From the
Park Quest website:
"Tree Army" Boot Camp
Your Park Quest Adventure at Gambrill State Park will lead you on a journey back in time to experience the park through the eyes of a “CCC boy” in the 1930’s. As you explore the extraordinary work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) throughout the park, you will search for answers to complete the puzzle—and claim your prize!
A Dark Time in American History
Can YOU imagine...
- Being so poor that you can’t afford shoes?
- Having to quit school and find a job to help pay your parents’ house payment?
- Living with no electricity and no indoor plumbing (no refrigerator, no television, no computer, and no bathroom)?
- Having to stand in line for hours just for a loaf of bread?
Fortunately, such problems are hard to imagine in America today. In the early 1930’s, however, millions of people just like you were facing a dark time in American history. The Great Depression was in full swing, and millions of people were unemployed, hungry, and without hope. An estimated 12 million to 15 million people—one worker out of every four—were out of work.
The Civilian Conservation Corps
In an effort to create jobs for some of the millions who were unemployed, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed a new program in 1933, called the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the “CCC.” In addition to creating jobs, the purpose of the CCC was to help restore the nation’s struggling natural resources. The CCC recruited young, unemployed men ages 17 to 25 to live and work in camps supervised by the U.S. Army. These young men—nicknamed “CCC boys”—went to work building parks, restoring forests, planting trees, fighting forest fires, and restoring watersheds across America.
The Local “CCC Boys”
One of the nation’s first CCC camps was located in Frederick County, Maryland, just a few miles from Gambrill State Park. In the spring of 1933, approximately 200 “CCC boys” arrived at the camp, ready for work. For the first seven months, the “boys” lived in army tents, while they worked on constructing a mess hall, barracks, and other buildings for the camp. Once they finished building the camp, the “boys” went to work on a number of projects throughout the area.
The Development of Gambrill State Park
A top priority for the local CCC camp was the development of Gambrill State Park. When the “boys” began working at Gambrill in 1933, there were no roads, no picnic areas, no buildings, and no water supply. By 1940, the “CCC boys” managed to build essentially all of the facilities that exist in the park today. They built the roads, parking areas, restrooms, three stone overlooks, three wooden picnic shelters, the Tea Room, the Ranger’s residence, and a portion of the Nature Center building. Without the CCC, Gambrill State Park would not exist as it is today.
Our Experience:
This was Quest fourteen for us. We decided early on that we would try to complete all of the quests to take full advantage of all that the great participating parks had to offer. We made an appointment to visit the park on Friday morning and of course the staff was friendly and accommodating. The ranger met us at the nature center and hung around while the kids explored and we answered the beginning questions. We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed it under the shade of the fine handiwork of the CCC boys at pavilion #2. We forgot bug spray so the gnats attacked us but we enjoyed the hike and the great views at the overlooks. All of the buildings and other structures built by the CCC boys were neat to discover and it is impressive how much of the structures are just the way they were built over 60 years ago. This was a neat history lesson at a beautiful and scenic park. See ya' at Tuckahoe!
1. The eldest 5 and I had a fun day on Monday. We went up to the mall for some fun and a movie. We saw Ice Age 3D. 
