Created to ease the financial strains of the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, employed over 3,000,000 young men nationwide between 1933-1942. The 21 camps in Connecticut provided barrack-style food and housing along with a small monthly stipend. The men worked on a variety of conservation projects including forest road construction, recreation area development and forest fire suppression.
A system of fire ponds, each holding a minimum of 7,500 gallons of water, served as the main water source for fire suppression in the state forests. This particular fire pond was constructed by the enrollees from Camp White, Company #106 in Barkhamsted circa 1936. The goal of building one pond per 100 acres on state land and one pond per 200 acres
on private land was curtailed by the onset of WWII and the closing of the CCC camps. By 1941, the CCC had completed 404 water holes in the 80,000 acres of state forest land and 269 holes on private land.
This fire pond, restored to original condition by the Friends of American Legion and Peoples State Forest (FALPS) in September 2017, illustrates one of several designs utilized by the CCC.
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