Camp Roosevelt Monuments - George Washington National Forest VA
N 38° 43.801 W 078° 31.020
17S E 715836 N 4289744
Two monuments commemorate the first CCC camp in the United States and the first CCC recruit.
Waymark Code: WMBXKA
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2011
Views: 2
Camp Roosevelt was the first CCC camp to begin operation in the United States after Franklin Roosevelt created the program. The camp was in Virginia's George Washington National Forest. The first recruits, most of whom were from Virginia and Washington, D.C., arrived in April 1933. Their projects included road building and maintenance, planting trees, fire prevention and firefighting, in addition to attending school at night. The CCC boys built the Woodstock Tower, the Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area, the New Market Gap Picnic Area and they even brought white-tailed deer from Pennsylvania and reintroduced them to the Shenandoah Valley.
Two stone monuments stand side by side in what was the center of Camp Roosevelt, now called the Camp Roosevelt Recreation Area.
Inscription on first monument:
CAMP ROOSEVELT
FIRST CIVILIAN CONSERVATION
CAMP IN U. S. A.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
NATIONAL FOREST
APRIL 4, 1933 = JUNE 30, 1983
50 YEARS
Inscription on second monument:
IN MEMORY OF
HENRY RICH
FIRST CCC ENROLLEE IN USA
AND CAMP ROOSEVELT
DIED FEB. 12, 1972
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