Media Review: Camp Forgotten/Big Shoulders, By William Jamerson

Abstract

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal program founded in 1933 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, provides a unique example of a successful partnership-based government program. The CCC provided a win-win solution linking the needs of families experiencing poverty and unemployment with innovative approaches to land restoration. The young men who enrolled in the camps helped to restore natural resources, build roads and park structures, fight fires, and plant trees. They worked hard for their earnings, building confidence and self-respect, and matured from boys to men. This is a review of the documentary film Camp Forgotten: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Michigan, and the historical novel Big Shoulders, both by Bill Jamerson.