Happy 150th Birthday, Oregon!

Work call line-up and roll call at the Cut Foot Sioux CCC camp, Minnesota

CCC crew erecting telephone line, Fremont National Forest, Oregon

February 14th, 2009 marks Oregon’s 150th birthday, and to mark the sesquicentennial, we’d like to welcome the Oregon State University Archives to the Flickr Commons!

OSU, our first university partner, joins with a sampling from the collection of Gerald W. Williams, the national historian for the U.S. Forest Service, until his retirement in 2005.

This initial offering focuses on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal program, focused on the conservation of natural resources, that targeted unemployed young men, veterans and American Indians who were hard hit by the Great Depression. The Oregon State University Archives’s photostream shows various CCC projects, which included firefighting, farm land improvements, infrastructure projects and even the building of ski areas on Mt. Hood.

The photos are just a peek into OSU’s photographic collections pertaining to the history of forestry and natural resources in the Pacific Northwest, with a focus on Oregon.

Expect more uploads from the OSU Archives illustrating culture, natural resources, and history in the coming months. In the meantime, enjoy the collection!

Piling up poles, Camp Roosevelt, George Washington National Forest, Virginia

Mess call at the Glacier CCC camp, Mt. Baker National Forest