The year was 1934 and we were in the throes of the Great Depression. The stock market crash of Black Tuesday 1929, had shaken America to its very foundations, both economically and socially. There were 13 million men out of work. Some people of LeRoy had to scavenge along the railroad tracks for baskets of coal. The jobless from the cities who were not standing in lines were on the move. Thousands of migrants that we called tramps were roaming the country on the rails, seeking work, and hoping to wash dishes or harvest wheat or do anything else that would produce a day’s work or a buck or two. LeRoy had her share of tramps. They received a plate of food but they had to eat it on the porch.

            Banks have failed. The First National Bank in LeRoy closed its doors and never reopened its doors. Saving accounts were wiped out over night. Homes and farms were lost in foreclosures.

            Financial gloom is everywhere. Money is tight, no jobs and not much to laugh about until Disney’s first full-length animated cartoon, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, hits the screen. Everybody is humming and whistling “Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work” as they sing their way to the relief office. The nation tried to keep a smile on its face as they tightened their belts. The lean years could not last forever. Prohibition had been repealed and it put LeRoy’s bootleggers out of business.

The men in the Work Relief Program battled an invasion of chinch bugs and repaired the city’s water mains and roads. There are no 40-hour weeks, no coffee breaks, no credit cards, no hospitalization insurance, no vitamins, no penicillin, and no polio vaccine. An outbreak of the dreaded polio in LeRoy left a number of young people with crippled legs and weakened arms. President Roosevelt gave his Fireside Chats on the radio that many people called alphabet soup because he talked of work programs such as the AAA, CCC, and FCA. The CCC or Civilian Conservation Corps had its effect on LeRoy.

The CCC was a vital part of LeRoy from May2, 1934 to November 29, 1939. A CCC camp was established in LeRoy at the old fair ground where 5 acres of land was rented to the government for $1.00 per year. After lights and water were established a company of 200 men arrived from Makanda, Illinois. The first company was the Company 1657. A tent city was set up for 5 months after which lumber arrived and 60 workmen from Bloomington built barracks, mess hall, warehouse, garage, first aid building, baths, lodges, exchange, and later on officer headquarters. 

It would be three and one-half years before Camp 1657 was disbanded and another Company arrived. During that time thousands of trees were planted, terraces were created along with strip cropping areas. Dams were built of concrete, brush, wire, log, rock and sod bags to stop soil erosion. The work was done on various farms in this section of the state. Waterways were also constructed.  Sometimes these men worked as far as thirty miles from camp. 

Company 1657 made many worthy contributions to the Community of LeRoy and the preservation of the fertile farm land in McLean and DeWitt Counties. Some of the waterways, ponds, trees that were planted, dams and terraces are still in existence and operating normally today. The accomplishments in McLean and DeWitt Counties by these young men were many. They were the manpower that carried out the aim and goals of the Soil Conservation Service and soil Erosion service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These departments employed several LeRoy people who worked in cooperation with farm owners and farmers in good farm management and farm practices. These practices continue yet today.

Succeeding companies continued the work until September 1939 when the last company received orders to discontinue in LeRoy and move to Oregon, Illinois. In July of 1940, the camp was razed and the salvage was removed. Only a few holes and many beautiful trees remained in Camp Leroy. Many dollars had passed through the merchants’  hands and undoubtedly appreciated.  Many CCC men married LeRoy and vicinity girls and stayed in the community to take important roles.