During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs for millions of out-of-work men. Thousands of desperate young men from the East Coast came to Washington state to work in the woods alongside local boys to build bridges, roads and park buildings.

Historian Janet Oakley will explore their legacy in her presentation, “Tree Army: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Washington State 1933-41,” at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center in Redmond, 16600 N.E. 80th St. She is speaking as part of the Redmond Historical Society Saturday Speaker Series. There is a suggested $5 donation for non-members.

The CCC helped to shape parks, forests and infrastructure from 48 camps throughout the state with the largest activity occurring at Mount Rainier National Park. Oakley will address how the CCC was developed nationally, its impact our the state and its impact the men who did the work. In the process of conducting her research at Western Washington University, Oakley met seven men who had been CCC boys. According to Oakley, ”From their stories I began to appreciate their legacy here. Projects were all over the state and all left this impression with the men I spoke to: They fed us, they gave us education, and they gave us hope for our families.”

The Redmond Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that receives support from the City of Redmond, 4 Culture, Nintendo, the Bellevue Collection and Humanities Washington as well as from other donors and members.