they built bridges, dams, and roads, cut trails to the tops of mountains such as Mount Mansfield, and opened up state forests such as Groton.

The CCC provided men with much-needed jobs during the Depression and enabled some to obtain work skills used in later life. Without the work of the CCC the modern recreational areas of Vermont, especially for skiing, would not have developed as quickly as they did.

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