Civilian Conservation Corps Records

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal public works project designed to put millions of unemployed young men back to work during the Great Depression.  The program was open to men, aged 18-25, and provided two years of employment with housing and meals included.  The men were required to send a portion of their pay back home.  The men built roads to recreational areas which they also helped restore.  They also provided labor for forest preservation and school construction.  As with military service at that time, the CCC camps were segregated.  FDR, in a 1936 radio address, described the project, putting people to work, and said that the men would be engaged in "healthful, outdoor work on forest, park and soil conservation projects."

 My father, James F.B. Zweighaft, served as the camp physican in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), company 711 in Ely Minnesota, from November 13, 1939 to August 6, 1941.

James F.B.Zweighaft far right

Consider yourself very lucky if you have a relative who served in the CCC's as the personnel files can be  voluminous and are readily available for a copy fee from the National Archives in St. Louis.  Instructions as to how to order CCC records can be found here: https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/civilian-personnel/ccc-holdings-access

James F.B. Zweighaft, right. A New York City native who, in this photo looks perfectly at home in the cold Minnesota winter, he eventually requested a transfer to "any climate warmer than Minnesota".

My father's Official Personnel File (OPF as per the National Archives) contains over 100 pages including his 1939 CCC application, payroll data ("$3200 per annum"), a photocopy of his birth certificate, performance reviews and results of physical examinations in vivid detail, even specifying which teeth were missing.   Documents seemingly unrelated to CCC service may also find their way into these files.  For example my father's OPF contains a series of letters pertaining to a 1935 lawsuit filed against my father for a $48.98 judgment.