We Still Walk in Their Footprint : The Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern Arizona, 1933-1942

When the Great Depression began in 1929, many young men were without hope. Without job training or experience, they could not survive. For many, their only salvation was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)-a program that put poor young men to work in national parks, national forests, state parks, and other public lands. In northern Arizona, the CCC boys planted trees, built roads and buildings, strung telephone lines, erected fences, constructed trails and campgrounds, and put out forest fires. During the terrible winter of 1936-1937, they came to the rescue of hundreds of ranchers and their starving livestock. The work of the CCC boys was not only prolific but also made to last. From the Petrified Forests Painted Desert Inn to the cabins and trails of Kingmans Hualapai Mountain Park to Prescotts Granite Basin Recreation Area, we still walk in their footprint. Robert W. "Bob" Audretsch retired as a National Park Service ranger at Grand Canyon in 2009 after nearly 20 years of service. Since then, he has devoted himself full time to research and writing about the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC). Bob grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Wayne State University where he received a BA in history and a MS in library science. Prior to his work as a ranger, he was a librarian in Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado. Bob has a lifelong interest in history, nature, books, and art and has written numerous publications in the fields of library science, sports, and history. Bob is the author of Grand Canyons Phantom Ranch (Arcadia Publishing, 2012) and Shaping the Park and Saving the Boys: The Civilian Conservation Corps at Grand Canyon, 1933-1942 (Dog Ear Publishing, 2011). His future projects include a history of the CCC in Arizona and a history of the CCC in Colorado. He resides in Flagstaff, Arizona.