Camp John Rock CCC, near Breavrd, NC - Civilian Conservation Corps on Waymarking.com

Established during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Hundred Days,” the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was designed to provide work relief to men ages eighteen to twenty-five. The agency was established on March 31, 1933, and the first camp opened in April in Virginia’s George Washington National Forest. In time three million men were hired by the CCC at an average salary of thirty dollars per month.

Directed by Army officers and foresters, they worked under semi-military discipline and, according to one writer, “provided the most direct analogue of war in the whole New Deal.” Dismissed by some as “Roosevelt’s tree army,” the CCC initiated site development and improvements in 2,082 national, state, and private forest and parks across the United States.

In North Carolina the CCC had sixty-six camps, employing 13,600 men, in forty-seven counties. One of the earliest (the first by some accounts) was Camp Pisgah Forest, assigned the number F-1 and occupied on May 18, 1933. In early 1934 the named was changed to Camp John Rock for a nearby rock formation.

Plans were laid for the installation as early as April 20, 1933 and men began arriving from Fort Bragg on May 5 to construct barracks and other buildings. Eventually, 220 workers were assigned to the unit. Their major projects included fish and fawn rearing, road building and maintenance, trail improvement, reforestation, and forest conservation. Their work is evident today throughout Pisgah National Forest. The camp closed in 1936 and the program was abolished by Congress in 1942.

Info on Camp John Rock:

On March 31, 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established to provide work relief to men ages 18 to 25. In North Carolina the CCC had 66 camps, employing nearly 14,000 men in 47 counties.
One of the earliest of North Carolina’s camps was Camp John Rock in Pisgah Forest. Plans were laid for the installation as early as April 1933 and men began arriving from Fort Bragg on May 5 to construct barracks and other buildings. Eventually, 220 workers were assigned to the unit. Their major projects included fish and fawn rearing, road building and maintenance, trail improvement, reforestation and forest conservation. Their work is evident today throughout Pisgah National Forest. The camp closed in 1936 and the program was abolished by Congress in 1942.

Directed by Army officers and foresters, the CCC was famous for its semi-military discipline. Dismissed by some as “Roosevelt’s tree army,” the CCC initiated site development and improvements in nearly 2,100 national, state and private forest and parks across the United States. By the end of its run, 3 million men were hired by the CCC at an average salary of $35 per month.


Plaque info
Camp John Rock
This monument is dedicated to the young men who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942.
During the Great Depression, three million unemployed young men found meaningful work in President Franklin Roosevelt’s CCC. Known as the “Tree Army,” the CCC worked out of camps on Federal and State lands to improve America’s forest, parks and agricultural lands. Our country is indebted to the CCC for their contributions to public recreation.
Here stood Camp John Rock (F-1, F-28), the first established on US Forest Service lands in North Carolina where Companies 402 and 428 served from 1933-1941.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/20/2014 NCDaywalker visited it