Forrest G. Houlehan and the Civilian Conservation Corps

March 05, 2024

CCC flyer The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a federal government relief program launched as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933, during the Great Depression. It provided manual labor jobs for unemployed and unmarried men in conservation and development of natural resources on rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. Men who served in the CCC lived in camps across the United States operated by the War Department. Though those who served in the CCC received no military training as part of the program, individual camps were run by Reserve Officers from the US Army.

As documented in the Captain Forrest G. Houlehan Scrapbook collection, Captain Houlehan was born in Wisconsin in 1893. He served in World War I in a National Guard cavalry unit. After the war, he worked in car sales, but as a Reserve Officer during the Great Depression he became camp commander for the Civilian Conservation Corps 3121st Company at Camp Sturgeon River in Waucedah, Michigan.

Throughout his time as camp commander, Houlehan kept a scrapbook. While it has been disassembled to preserve the flyers, clippings, and other ephemera contained within it, it documents his work as commander of the 3121st CCC Company. The scrapbook also included an issue of the CCC newsletter, Reveille.