Black History Month and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Vermont

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public works program created by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt in 1933, which was part of an economic program to improve the economy and provide jobs after the Great Depression. The Vermont State Forester, Perry Merrill’s vision to bring CCC crews to Vermont came to fruition quickly with an original slate of around 750 corps members swelling to 40,868 men around the state by 1942.

Corps of men, recruited mostly from urban areas, came to Vermont to plant trees, build state parks, and construct other important infrastructure. Some of the regimens were World War I veterans recruited from the front lines of combat. One of those regimens was the 1351 Company, an African American group from Virginia bought to Vermont to build the East Barre Dam.  

In July 1933, 300 African American CCC boys stepped off a train in Barre and were greeted by curious Barre residents. The Commanding Officer, Captain E.C. Black led the men in the hand construction of the East Barre Dam. The dam, 400 feet wide, and over 60 feet high, was hand constructed using wheelbarrows, picks, shovels, sledges, and drills by this CCC company.

This dam, along with two others built by CCC boys, was built in response to the flood of 1927, a major November rainstorm that flooded the Winooski River through Barre, Montpelier, and Waterbury—destroying bridges, homes, and claiming 84 human lives. This dam is on the Jail Branch of the Winooski River and this legacy of the 1351 Company, continues to protect Barre and Montpelier from flooding today.